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Show Monday. January 19. 1987 Sports Celtics blast Rockets, - BOSTON (AP) Houston Rockets' Coach Bill Fitch put it simply "We played in the wrong building against the wrong team with the wrong plays," Fitch said Sunday after the Boston Celtics rolled to a 122-9victory over the Rockets. "We just didn't play well and they did,'" Fitch added. "If you let them play with their starting five, they'll beat you." Larry Bird scored 32 points, including six on his first since Jan. 2, but he credited the Boston defense for the rout in the Celtics' first meeting with Houston since they won their 16th NBA championship last June. full ronnrt rtn cnnrtin rr m an c iuii tvpuii uii jpui tti'g VVVlilJ in Central Utah, around the nation and the world. A i& play-noo- 32-2- 0 among BYU honorees JVi The old wintertime Hot Stove League that served to keep major league baseball alive during the months earlier in cold this century never offered anything like this. When Utah's most famous minor league baseball player. Elder Paul Dunn of the LDS Church Council of Seventy, opened his talk at Saturday evening's "Baseball Night" dinner in BYU's Wilkinson Center, he said: "Tonight we are surrounded by 1 61-5- 1 n 92-8- 9 6 three-pointe- r. 95-9- 1 85-7- greatness..." Conner into Cup finals It was almost an understatement. It was an autograph hound's dream of heaven. 1 MNnaa. r M mm U Art. rid .jiuSfTMif 4"' 6 f:x V".; .'.t.:..jSrf : '." . All-Sta- d - m li- - t : " s&, i 1 a a. I d. three-month-lo- All-St- 0 best-of-nin- 3-- 1 24.5-mil- -.- laiair - . Stars & Stripes After a victory over New Zealand in the on Dennis of to Conner finals America's the the moves Cup. skipper semi-final- 1 s, Owls tiptoe past St. Joe's Michigan hands Orangemen first loss ARBOR. Mich. (AP) Syracuse got the ball inside to where it wanted to center Rony Seikaly. who led all but the big scorers with 25 points center missed a short jumper in the key with three seconds left that would have tied the game. So instead the Orangemen suffered their first loss of the season, a setback to Michigan. "I got the ball exactly where I wanted it," Seikaly said of the shot which could have knotted the game "But as soon as I had it. at the guy (Michigan center Mark Hughes') was right on me." Michigan Coach Bill Frieder said the upset by his unranked club didn't come as a shock to him. "No. I wasn't surprised," Frieder said. "I didn't think we'd win, but I never go into a game thinking we'll lose." Junior guard Gary Grant, who scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half for Michigan, made one free throw after that to ice the victory. Garde Thompson's three-poin- t basket with 2:26 remaining gave the Wolverines an advantage, but the Orangemen stormed back with six points in 29 seconds to cut the lead to 3 with 1:57 left. Syracuse countered two layups by Michigan's Loy Vaught with a pair of three-poin- t' baskets by guards Greg Monroe and Sherman Douglas. with The Michigan lead was 1:26 remaining after Vaught's second basket. A pair of Seikaly free throws with 1:15 to go cut the Wolverines lead to two. but the Orangemen couldn't draw closer. No. 3 N.Carolina 96, N.C. State 78 J.R. Reid tied Mike O'Koren's 10- -Fif- 8 90-9- 86-7- 7 86-8- 90-8- 6 school mark for points by a freshman by scoring 31 on shooting from the field. He also grabbed 13 rebounds. No. 6 Purdue 88, Louisville 73 Doug Lee scored 23 points and year-ol- d Todd Mitchell added 22 as Purdue its best start in 49 improved to 14-- years. The Boilermakers, trailing by eight points in the first half, rallied to a lead at halftime. The By The Associated Press Fennis Dembo and the Wyoming Cowboys played the spoiler in upsetting UTEP and knocking the Miners out of first place in the WAC basketball race and moving themselves tie for second. into a victory over Wyoming's I'TEP Saturday dropped the Miners back into a tic for second and .e possession of moved BYU into first place. e but surBYU defeated Hawaii prisingly dangerous New Mexico handled Air Force 79-7- 4 last-plac- 90-7- 80-6- I'tah bullied Sun Diego State I'TEP on Friday. defeated CSU 65-After the dust settled Saturday night, the tie for second place included UTEP. Wyoming. Utah and New Mexico, all at Wyoming's Dembo scored a career high 34 points to spark the needed upset over the Miners. 