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Show Page G2 - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Sunday, February Defense is chic 25, 1990 Chambers' 25 pumps Suns past Sixers I in NBA ends of the floor. I tried to play PHOENIX (AP) Tom Chambers led a balanced Phoenix attack with 25 points Saturday night as the Suns won their 15th consecutive home game, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers 126-9Phoenix now has won eighth straight games overall, 21 of its last 24 and is 0 since the All-Stbreak to help coach Cotton Fitzsimmons even his NBA coaching record at Kevin Johnson had 22 points and Jeff Hornacek and Dan Ma-jer20 apiece for the Suns. Hornacek overcame the flu to score 15 first-hapoints as Phoenix moved within one of tying the single-seaso- n club record for consecutive homecourt wins set in defense and rebound," said Wilkins, who had 16 points and seven 3 victorebounds in Friday's Detroit. over ry "Our confidence was real high tonight coming into the game," he said. "It was like we knew we were going to win. The fire is back. It's enthusiasm." Kevin Willis, who contributed 25 points and 10 rebounds, attributed the Hawks' recent poor play to an unusually large number of road games. Saturday's game was the home stand second in a and Willis said, "Now we're here for a while, you'll see a difference in this club. "The first thing for us to worry about is getting back to .500," he said of the 9 Hawks. "You can see the light at the end of the tunnel at .500. Then we can go from there." Coach Mike Fratello said Willis, whose playing time increased after Antoine Carr's trade Feb. 13 and John Koncak's knee injury, has stepped forward to meet the challenge. "His attitude has been excellent. He seems at peace with himself, and when that's the case the game comes easier," Fratello said. "He's scoring and rebounding well, but I don't care about the points and the rebounds. The real thing is Kevin is thinking and seeing the game." Akeem Olajuwon pointed to the Hawks' defense, which held the Rockets to 39.1 percent shooting. "You have to give credit where credit is due," said Olajuwon, who had 22 points and a game-hig- h 19 rebounds. "The Hawks played good defense. I'm surprised as bad as we shot we were still in the game." "As a team, we shot very poorly," said Otis Thorpe, who led the Rockets with 25 points and 12 rebounds while making his 300th consecutive start, the longest active streak in the NBA. "We had open shots, and we should have taken them. But instead ,we tried to get better ones and we couldn't get them to go down." Bullets 141, Magic 124 Md. Bernard LANDOVER, King scored 36 points and Ledell Eackles had 27 as the Washington Bullets scored a season-hig- h point 4 total in a victory over the Orlando Magic Saturday night. The Bullets took control of the game with a 16-- 1 run late in the first quarter to open a 1 lead. Washington led by more than 20 points for most of the game until Orlando made a 2 run to close to within 3 with 6:21 to play. 112-10- 9. Bv BILL BARNARD AP Basketball Writer Scores in the 70s are popping up everywhere, teams are getting shut out for entire overtime periods and Dennis Rodman makes the Game averaging less than nine points. What's going on here? Defense is 'in' in the NBA. Detroit With the defense-minde- d Pistons making the NBA Finals twice and winning a title by holding teams under 100 points in 15 of 17 playoff games, the rest of the Jeague has discovered that defense wins games and championships. 