| OCR Text |
Show 10 -- The Daily Friday, February 26. 1999 Utah Chronicle MEN Women Buiy Miners to Lock Up Pacific Champ. continued from page 9 22 points. "Our defense, quite frankly, stunk," said Majerus. "They were much more physical than us. For some reason we weren't as sharp as we should have been." Fortunately, a It's official, both the men's and women's WAC Pacific Division titles will rest in Salt Lake. The women locked at least a share of the title on Thursday with a 4 win over the UTEP Miners dull Utah team can still dig through most teams in the WAC, and the Miners arc not an 37 percent from the floor, compared to just 28 percent for UTEP and held Miner high-scorKristi Lattin to one point. Utah was up 2 with 15:29 left in the game when it got real cold, real fast. The Utes didn't score a lf point for the next minutes. "It wasn't real pretty, but we got the job done," said Utah coach Elaine Elliott. "We had a long stretch where we didn't have anything going offensively. We were lacking leadership." UTEP drew even with just under 10 minutes remaining but Erin Gibbons, who led the Utes with 17 points, hit two free throws and a er 11- -2 nt 39-3- 73-7- seven-and-a-ha- with 14.4 remaining, the Utes responded very well. Jose Escobedo pulled up and splashed a three from the wing to pull the Miners within three, but a heads of combo of Jeremy Killion and Nate Althoff applied the final blow that put UTEP to sleep. Althoff grabbed the ball out of the net and chucked a deep ball down the sideline to Killion, who looked like eight rebounds to the win. This season is the fifth consecutive year Utah has won either a WAC regular season or tournament title. Utah has a chance to take the title outright with a win over New Mexico in its last regular season game on Saturday. Lobos are just The second-plac- e after at behind Utah one game win over BYU in the an eight-poiPit on Thursday. If New Mexico wins Saturday, the two teams would have identical records in the conference, and the top seed for next week's tournament will be decided by a coin toss. 54-4- The Utes shot Rose added eight points and a team-hig- h in El Paso. exception. Utah may have trailed by a point in the second half, but once it came with the mindset of "we're not going to blow this thing," the ground seemed to open and the Miners fell back into their shaft. Even when the Miners tried to rally back, actually cutting the score to 0 Rod Smith against the Atlanta Falcons' secondary. Killion hauled in the spiral and gently put the ball off the glass. With 10 seconds left, the Utes led by five. Game, set, match. One more for perfection. Utah plays New Mexico Saturday at 2 p.m. 124. Sterling Clifford jumper at eight minutes to put Utah back ahead by five. Gibbons was making her first start since early February when she lost the starting job to Amy Ewert. Hanno Mottola challenged Sharif Fajardo and was fouled on this play. The Utes regular starting point guard, Tiana Fuertes, was in Honolulu because of a death in the fam-il- y. Skiers Try to Qualify at Regionals The Utah ski team heads to Reno, this weekend to compete in the RMISA Western Regional Ski Invitationalthe last meet of the season before the NCAA Championships. Ncv. Doing well at Reno could help to offset what has been a moderately disappointing season for Utah thus far. In four meets this year, the Utes have finished in third place each time. "In all of the meets, we've been con- sistently third the team standings, but we've never been out of the picture of first place," said Utah Ski Director in Pat Miller. "We need the skiers to have complete meet." Utah also needs a strong performance at the invitational in order to get some of its top skiers eligible for the upcoming national competition. "Our main focus going into the regional is to qualify people that we need for the NCAA Championships," said Miller. "We have three people on the bubble that we need to ski well to a get in." The Utes will take on some of their biggest rivals Denver, Colorado, New Nevada, Mexico, Western State and Montana State will Alaska-Anchorag- e, be the other teams at the Regional Competition. Other than giving the Utes the chance to get certain individuals qualified for nationals, Miller says the regional meet does not mean too much. "The regionals are important, but it's more important with respect to qualifying than anything," said Miller. "I tend to think that we will still qualify a full team. As long as I've been here, we've always had a full team for the Championships." "We lacked (Fuertes) presence and enthusiasm," said Utah coach Elaine Elliott. "She is tjje emotional leader of this team." Fuertes is expected back Saturday in New Mexico. Utah center Kristi Rose jumped into a tie for first place on the shot block list with Sandy Kovach. Rose had two against UTEP to move her career total to all-ti- Erin Gibbons scored 17 Thursday. Eric Walden MONEY FOR PUBLICATIONS mmmmm MONIES AVAILABLE FOR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Funding is available for publications during the There's no investment that delivers returns like the effort you put into building a successful career. Returns like 1999 to Spring 2000 Summer you're considering investing in Applications for funding from University Union Room 240 during business hours. D Oil mmmms Lynch. After all, no one knows investments like we do. If this opportunity to work as a sales professional in the financial services industry sounds attractive, send us your resume at the address below and tell us why you'd like to be a Merrill Lynch Financial Consultant. If it looks like a good fit for both of us, you'll hear from us promptly. The difference is Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch Contact: Mary Alice Briggs Career Placement Center Merrill Lynch is an equal opportunity employer. Merrill Lynch Ikfeo a financial services career, consider Merrill Please note that priority will be given to printing layout and mailing costs, and can ONLY be used for fhese purposes! DJ growth opportunities and financial reward. So, if academic year. are available satisfaction, personal A tradition 0 I'M lrf nllL Time fennrr N: Smtfh Iritnrpitratrd of trust. MrmrwrSlPC. |
