OCR Text |
Show L—r - kill HEEL-til). Provo. Utah. Monday, March 15. 1993 NCAA: Coug ars play Gauchos first By DOROTHY KNOELL ’4 -. .1 Scorts Write' The Bil Watch out for Am. Fork! Cavemen batter Knights By BOB HUDSON Assistant Sports Editor and scattered six hits. Vinni- Watch out for American Fork's ieatn won the V'Ietit Coiitetcnce 'T‘.ill . sc .ciow n. Iii-e conlcr- ' _.r7 ; .‘nttitleandan auto. the .\i.'~\5i tourna- baseball team, The Cavemen have only played two games. but already have scored 30 runs and col- lected 32 hits. Saturday the Cavemen battered Northridge 15-0 in the first game ever for the knights. The game "\‘n. . \ day. coach Jeanie tics .Iie Cougars ~‘ \(' , got one other ting Respect .. _. l was pleasantly = said Wilson Sunday '-. \- \A women‘s tourna1=.i‘.e was announced was played at Woods Cross because neither team involved had a playable field. Ryan Bromley. David Bartholo— mew and Eric Bentley combined on a four-hitter. Bromley paced American Fork's 19-bit attack wood that her team with three hits and two runs batted in. Mike Burroughs. Bartholo- to Santa Barbara neclttesday for an H130 ' round matchup. "We .‘spect. I think. That's c- teams we play are .z.‘.tig for us if we make the mood. I think big names wrt :‘lllllc‘s intimidate young ~. so it ieally helps us to not " §.:.L’llieii . l ‘tilu the WAC got some re- f ‘. too I was thrilled to see Herald Photo/Patrick J. Krohn ".ll Diego State get an invitation. worked hard to beef up Cougar players hoist the WAC Tournament trophy Saturday after beating Utah 53-50 in the title game. or pre~seasoii schedule and BYU plays Santa Barbara Wednesday in the first round of the NCAA tournament. .;_v deserved to go in. Ofcourse. he hi‘ael ifl was L'tah." I'he A/tccs' invitation marked " . iirst time the WAC has had '.:'.ilii~ in the NCAA tourna» IllL‘lIi SDSL was 19-8 overall . ly played like us in the WAC tournament. There was so much pressure there "Now. I hope we can loosen ’ mo “2 against a strong non-con- tip. have some fun and play like we have all year. We want to t i;reitce schedule. L'tah. I9—Il). prove we can play with these i (mt SDSI. twice during the sea— teams. We're not going down there like it‘s just icing on the cake. We‘re going down to play some serious basketball. We wantiogoasfaras wecan." { on. one of those iii the WAC Lnurnaiitent. But i. e L'tes didn‘t Casi Ei.‘.llilll(.‘ll. llic 3-1-4 Cougars. who were vi 1n regular-season confer;m. play were not treated as ti’st-roond fodder. which is what " is istiiilly happened to WAC at d il(‘.»'\( ' teams) in the past I i liiis ysar. rather than being In Santa Barbara. the Cougars have drawn a team that didn't put together as sparkling a regularseason as BYU did. but has been hot of late. The Gauchos were only the third seed in the Big .z.’.‘tllll‘c'Ll against the [Up seed in West post-season tournament. We~t Region. the WAC ...tiillllllll\ will meet the fourth .t t; in the region. Colorado (15‘ it they can get past the first.i.:i.d game [he Cougars. actually. would 'Iou‘ had .1 g'iti'tl chance it! llthl but upset second-seed and 215tranked L'N'LV in the semifinals and top-seeded. l9th-ranked Hawaii in the finals to win their second straight conference tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAAs. I first riiintl game had they sill iztitlct‘. .i bid to do so. But .. ~iicy considerations led BYL' to in". Iclc (int IH hid l'lll' Ll liiisl spi it Instead the Cougars will play " lll'c' (Ltticllits I‘titllic‘ c‘i‘Ul’l. hill va‘ll 'llal wasn't enough to damp .n ‘v'. .lson's enthusiasm and ex.iicioeiit er Bibs lll’sl NCAA 'wiztiaincitt appearance since the i I‘I‘Jn‘ig v: isi In. ; '\'\':- really evcited to be l “i;.' ~:.;- said. "Hopefully. I i .- ..:i. .iile down and play like ..,.ii. ldidn'i teel like we real- tournament)." said Pay son coach Scott Haney. "We weren't swinging the bat well and took a lot of called third strikes. But. I was pleased with the way we turned things around. Against Hurricane (the Lions won 14—13) we had I4 hits and seven were for extra bases. Jamon Taylor had an inside— the-park homer. too. “I can't say enough about Clint well." noted Caveman coach Kim Haveron in the Tooele game." Habelson. “I jUsi hope we can save ney continued. "Only one guy hit some (hits) for when we really the ball hard off him and that was need them (later in the season). " in the seventh inning. Burroughs' two hits were both "Overall our pitchers did well. triples. Nelson said both would We saw eight pitchers who threw have been home runs in most strikes. Ours was the only pitching parks. Woods Cross does not have staff in the tournament that didn't home run fences. He is 5—for-7 and give up a home run. I think our Bromley is 5-for-5 thus far this pitching will come around as the season. Both have three extra base season goes on." Haney conclud— hits. ed. American Fork is scheduled to Payson is scheduled to be at Pro— entertain Brighton at 3:30 pm. vo at 3:30 pm. Tuesday. Tuesday. weather permitting. A “12002—101 visit to Skyline fell victim to the '11:.Tooelmecca—no IS also had two hits apiece. Bur‘ roughs also had two RBI. “The whole team is hitting good. but we haven't ' Orlando Corona and Mike Alba made the all-tournament team along with Will Barrett of Timpview. Corona was (slur-I2 with six RBI. Mike Alba was only 2-f0r-4. but drew eight walks and stole seven bases. Partridge. who was 5-for-12 with five doubles. received honorable mention. “We started out poorly (in the mew. Derek Allred and Scott Lew- xi E.