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Show 'Birds surprise tough USF team By MIKE CANNON Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. - Southern Utah State College playing NCAA Division I powerhouse and 12th ranked University of San Francisco was thought by many to be a joke, and it was. But the joke was on USF as the T-Birds T-Birds played very well and dropped a respectable contest to San Francisco 78-66. For SUSC, a small NAIA school, to play as well as they did against the boys from the coast is a moral victory,' though it will still count as a notch in the loss column and that never satisfies Southern Utah coach Tom McCracken, no matter who his team is facing. "We played pretty well," said a nonchalant McCracken. "They were an excellent team and we were somewhat pleased by the way we played them." McCracken wouldn't be overly thrilled if his team lost by a point to the Boston Celtics and if that attitude saturates the SU squad, they could have a very competitive year. SUSC didn't play a perfect game against USF. They've played better but they did some things well against excellent competition. How good was the competition? "They're an excellent ballclub," praised McCracken. "They've got three legitimate Ail-American candidates. We knew we couldn't run with San Francisco. We told our players if we stayed close, anything could happen." SUSC stayed close by controlling the tempo. They didn't get into a run-and-shoot contest and even frustrated USF with their patience. That's like David frustrating Goliath and though it did happen once upon a time, SU couldn't quite slay the giant. To illustrate how even the game was, consider the fact that USF scored only one more field goal than Southern Utah. They did go to the line 30 times to only 11 for the T-Birds and that was the difference. "We've seen some improvement and that's the main thing we're looking for," stated McCracken. The coach felt his club played much better against USF than they did against Montana State. The 'Birds trailed by four and six throughout most of the first half and then with a couple of minutes in the half, USF hit for a couple of three-point plays and pulled away to a 13-point lead at halftime. In the second half, SUSC played San Francisco point-for-point for ten minutes. The giant couldn't shake the gnat and SUSC played some of its best ball of the season. After hanging on and even gaining ground, SUSC fell behind as USF grabbed two steals and hit two slam-dunks slam-dunks to get momentum going their way. They pulled away to their biggest lead, a 21-pointer, with about five-minutes five-minutes left. SU fought back and the 'Bird subs outplayed USF subs handily to pull back within nine. The main men returned for USF and the game finished on a fairly even note with USF up by 12. Norman Adams hit for 15 points and grabbed 5 boards for SUSC. Hal Welch netted 14 and Dean O'Driscoll had 12 and 6 rebounds. Steve Hoagland added 10 for the T-Birds. |