'The closer everybody gets to parity and teams feel like they have a shot at winning, they're going to do whatever it takes to get over that hump," says Joe Dumars, a Pistons sparkplug at both ends of the, court. "They realize that playing defense gets you over that hump." "In the early 80s, we knew we could outrun and outscore you," the Lakers' Magic Johnson said. "That's not the way we look at the game anymore." "Teams have found out you can win with defense," Detroit coach Chuck Daly said. "It gives teams with not as good offensive players a way to compete." The Pistons are leading the league by giving up fewer than 98 points per game this season, but it's unmistakeable that defense has spread beyond the defending champions. . Five years ago, no NBA team allowed fewer than 104 points per game. At midscason this year, 12 were giving up fewer than 104. Twelve teams gave up fewer than 23 of 27 are 110 points in 1985-8110 this year. than fewer allowing There were only three games in IQJtJlfi in u;hirh n toym cpnrpH fewer than 80 points, with a low of 76. Halfway through this season, there already were 21 games in which a team scored under 80, with a low of 68. An average of 220.4 points were scored per game five years ago, nine more than this season. Only Denver has scored more than 90 points in every game this season. The Pistons and Ixs Angeles Inkers, who met in the last two Finals, are making defense glamorous. The first time they met this season, on Dec. 1 at the Forum, the scoreless in Pistons held the 7 overtime of a victory. It was only the second shutout in NBA history since the shot clock rule started in 1954. All-St- ar ar 678-67- 8. ar le six-ga- lf 1977-7- 8. losing for the fourth consecutive time here, got 16 points from Derek Smith and 14 from Hersey Hawkins. 25-2- Philadelphia, All-St- ar forward Charles Barkley, the scorer league's seventh-leading with a 24.9 average, was held to 12 points on shooting from the field. Phoenix took a 0 lead with 4:09 remaining in the first quarter as Hornacek scored nine points, Mark West eight and Chambers seven. The 76ers closed out the period with a 0 run to trail 7 and then cut the deficit to 3 on Smith's free throws 3:33 before halftime. Majerle, subbing for the injured Kurt Rambis, hit a layin, stuff and two foul shots before the Suns ended the half with a 0 run for a 6347 lead. Chambers scored six points and Majerle five during a 12-- 2 spurt before Johnson got seven in a 0 7 run for a bulge after the third quarter. 7 Philadelphia, down early in the fourth period and in danger of suffering its most lopsided ever loss to the Suns, used a barrage and closed to 105-8- 5 with 6:41 to play. The 76ers got no closer although Fitzsimmons rested most of his starters in the fourth quarter. Johnson finished with 17 assists, while West had 16 rebounds. Hawks 104, Rockets 96 31-1- 9-- 35-2- 49-4- TT G " - " vr 9-- 97-6- 99-6- SOA54ri,. Dominique Wilk-in- s declared "the fire is back" after Atlanta defeated Houston 104-9- 6 Saturday n'iit for the Hawks' second stri..ght victory, albeit only their fourth in 12 games. Wilkins scored 26 points, including two on a windmill dunk in the waning seconds of the game, and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead the Hawks. "I concentrated on working both -:' ..,.-r- - - ATLANTA AP Laserphotu Houston Rockets center Akeem Olajuwon grabs the net as he tries to prevent Atlanta pivot man Moses Malone from making a move to the bucket. The Hawks won the contest, 104-96. 141-12- 37-2- 16-- 115-10- 108-9- No. 23 Clemson upends Tar Heels By The Associated Press What a strange season in the DUNN: Coast Conference where Clemson and North Carolina kept going in different directions Saturday. Elden Campbell became Clem-son- 's e scoring leader and the No. 23 Tigers moved into a tie for the ACC lead with a victory over the Tar Heels. Clemson (22-can clinch a share of its first conference title with a victory at home Wednesday Duke. North night against Carolina, meanwhile, lost its third straight ACC game for the first time since the 1W9-7- 0 season. "You've got to give them a lot of credit for a program that has