1 at the hall Wyoming trailed after shooting 74 percent from the field. IX'tiibo picked up his fourth foul early in the final halt but scored the Cowboys' last five points in the final minute. lead Wyoming had blown a 93-6- 43-4- 72-6- 0 Cardinals trailed by three second half before Troy scored five straight points to streak that gave Purdue 19-- 6 in the Lewis start a an 5 lead. 40-3- 8 Dembo's heroics create WAC logjam at second and Marion Dunn Herald Sports Editor hard-throwin- g 'm'L best-of-sev- ANN There was the Atlanta Braves legendarye centerfielder Dale MurMVP in the National phy, League and certain Hall of Earner. There was the Detroit Tigers righthanded pitching great Jack Morris, who has won more games than any other pitcher in the 1980s: a hero of the Tigers' World Series championship; starter r in the game: author of a in 1984 and the man who brought distinction to an old pitch that was called the fork ball but has been elevated semantically to the fast ball by the moderns. There was young first baseman Wally Joyner ot the California Angels, who turned Anaheim Stadium into "Wally World" during one ol the most sensational seasons ever for a rookie last summer. He became the first rookie ever to start in the annual game and was within a few votes of being named American League Rookie of the Year, despite spending the second half of the season fighting an infection that wasn't discovered until it sidelined him in the A.L. Playoffs. There was major league veteran utility player Dane Iorg who played for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals before moving to the San Diego Padres last year and then going into voluntary retirement alter having played every position except catcher. In the 1983 World Series he was the Cardinals' designated hitter and set a series record lor that position batting over .500. And two years ago he was the hero in the Royals' comeback for the World Championship when he drov e in the winning run in the bottom of the last inning in the sixth game to take the Royals into the deciding game, which they won. There was Montreal's versatile star Vance Law. who ordinarily plays second base but found time to play every position including pitcher and catcher for the Expos. That shouldn't surprise fans who knew him well when he was at BYU. He started in both basketball and baseball for the Cougars before giving up the hardwoods for the diamond. There was Scott Nielson. who made his major league debut pitching for the New York Yankees but was traded to the Chicago White Sox last fall. The young righthander said he is excited about the switch. The Yankees are not well known tor bringing young players along. "1 think I will benelit by being with the White Sox. Chicago is a great baseball town and I can hardly wait tor spring training to start.' Scott said. Add to the above the attendance by Vance Law's lather. Vernon, who was a Cy Young Award winding pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and you touched base with some of the game's greatest names. It was the largest gathering of baseball talent at BYU super-sta- r since the day several years ago when Ted Williams walked alone across the campus on his way to lecture at a clinic-And all of Saturday evening's honored guests had one thing in common, they all attended BYU and all but one play ti lor the Cougars. The only one who didn't wear Cougar Blue was Murphy and Murph was spotted by BYU athletic direc tor Glen Tuckett when he was coaching BYU's baseball team. Tuckett. who emceed the dinner and introduced the stars, recalled going to the Northwest to scout another prospect but found himsell watching a young catcher who could throw like a rifle and hit like Babe Ruth. That catcher was Murph, who signed a pro contract right out ol two-tim- FREMANTLE. Australia (AP) Stars & Stripes, the yacht skipper Dennis Conner hopes to sail to an America's Cup victory, returned to shore today to a trumpeter playing "God Bless America" in celebration of its elimination of New Zealand. And Conner, who lost the Cup four years ago. felt he had been blessed with some luck when New Zealand hit a buoy just as it was threatening to overtake his yac ht one turn from the finish. "It was a bit of relief." he said following a victory that put Stars & Stripes into the finals against an Australian defender. "They are a very scrappy bunch." Conner said of the Kiwis, who enter ed the series under skipper Chris Dickson with one just loss in the challenger series. The victory by Stars & Stripes, which won four of five races against New Zealand, puts Conner in the finals for the third lime. He defended the Cup aboard Freedom in 1980 and lost it at in Liberty in 1983. Dickson said (he reversal of his yacht's fortunes was the result of 'thirteen years beating thirteen months of experienc e." "We had a fast boat, and still have a fast boat, but the better boat won." said the skipper of the controversial figerglass yacht that entered the finals with a record of 37-Stars & Stripes will open the final series Jan 31. Its probable opponent is Kookaburra III. which overcame a broken backstay on the fifth leg of its race to defeat Australia