‘ :iessee or something like ' tridge had two RBI to lead the way. Clint Haveron went the distance Santa Barbara is led by three double-figure scorers. Senior guard Cori Close averaged 15.5 points per game while inside. "Twin Towers" Becky Brown (senior 6-foot-2 center) and Christa Gannon (junior 6-2 forward) chip in 12.8 and 12.1 ppg. respectively. BYU. meanwhile. is led by All-WAC sophomore center Debbie Diniond. 6-3. who scores .it a 14.4 ppg clip. Sophomore guard Thais Kidd. who was also All-WAC. adds l3.6 points per game. Both were named to the All-WAC Tournament team. Freshman super sub Behka Staf— ford. she of the three-point bombs and cool. calm free throw shooting. averages IO points a game. Depth will also be a key for the Cougars. as they have Wilson said. Guard Jeanine Utley. who has been a key performer off the bench for BYU this season. will undergo arthroscopic surgery today after her knee gave out dur~ ing a brief appearance in Saturday's final game. She originally injured the knee three weeks ago been able to go three or four deep against Utah. re-injured it trying on their bench all year with good to play the following week results. against SDSU and then had it go out again. despite wearing a "We don't know a whole lot brace. on Saturday. about Santa Barbara yet." Wil“lt'sjust so unstable. they deson said. "I've seen them play on cided to go in and see what's TV a couple of times. but not there." Wilson said. “We don't enough to really know what they know what to expect. If it's not do. We'll look at films Monday really serious. the doctors said and decide what to do. I do know she might be able to be back by they are a very good team and the weekend. But we won't know they're playing really. really well right now. We'll have to get ready for them. until after the surgery." The AzteCs were also assigned to the West Regional. They travel “But our first priority is our— to 20-12 Georgia for a first-round selves. We want to play our game game. with the winner taking on — get the press going. play good West No. l seed Stanford. 25-5. defense. take advantage of what The Cardinal are the defending they give us on offense. make national champions. The other top seeds in the good choices. That's what has gotten us here. and that's what we women's tournament include 27« want to do. If we do that. I think 2 Vanderbilt (Midwest Regionwe have a good chance to win a al). 27-2 Tennessee (Mideast) few games in this tournament. and 24-3 Ohio State (East). The We just want to do as much dam— No. 2 seeds in each region are Texas Tech (26-3. West). Virginage as we can and have fun. " The Cougars should be pretty tad-1‘5. East). Iowa (24—3. Midhealthy for their first—round east). and Maryland (22-7. Mid— game. Kidd. who sprained an an— west). The top four seeds in each kle late in the WAC title game regional get a first-round bye in against Utah. will be ready to go. the 48-team tournament. L weather today. In St. George Saturday Payson evened its record to 2-2 with a 7-4 victory over Tooele in a touma- merit. Brent Craghead had two of the Lions' eight hits and Ryan Par- Ointment Partridge; lice-oi. R.Pmt(6) ms.m.WW.L-Icm. ‘ m.P:Rylnlefdga.P:S.Prafl.T:R. Pruitt m In!“ 0000000— 0 41 23.505 l —151It M. W mum t) Lem (7) m 0-99 - 3. “4‘ . (3). E": W l _ DIVISMJNI Griffin (6). w-Bromlcy. L-Dm. mam-ml; AF; m m. AF: Allen. M. its-like Samba. . (I); Cohy Km. AF: Rod um". AF; Eric Bum-y. AF. Consistent Mallon eases to Ping-Welch’s championship TUCSON. Ariz. (AP) — Meg Mallon didn't have as many birdies as some of the other players in the Ping-Welch's Championship. She didn't have as many bogeys. either. Throughout the four-day event. Mallon was a model of consistency. making just two bogeys. She had none on Sunday. when erratic breezes toughened up the 6.187yard Randolph Park North municipal course. ”I think I only missed two fair— ways. I kept my mistakes down to a minimum and kind of hung in there." said Mallon. who won the $400,000 LPGA event by one shot over Betsy King by shooting 3under—par 69. Mallon had a shot to spare after sinking a 27-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to move two strokes ahead of King and Jane Crafter. “It was really nice to have that cushion," said Mallon. whose final score of l6-under 272 tied the tournament