no history, no tradition, for being in a position where they're going into," Clemson coach Cliff Ellis said of his team, which won a school-recor- d 23rd straight home game. In other games, it was No. 2 Kansas 70. Kansas Stale 58; No. 4 UNLV 91. No. 16 Louisville 81: No. 5 Georgetown 83. Villanova 53: No. 6 Connecticut 79, Seton Hall 57; No. 7 Michigan 94, Northwestern 69: No. 8 Georgia Tech 88. Notre Dame 80 in overtime; No. 9 Purdue 75. Ohio State 70; No. 17 Oregon State 83. UCLA 74; No. 13 Minnesota 102. Iowa 80; No. 19 Xavier of Ohio 80. Butler 66 and No. 24 New Mexico State beat San Jose State it was Santa Clara at No. Atlantic Continued from Page Gl) thanks for his outstanding service as Executive Director of the UGA from 1985 to 1990." In response, Passey told the gathI ering: "I have mixed emotions about leaving. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with the United States Golf Association and I feel fortunate to have this opportunity. "But we are not looking forward to leaving here. Utah will always be our home." Passev did leave his mark on Utah golf. Due of the projects lie started is the establishment of a Utah Golf Hall of Fame. When it becomes a reality, one of the men who will be honored by eosliiinement there will te the man who saw our state's need for it and wh,i was a driving force behind its construction. Mark Passev. BYU: Continued Irani Page Gil the blocks quick." said Haws. I . '"Yeah. was fired up." said Santiago, "but ev en body came out lued up today to pla defense. We have to come out and play solid defense and hustle and we learned something from it." List 40 more minutes m Ft. Coi n's i;ies BYU the brass ring. we can ask. that "And that is tun in our own hau hands," v id Tiii',on. who predicted on the bus alter a m in that the 'A AC title would come d'.wn to t.'.e game next Thursday at -- est:. For Air Force. Chris I.er and Aaron Benson led the Falcons with time points apiece AFA made just Ft field goals in 4 attempts !YU shot 57 percent for the game i:; l rot super!) passu,.; from Haws w ho ended with six assies That's as poor as we've ' Minton BYU did had to do and I think it said .I! s!.iit.'! mih Santiago Ue just eo.,: "n't f;!i l any combination that 'i Ked f"t safe reason." U.th las hp bloodied. M.itk o"i led tine reason. I f'.l Ue Mike 1son " Kansas 2 25 learns tared Saturday: did not play Next: at No. Sunday beat Kansas State Nest; at No. 10 Oklahoma. Tuesday. did not play. Next: vs. No 21 3 Duke Arizona. Sunday. ) 4 UNLV beat No. 16 Louisville Neit: at UC Santa Barbara Monday. beat Villanova 5. Georgetown Neit: vs No. 6 Connecticut. Wednesday. . beat Selon Hall 6 Connecticut Next at No 5 Georgetown Wednesday. 7 Michigan beat Northwestern Next, at No 15 Michigan State. Thursday beat Noire Dame 8 Georqia Tech OT Nexl at North Carolina. Wednesday Next, beat Ohio Slate 9 Purdue at Iowa. Wednesday did not play. Next. vs. 10 Oklahoma (20-4Missouri Sunday No 11 did not play Next: at Syracuse (19-5- er Providence Sunday La Sane 14 ) No. did not play Next. not play Next at vs. St. Peler s Sunday. did not plsy. Nexl Michigan Slate vs No 25 Indiana Sunday 16 Louisville lost to No 4 UNLV 9181 Next vs Tulane Tuesdav beat UCLA 83 74. !. O'egon Slate Nexl al A'irona Stale Thursday iB Minnesota 09 6i beat Iowa 102 80 Next at No 25 Thursday at Ohio 19 himois 09 61 did not play Nexl Stale Monday beat Butler inei Xane' Ohio Rock Tuesday Next at Arkansas 21 Arizona t '9 51 did not play. Next al No 3 Duse Sunday 22 Lovoia (22 51 heal Santa Clara We! Coas! Coherence drsl Man h 3 es at A"qp rcund SaUi'dxy 22 23 C'en-sobea! No'in Caro'ma 69 61 Ne.l v No 3 Ouhe Wednesday 24 New Mr, co S'ale 2 i Ji beat San Jose 15 !!a 13-- 0 Ni: to. '!' Slale '0 Man mount Pur-r..