IV by 1:13 to move within a victory of a showdown with Stars & Stripes Kookae burra III leads the defender finals Another Kookaburra III victory would bring to an end the hopes of Australia IV's syndicate for a successful defense of sailing's oldest prize. Headed by Alan Bond, the syndicate ended 132 years of American domination of the event when Australia II came from a deficit to beat Liberty in 1983. Stars & Stripes led by 36 seconds after the sixth e race in the Indian leg of the eight-leg- . Ocean. But the next leg was downwind and New Zealand was close enough to steal the powerful breeze from the leader. Dickson steered his boat into position to c ause the spinnaker on Stars & Stripes to flutter toward the end of the seventh leg. Conner's lead was cut to just nine seconds as Dickson appeared ready to round the buoy. But New Zealand banged into the mark. That the mark, costing it all required the boat to the ground it had gained on that downwind run. By the time New Zealand could get around the mark again, it was behind by 39 seconds and Conner was home free Stars & Stripes had lost the start by one second, but charged to a advantage on the first beat to windward. th-ranked 1 A A 27-1- 0 9 ml Murph, Joyner, 122-9- 9 in 4iial the third period, but Bird cashed a Washington free throw on a technical foul for an 12 minutes to beat Washington. Warriors 116, Blazers 103 illegal zone defense, then hit on two Golden State won at Portland for bombs. The Celtics, improving their the first time since Dec. 8, 1981 as with their 17th victoJoe Barn' Carroll scored 36 points record to ry in 18 Boston Garden games this and Eric Floyd added 33 points and season, got off to a slow start after 10 assists. Bucks 100, Hawks 91 the noon tipoff. However, the RockJohn Lucas, playing in his first ets were equally cold. Houston's Ralph Sampson, who game for Milwaukee, hit a three-poibasket with 1:50 left, giving shares the role of Twin Towers with Akeem Olajuwon, only had six the Bucks the lead for good in a 100-9victory over the Atlanta Hawks. points. Cedric Maxwell, who helped the Celtics to two NBA titles in Lucas, signed by the Bucks on eight years with the club, made his Saturday after sitting out a year Houston debut, scoring five points. because of drug problems, gave lead with his He was acquired from the Los Milwaukee a Jack Sikma. who finAngeles Clippers on Friday. ished with 18 points and 15 reLakers 115, Bullets 101 in the bounds, boosted the Bucks' margin Magic Johnson went with 39 seconds remaining. fourth quarter as Los Angeles out- - to moving in and picking off their passes. "But this is just another win during the season. It's tough to games and it's hard to evaluate a team when you see them for the first time. So' today we'll just take the win." Kevin McIIale had 19 points, Robert Parish 18 and Dennis Johnson 14 as the Celtics rode two decisive spurts which ended Houston's winning streak. The Celtics went on a 15-- run for a halftime lead. Then, after Houston's Robert Reid scored at the outset of the third period. Boston went on a 16-- surge and breezed the rest of the way for its fourth "I thought we played great de- consecutive victory and its 11th in fense," Bird said. "Even when we the last 12 starts. doubled down low we had guys The Rockets closed to 3 late in Page 7 THK HERALD. Provo. Utah, in the seconu nail as the Minin a went ahead blitz. The Cowboys steadied, got off a pass to center Eric Leckner who scored and put Wyo ahead for good. with 2.15 remaining. "It was a war tonight, pure and 73-7- 2 13-- 0 74-7- simple. Dembo really came through with one of those geat efforts a very few people can accomplish. Wyoming coach Jim Brandenburg said alter the win. The rapid-fir- e scoring ot Mike Smith, who scored 10 points in 90 seconds late in the game, led BYU over Hawaii and into first place in the conference. New Mexico guard Kelly Graves, who had 21 points, scored five of his in the second hall as six e the Lobos overcame their del it it and walked away from the Falcons. Utah Coach Lynn Archibald credited his delense lor the Utes' victory over the Aztecs. "The delense in the list hall was the key to our fast start, especially the defense on (Aztec leading scorer Tony) Ross. Albert t Springs didn't allow him to get into his rhythm." Archibald said. 34-3- 2 11 Temple 70. St. Joseph's 69 Tim Perry and Mike Vreeswyk each had 18 points as Temple survived a scoreless stretch against St. Joseph's. took a lead on Temple. a jump shot by Nate Blackwell with 5:58 to play. While the Owls tailed to score again, the Hawks scored six straight points, pulling within on a jumper by Rodney Blake with 3:18 to play. Blake hit one tree throw with three seconds left, but missed his second attempt. 