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Show Thunder birds drop two in a row against Big Sky teams CEDAR CITY - The Southern Utah State College basketball team was dealt its first losses of the season last week as the Weber State Wildcats and Boise State both defeated the Thunderbirds. Weber State 84, SUSC 50 In Ogden, the Weber State Wildcats were simply too much for the T-birds, ripping them with a 84-50 loss. The Wildcats are an amazingly good team and few expected the Thunderbirds Thun-derbirds to do any more than keep up with them. "We just didn't play too well," coach Tom McCracken said. "We shot only 39 percent from the field, and our free throws just weren't there either." The Thunderbirds led briefly by two points in the early going and were getting key rebounds against the taller Weber players. They weren't able to keep up the pace however and trailed for most of the game. "We out-rebounded out-rebounded them in the first half but things got really rough later on," McCracken said. "Their intense level picked up and ours dropped." The Thunderbirds went in spurts during most of the ga me, unable to keep up substantial scoring. Turnovers also plagued SUSC as they lost the ball 27 times in the game. "It's just a matter of executing, and we did not do it well." Boise State 75, SUSC 62 The T-birds continued their matches with the bigger schools Saturday night as they faced Boise State. Like the mouse that roared, the Thunderbirds quickly proved that size isn't everything. Southern Utah fought a hard battle against Boise State, one that was tied six times before it was over. Matching bucket for bucket the T-birds T-birds kept the scored tied or broken by only two points. With less than three minutes remaining in the half they came back to take a one point lead going into the lockerroom at 28-27. "We had them bothered with our defense at the half and we were out-rebounding out-rebounding them," McCracken said. "Todd Christiansen had a super game; he grabbed a lot of rebounds," he added. ad-ded. He also mentioned the name of Wilie Hicks as having played a fairly good game hitting 7 for 13 from the field. Once again it was the intensity of Boise State that kept them in the ball game. For most of the second period the T-birds kept the point spread to within four points. The score was 47-43 with 8:28 left to play and gradually Boise State pulled away. Turnovers and mistakes once again hurt the T-birds in their quest for victory as Boise State capitalized on them. "We really felt as if we should have won it," McCracken said. Pressure Cowboys all night Rams earn respect in 74-62 loss to Kanab second shots weren't falling, and the quick foul trouble hampered us temporarily, tem-porarily, but, generally, our rebounding reboun-ding was pretty good." Parowan will resume Region 12 action Dec. 16 at Milford. The Milford game was originally scheduled lor Dec. 17, but was rescheduled to prevent conflict with other activities that evening. In another scheduling change, a Jan. 8 game a at home against Virgin Valley 1i;in iieen cancelled, and a game at Kscalante Jan. 15 has been added. KANAB Except for a brief lapse in the latter part of the second quarter, Parowan kept the pressure on Kanab all night Saturday before dropping a 74-62 74-62 Region 12 basketball game to the Cowboys. "We did some things considerably better in Kanab than we did the week before at Tropic," Mark Heppler, Parowan coach, said. "We did not, however, adjust as well as we should have late in the first half when we had to sit some of our big players down Decau.se of foul trouble." Kanab, which shot extremely well all night, led by three points after the first quarter, 15-12, but jumped that margin out to 31-20 at halftime after all three of the Rams' starting front line players took a turn on the bench because of personal fouls. "We got a little tentative in our shooting, and Kanab sagged back to neutralize our inside game," Heppler explained. "Then there was a two or three minute period when we threw some bad passes and we didn't adjust as well as we should with fewer of our big people in the game. "With Blake (Bentley) and Scott (Farrow) in there with Mike (Robinson), (Robin-son), we controlled the boards much better, but both of them got in quick foul i trouble." I Parowan stayed within striking distance throughout the second half, but could never get closer than six points after intermission. "There were a couple of times in the game that we could have really put the pressure on, if Kanab had turned the ball over or missed the shot a time or two down the floor. They never did, however; they must have shot nearly 70 percent for the game," Heppler said. The loss drops Parowan's record to 0-4 0-4 overall. The Rams are 0-1 in league play. Kanab is now 1-0 in league action. "There were some positive things for us in the game," Heppler said. "We are getting some experience for some of our kids, and they are playing better. I think they will continue to improve. We weren't bothered by a three-quarter court press they tried, and a box and chaser defense used against a couple of our players didn't seem to hurt us." Scott Robertson, 6-3 Kanab center, led all scorers with 16 points. Parowan had four players in double figures. Dan Evans led the way with 15. Alan Burton and Dan Robinson each scored 13, and Mike Robinson dropped in 12. Mike Robinson and Blake Bentley were the top rebounders with 16 and 9 respectively. "We didn't get hurt on the boards, Heppler said. "Some of our |