- Clemson. leadini: fell behind left. But Dale Davis 3:;-2- at with half-tim- e, 10:36 overNorth Carolina fell to in the ACC. Tar Heels all and coach Dean Smith said Clemson is a "quick, athletic team." "Cliff has got to be happy about what they have done," Smith said. "But they will have a tough time with Duke." Campbell got 11 points and Clenison's hading scorer with 1.772 points, breaking the record set b Butch Zatealo to ZaUvaio had l.Tbl from rallied the Tigers, sronno nine of his 19 points as Clemson took control. No. 2 Kansas 70. Kansas St. 58 Kevin Pntehard hit a 2 and Kansas 27-Big Eight scored the game's last 12 points. Pntehard, who missed eight minutes in the first h.'.f with a head injury, scored 20 points. Steve Henson scored 21 points for with Kansas St.de. which led 57-- l'.CO 3 6-- 6 lie-co- l'-- "The record didn't make any difference." Campbell said. "I just wanted to go out and get it over with. ... Right now. I'll take the win i over setting the record . We needed this win. and now we can win the title." 54-4- 8 10-- i left. PI. No. 16 Louisville 81 .Johr.son ha I 22 points and 15 rebounds as UNLV cappt d a 1741 home season. The Kunnin' Kcbels '24-4- i play their final three regular-seaso- n tames on the road. UNLV scored the game's first 14 No. UM. P N M. Kobbins. shook off a month-lonshooting slump with 2t points and Luc L'',. '.. added 18 points. H lelxmnds and six blocks to lea Western New Mexico to a 'KAthatic ("inference win Saturday ever San Da o State. I he win was the fifth straight in AI Lobos paste Aztecs by 22 4 Blgi'KKQU:. g 1 -' final 3:54, with Tony Jones making eight straight. He finished with 18 points. Purdue (20-5- ) stayed in first one place in the Big Ten (12-3game ahead of Michigan State. Jim Jackson scored 16 points for Ohio State. ), No. 17 Oregon St. 83, UCLA 74 Gary Payton emerged from a subpar shooting day to score 12 consecutive Oregon State points in the final six minutes as the Beavers rallied to remain in first place in the Pacific-1- 0 Conference. Payton, playing his final home game, made only seven of 18 shots but scored 23 points and had 12 assists as the Beavers (21-- 4, 14-e took a lead over Arizona. UCLA (16-dropped its fifth in a row, its longest losing streak since 1947-4Don MacLean scored 32 points for the Bruins. Conference L Pet. W BYU UTEP CSU Hawaii New Men. Utah Wyoming SOSU AFA 11 4 9 9 9 7 7 6 4 2 5 5 5 7 8 8 10 12 .733 .643 .643 .643 .500 .467 .429 .286 .143 AIIGames W 21 17 19 20 15 15 14 13 9 L 6 9 7 7 11 12 12 15 18 Pet. .778 .654 .731 .741 .576 .556 .538 .464 .333 Saturday 67. Air Force 42 Hawaii 60. UTEP 59 New Mexico 91, San Diego Slate 69 Wyoming 80, Utah 76 BYU Wednesday New Mexico al Air Force. 7:30 p.m. UTEP at Wyoming. 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Colorado State. 7:30 p.m. Hawaii at San Diego Slate. 7:30 p.m. BYU Saturday Hawaii at Wyoming. 3 p.m. Utah at Air Force. 7:30 p.m. San Diego St. at Colorado St. 7:30 p.m. New Mexico at UltP. 10 p.m. 2) one-gam- 9-- 9, 8. No. WEBER: Minnesota 102, Iowa 80 Richard Coffey scored 18 points and five teammates also were in (Continued from Page Gil double figures as Minnesota used a before Elve hit k 21-- 2 and Steve Kunst added a spurt to open the second half. Minnesota (19-6- , 10-- 5 Big Ten ) won short jumper for an Bobcat its third straight game while Iowa lead. The Wildcats closed to within 3 dropped its sixth in a row. With Minnesota leading with 20 seconds remaining, but Iowa went scoreless over the next 5:10 MSU hit two of four free throws in and the Golden Gophers built leads the final 14 seconds to clinch the of 0 and 2 en route to a 8 win. halftime cushion. The 2 spurt made it 18 back-to-bac- 65-6- No. alPac'l.cU Thursday oti-7did no! p'ay Nexl al No 25 (5 M'Ch.g.m Sljie Sunday l Connecticut 79, Seton Hall 57 0 3 did 6 e. Chris Smith scored 21 points and Nadav Henefeld sparked a 13-- run to start the game as Connecticut 11-(24-broke a school record for victories in a season and stayed one game ahead of Georgetown in the Big East. Henefeld had 15 points, six steals, five assists and no turnovers in 22 minutes. In the opening 4:32 he had six points, a steal, a blocked shot and an assist as the Huskies sprintlead. ed to a Frantz Volcy led Seton Hall with 15 points but "the Huskies' trapping press forced the Pirates into 22 turnovers, 17 of them on steals. p'ay. Next at Georgia. did not LSU 12 Sunday 13 Arkansas Rice. Saturday Match 43-2- 101-7- i w How AP s Top t Missouri to Oklahoma. 