| OCR Text |
Show MoNdAy, DtccMbEB 7, 1987 SPORTS at Classic y. Glenn Seninger Crowd in Logan gives Aggies edge Lady Toppers get coveted U. crown By Kent Condon Chronicle staff writer Basketball is a physical game. Saturday night in the finals of the Lady "Ute" Rainbo Classic, the vh 12th-rank- ed Western Kentucky Hilltoppers gave Utah a clinic in the finer aspects of physical and aggressive basketball. The result? A 1 Topper victory. But don't let the score fool you. This game LOGAN When the "Utes" walked into the Spectrum here Saturday night to take on the Aggies, they thought it was going to be a fair game. Five on 78-6- five. deficit much closer than the indicate. might After going into the half tied at 39, Utah lead, 48-4- 3, off a jumped out to a five-poi- nt Donna Holzwarth jumper from the right angle. The Toppers battled back and with 7:24 left in the contest, both teams were deadlocked at 58. From that point, Utah was outscored 20-- 3 and what had been a close and heated game turned into a Topper rout. It appeared the physical play of Western Kentucky took its toll on Utah down the stretch. "I think we just ran out of gas in the was What Utah didn't take into account was the sixth man that Utah State carries with it into every home game the Aggies play. The crowd in Logan is a peculiar blend of raucous students mixed in with staunch, vocal alumni. It's this blend that gives the Aggies an advantage, whether visiting coaches are willing to admit it or not. "It's good for us," Utah Coach Lynn Archibald said about the crowd. "They have great fans and maybe the fans made some of our players hurry a little bit, but I don't think so." It wasn't so much the cheering of the Aggie fans that caused Archibald to worry, but a new habit has 17-po- int developed in Logan. There is a tradition in Logan for the fans to remain standing until the Aggies make their first field goal. Utah State was stone cold from the floor for the first State five minutes of Saturday night's Utah-Uta- h fans still were standing and still game. But Aggie second half defensively," Utah Coach Elaine Elliott said. "But the kids played hard and I was proud of that. They just couldn't sustain it physically for 40 minutes with those gals. They were just too much stronger then we were." Utah advanced to the finals after beating This one up on UTEP Friday night 80-4- 8. was never a contest as the Lady "Utes" led 40-1- 4 at intermission and never looked back. Leading the way for Utah against the Chronicle photo by Steven C. Wilson r. Lady Miners was Tiffany Leslie of Forward of Utah Neebling put plenty pressure on a UTEP effort which came She turned in an player during Friday night action in the Lady "Ute" Rainbo off four for five shooting from the field and a Classic. But in Saturday's championship game against Western perfect 10 for 10 from the line. . Kentucky, it was the Toppers who clamped down defensively which From the charity stripe Utah shot 93 earned them the title. percent converting 28 out of 33 attempts. Western Kentucky didn't have it quite so easy in its the things I'm really proud of," Elliott said. "The kids first-rougame against Southwest Texas State. The played hard and I think they believed all along that they 87-7- 4. able were could play with them. And except for the fact we just could to however, Toppers prevail, This set the stage for Saturday night's action. not stay with them on the boards, I think it was a good It also marked the second time in four outings Utah would game." be matched against a Top 20 team. Playing the Utah had its chances to blow the Toppers out in the first half. The U. shot a blazing 63 percent from the field while Toppers would be intimidating for many teams, but Elliott WKU struggled, shooting a miserable 39 percent. never felt that was a factor in this game. "I don't think that was a problem for us and that's one of see "Classic" on page fourteen clapping. Aggie fans weren't even breathing hard when, with into the contest, USU center Danny Conway hit Utah State's first field. goal. One might think that nearly five minutes of constant noise would settle a crowd down. But not Utah State. Just as the Cougars of BYU found out last Tuesday, after the first USU field goal of every game 15:12 Roger-Krame- 18-po- int at the Spectrum, the court is immediately showered with toilet paper, causing the game to be stopped for clean up duties. Saturday's contest was no different. Now some coaches would say that's not much of distraction. But BYU Coach Ladell Andersen thinks differently. Following the Cougars' game against the Aggies in Logan, Anderson spoke on the KSL Radio postgame show with Chris Tunis. "Sure it's distracting when your team is just getting in the flow of the game and to have all of that toilet paper on the floor stopping the game. But you just can't let it get to you." Utah didn't seem affected by the crowd noise or antics. Archibald did see some good could come from such an emotional game with fan involvement. "All of that stuff it's always a distraction," Archibald said. "But we're going to play in front of big crowds and it's a great experience for our kids, especially for the young kids coming into the game." Great experience or not, the "Utes" were not only trying to stop the Aggie offense but Utah was also dodging paper airplanes and other flying objects. Aggie public address anouncer, Al Lewis, made a number of announcements cautioning Utah State fans to stop throwing things onto the playing floor. But the big crowd's play of the game didn't come until the first overtime. That's when lead offical Bill Simmons stopped the game with 2:32 left. Then, 9,092 fans who just moments before were screaming at the top of their lungs suddenly stopped. A deafening silence fell over the crowd as Simmons, pointing at Aggie cheerleader Mark Merritt, yelled, "I want him, outta here." Simmons' call sent the crowd and Tueller into a rage and an uncontrollable frenzy. A frenzy that didn't stop until the final buzzer. Although many who were present may have thought this was the first time an official has thrown a innocent bystander out of the game, not nd 12th-rank- ed U.; on their take revenge Aggies overtime play leads to road loss By Laury Livsey Chronicle sports editor LOGAN For all you out there who didn't bother coming here to see the Utah-Uta- h State rematch because you figured you had seen it all the first time around, too bad. Consider the fact the sequel was A) Utah's first close game of the season, B) Utah's first road game of the season and, C) Utah's first loss of the season. This one was one that shouldn't have been missed. The first game, a 77-6- 4 Utah victory a short eight days before didn't even measure up to this one. That's because D) this game went into double overtime; E) Utah's leading scorer Mitch Smith only played 26 of the 50 minutes because of foul trouble; F) some guy named Jon Hansen played 23 minutes, 10 more mi miles than he'd played previously the entire year, and was a big contributing factor for the U.; G) an Aggie cheerleader was thrown out of the game by a referee and H) USU's Danny Conway played defense for about 30 seconds with a leg injury because the officials wouldn't stop play. TP Utah State's Reid Newey has a leg up on Utah's Jon Hansen (34) who was battling him for the rebound. In the meantime, Danny Conway tries to get out of the way of the flying arms and legs. wnts A al?u1 J s 16' double 07 vict0ry Utah State ,t0et see "Aggies" on page thirteen so-call- ed so. : In NBA action, an offical recently threw a fan out of the game for unfavorable remarks made directly at him. Who knows, maybe Simmons had been watching one too many NBA games. Aggie fans may or may not know of how much they affect the game, but Tueller does. "One thing that sticks in my mind is the great environment in which we get to play. Anybody that doesn't enjoy a game of basketball in the Spectrum is missing a great event," he said. The only people that don't enjoy a game of basketball in the Spectrum are Aggie opponents. |