16-- late ers No. half-tim- 1 i 70-6- 70-6- 8 In other games: At Lexington. Kv.. Kentucky's Eddie Sutton was and humiliated. red-lace- "I've coached 30 years and tins is the most embarrassing loss ve ever been associated with." Sutton said alter Louisiana State crushed in a nationally his Wildcats televised SEC game. "1 want to apologize to all the great tans ol Kentucky basketball.' Sutton scheduled a practice evening. At Los Angeles. Reggie Miller scored 19 points, including a jumper with one second lei t in overtime Sunday, to lift UCLA to a basketball victory over stubborn Oregon State and put the Bruins alone atop the Pacilic-1Conlerence. At Pullman. Wash.. Steve Beck scored 25 points to lead the Arizona Pae-1State Sun Devils to an victory over Washington State, the Sun Devil s first conlerence victory this season. 1 76-4- 1 69-6- 7 0 80-6- . high school. Iorg and Law live in Utah Valley, hut Saturday was a "homecoming" lor the others. Murphy recalled his lirst visit to BYU wlien he enrolled for an offand how he met season semester his wile. Nancy, a former cheerleader. When Muiph. Joyner and Morris were introduced to the 20,000 fans in the Marriott Center at halftime of the BYl Hawaii game later. Murphy drew an additional loud cheer by announcing he w;as still a freshman but planned on finishing school here someday. At the same halltime ceremony, Morris said. "I should be spanked. This is the first time I've been back since I let t 10 years ago. But some of my fondest memories are of my years here. I intend to come back sooner." At the dinner. Morris explained the fast ball. "You hold it between your fingers like a fork." he said. "It has the same rotation as a curve ball but it drops at the last instant. " The batter sees the curve ball rotation but the delivery is a fast ball delivery and hopefully he is confused and if everything works the ball will drop right into the dirt. But sometimes it only drops waist high." Iorg said he has no regrets in retiring. "1 think 11 years is long enough. It was time tor me to get on." he said. Law cut his season short last summer to return home to be with his daughter, who had a serious illness. The former Provo High and BYU star played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox before going to Montreal. Asked which city-hprefers playing in. he didn't hesitate. "Chicago." he said. "I'd go back to the White Sox in a minute if I could. It was great there. Montreal is all right, but it is a French-speakin- g city and the big thing there is the Stanley Cup playoffs, not baseball.'' Law's batting average was way down last summer but he said statistics do lie. "Statistics don't tell the story. I hit the ball better last summer than I have ever before. But the ball always went right at someone or someone made a sensational catch. it was frustrating for me to have a hard hit ball go for an out then watch Tim Raines bounce a ball over the pitcher's head and beat it out tor a hit because of his great speed. expect to have a great year next summer. I love playing base-- ' ball My daughter is improving. ..she skipped for the lirst time yesterday. It was strange, remembering when she first learned to skip and watching her learn all over again. Mentally, she is doing well. Physically she still has some problems but she is improving. 1 think next summer will be a much better one in every way." joyner recalled his first visit to BYU. T didn t have an athlete's build." he said. "Coach Gary Pul-lin- s and Coach Tuckett took me My brother Brent was at BYU getting ready to go on a mission. He was built like an athlete. When we met Coach Pullins, I was behind Brent. Coach saw him. shook his hand and said he was very-glato have me at BYU. Brent in not Wally. this is Wally.' said, and he pointed at me. Coach Puliins whs really disappointed And later. Coach Tuckett came to the Held to watch practice and asked Coach Iillins to point out Joyner to him. He saw me ground out and watched me run and mumbled something to me about having split-fing- i sight-unsee- n i a lot ot work to do with me." Well, it was simply a fantastic night. And somehow, it made the cold outside less bitter, and the promise of spring to come more inviting Longshot runs to stakes win - VarieARCADIA. Cahl i.AI'i ty Road, a 24 shot, surged late in tiie stretch to win Sunday s M 63.800 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita The two favorites. Snow Chief and Ferdinand, finshed third and fourth, respectively. Ridden by La Hit Pincay Jr., Variety Road kept close to pacesetter lwl Clni'l lhr lUttii winner, and then made his bid as the field of eight turned for home before 44.106 fans. Variety Road, timed in L49 bested Broad Brush-- by a neck in race. The Patrick the Snow Chief third by 2J4 lengths. Vn.iu |