69-6- 1 1 what lhe cn all-tim- 22 Loyola p:,ncd," points and never trailed. Anderson Hunt added 17 points. No. 5 Georgetown 83, Villanova 53 Dikembe Mutombo, benched after a poor game in late January and making his first start in nearly a of 22 month, had career-high- s points and 18 rebounds. The Hoyas 10-- 4 (21-Big East) scored the first 11 points and were never threatened. Georgetown led 3 at half-timCalvin Byrd scored nine points for Villanova, which had a three-gam- e winning streak snapped. I 1 7 Michigan 94, Northwestern 69 Rumeal Robinson scored 23 points and Michigan reached the mark for the seventh straight season. l.oy Vaught added 18 points on shooting and Demetrius Calip and Terry Mills each had 17 10-- 4 points for the Wolverines (20-5, Big Ten No. 8 i. Geo. Tech 8S, Notre Dame 80 Freshman 29-1- 31-1- 43-2- 21-- 64-3- 0. No. Butler 66 points and as Xavier won its 11th straight game. With the game tied 9 late in the first half, a by Walker put Xavier (23-- 12-- Midwestern Collegiate Conference) ahead for good. 19 Xavier, Ohio, Tyrone Hill scored Jamal Walker added 80. 24 23 Anderson Kenny matched his season high with 32 points, including five in overtime, for Georgia Tech (20-5which overcame a deficit early in No. 4 New Mexico St. 101 the second half. Notre Dame twice San Jose St. 70 missed the front end of Keith Hill scored 22 points and in the final 27 seconds of Randy Brown had 21, including regulation. eight straight late in the first half, as No. 24 New Mexico State beat San Jose State 101-7No. 9 Purdue 75, Ohio St. 70 Saturday 0 at Sophomore guard Woody Austin night and finished the year 21 scored a career-higpoints and home. The Aggies .23-Purdue got its final 12 points from Big West two road games and the conhave foul line. The Boilermakers the made 12 of 13 free throws in the ference tournament left. 29-2- 2 ), 0 1G-- h 14-- 2 league play for New Mexico, now 15-- : overall and in the WAC. San Diego Stale drops to and 1 points. 7 13-1- 5 4 I iO. Rabbins, who had missed with I, is perimeter shoot-inin recent weeks, hit s f jj shots and got New Mexico rolling toward the rout with 15 first half The Ixmgley was held scoreless through the first 10 minutes, but used his defensive play to derail the Atecs' offense. Reserve with a Rob season-hig- 7 of 8 h shots. Newton 14 finished g points, hit-lin- Late final: Pokes win SALT LAKE CITY - In a nation-all- y televised Western Athletic Conference game, Wyoming defeated Utah The Cowboys took the lead for good when Reggie Slater scored on a layup with under two minutes 80-7- left. Utah, normally a good free team, had problems in the late going. The Utes had a 0 lead when Josh Grant missed the front end of a with 3:30 left in the game. A minute later. Tommy Connor hit one of two after Slater had given Wyoming a 1 advantage. That set the stage for Slater's layup. Utah had a chance when Keith Chapman went to the line with 24 seconds left. Chapman hit the first, but missed the second. Travis Butler tot the rebound and Chapman fouled him. Butler tossed in both free throws to give Wyoming a advantage throw-shootin- 72-7- 76-7- 3 with l!t sec. .lids left Connor hit one free throw with 10 seconds left and the Utes fouled Slater immediately. He driipod in both free throws. |