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Show ...but WNMUends the dream j deflated us, I feel." McCracken also added he felt his team's p poor shooting was due to just that-poor shooting. "Our shot selection wasn't that bad, and the kids played hard," he said. "They just didn't shoot The T-Birds ended their season 14-12 overall, and 10-8 in the RMAC, good for a fourth-place tie among the 10 teams. well." Against a nationally-ranked team like the Mustangs, the coach said, I "every player out there for us had to play well. We really didn't have a top performance 0 out of even one player." 1 SILVER CITY, N.M. - Western New Mexico, the seventh-ranked team in the nation, is not a squad you want to shoot 36 percent against-and still hope to win the game. That's about the simplest way to describe the well-schooled, patient Mustang's 64-48 drubbing of SUSC in the first round of NAIA Region Seven playoffs, a loss that ended the T-Birds' 1980-81 campaign. Granted, the last-seeded 'Birds were solid underdogs, as they were playing the top-ranked team in the region on the road. Western is the only team SU has played at least twice and not beaten this year, though the Cedar City college has played the 'Stangs better than many other better-ranked schools. Western elected to go into a spreed offense both times against the T-Birds to claim two 10-point victories. But the spread w wasn't even necessary this time against the poor-shooting visitors, at least not very much. In other first-round action, Denver (No. 4) drubbed Regis 92-70 (No. 5) in a cross-town Denver rivalry. Colorado Mines (No. 2) easily overcame Ft. Lewis (No. 7) 69-59 and Grand Canyon (No. 6) pulled a mild upset by edging Southern Colorado (No. 3) 59-55 in Pueblo, Colo. Denver was scheduled to play Mines and Western New Mexico meet Grand Canyon in the semi-finals Tuesday night in Silver City, N.M., with the winners of those games meeting in the championship game Wednesday. The winner there will represent Region Seven at national playoffs. Unlike their game just two weeks earlier in Silver City, when the T-Birds jumped to an 8-2 lead, they started the playoff game at a snail's pace. But, lucky for themn, Westernm was also cold from the field. With two Dean O'Driscoll's two free throws, SU took the lead at 4-2, the only one they would hold all night. Before SU knew what hit them, the patient-but-explosive 'Stangs had an 8-4 lead, then were content to slow the game back to their pace. The 'Birds frequently went stretches of three to four minutes without scoing a hoop, and the Mustangs leisurely held to a 4-8 point for most of the rest of the half. The 'Birds did manage to reel off six straight points (not quickly) to narrow the Mustang lead to 14-12. Western proceeded to hold the ball for three minutes, effectively removing their visitors' momentum. Bad shooting along would have kept the 'Birds in the game. Turnovers, coming from the extreme Mustanf quickness, was the real stake in Southern Utah's heart. At least six steals came not so muchfrom T-Bird carelessness as Mustang speed. SU made its final challenge as the second-half opened, and they managed to quickly close the Mustang halftime lead of eight to four. But, like their previous run, a missed shot and a turnover once more gave the 'Stangs an eight-point lead,, and they once more went into their tough-to-stop spread. The final 15 minutes went all-too-fast for Southern Utah, and they finally quietly sucummed by 16. That the T-Birds trailed by only eright at the half was amazing-they had just four field goals to their credit (on 19 attempts, 21 percent). They did manage to pull the field goal percentage per-centage to 36 percent by game's end. It was only the second game this season the T-Birds had shot less than 40 percent for a game. Only the loss to NCAA schools St. Mary's, an extremely physical team, produced a lower field percentage than against Western. Ironically, the 'Birds continued their hot shooting from the charity stripe, hitting all 12 of their attempts. "When your playing a team like Western New Mexico, you don't get the ball that much," analyzed coach Tom McCrakcen. "It's vital to hit a high percentage of shots." The firsi-year oach felt the turning point in the game came in the first half,' "when Western convcerted three steals into uncontested dunks. That kind of |