record set by Chris Johnson in 1984. Mallon's $60,000 check moved her to second on the money list behind Lisa Walters. Mallon had played in just one of two previous tournaments. finishing in a tie for 26th. and had earned $3.247 coming in. King shot 71 and finished at 273. while Crafter‘s three bogcys on the back nine negated a strong start and left her at 272 after a 70. Cindy Rarick and Julie lnkster tied for fourth at 275, and three shots separated them from the next group — Pearl Sinn. Alice Ritzman. Nancy Lopez and Hollis Stacy — at lO-under 278. It was the fifth career victory for Mallon. a seventh-year pro, and her first since 1991. when she won four titles. BYU football recruit from Virginia stam pad for success By ROBERT ANDERSON Spec.al to the Herald W illie Brown said. "I don't think ”\BlVfilHJN. v.1. v Tyrone that's the reason why they wanted him." liioazt'fs father is a mailman but inn :~.n't the only reason the Brown said a visit to BYU last year left him with a comfortable imitation High School senior is -{..Iii}‘c‘tl tor success. llmvvll has been the complete I'.‘.'..l:_'L‘ at Abingdon. He is a 3.6 stufiqtit who was recently the recip~ mi: the school‘s DAB Citi/enslap hunt I lirow in the fact that he became »ox:tlivvest Virginia's only 1993 l).v ision IA football recruit several vvceks ago when he signed a letter oi intent to play at Brigham Young. you get the idea Brown t i‘lllc‘s special delivery. "We feel like he's a real good ‘athietef said BYU recruiting co- ordinator Chris Pella. "He's a real good athlete and a real good per:on. That is very important ot Us. We recruit kids from all over the country but not every kid out there will lit in." Brown chose his next address to he Provo. L'tah for reasons other than jUst his athletic ability. While the 99 percent white BYU campus seemingly might be far from the thinking of an 19—year—old black kid from Washington County. it is closer than it first appears. This fall Brown will join his sisici \nccsha as a student at BYU. Also Brown and his family are members of the LDS Church which owns BYL‘. The Cougars .iie the only Division IA program that offered him a full-ride scholarship ftrown's father Willie. who wins for the US Postal Office in .-\bingdon. hopes racial reasons me not a factor in BYU's interest. Iti’L‘s sports information office estimated the Cougars had only 15 black players in the football pro— gram last year so there is plenty of room for more "There are not a lot of black athletes at BYL’. but I don't think a coach like LaVell Edwards is going to look at l‘yrone that way. ” ”Recruits teeling. "Look at the guys who came from there-Jim McMahon. Steve Young. Ty Detmer." Brown said. "If I weren't Mormon. I would still go there. They treat their athletes the same as any other college. You don't have to join the church. It's your free choice." It didn't hurt when Pella telephoned Brown in December from Hawaii. where BYU was playing in the Aloha Bowl. "The night before they played in Hawaii he said. "The guys are all outside surfing." Brown said. “That sparked a lot of interest." That Brown slipped through some recruiting cracks didn't come as a major shock to Pella. who professed little prior knowledge of southwest Virginia. "I don‘t know what kind of hotbed that is." said Pella. 3 former head coach at Utah State. It's kind of hard to get into that place. ' ' However. Brown's signing came as a surprise locally as well. The 6-foot-2. 205 pound running back gained most of his early high school notoriety as a basketball player. His status as a football recruit in Virginia went largely unnoticed. Brown was not listed among the state's top 100 prospects by the Roanoke Times and World News. annually a very accurate barometer of talent in Virginia. It was an omission that was later acknowledged in print. The Abingdon star was only a second—team pick at running back on the Bristol Herald Courier All-Southwest Virginia team. to give me a half-scholarship or something. Tech was looking at me. but they didn't show any real interest in me." Abingdon coach Randy Flinchum said Brown received even less attention from nearby Division 1AA East Tennessee State. “They looked at some film at the end of the year.”Flinchum said. “They said they weren't that impressed." Is Brown a true sleeper? “I think Tyrone Brown's best football is ahead of him." said Flinchum. a former assistant at West Virginia. "Of course it's differcnt in Division I. It can be a rude awakening. But I think he can rise to the occasion." Brown had always pictured himself rising above the rim as a college basketball player. However. it became apparent recruiters weren't even going to ring once for a 6-3 post man, leaving Brown with only one avenue to the big time. It was more like a narrow street because Brown did not play football as a sophomore and got off to a very slow start as a junior. Heading into this fall he still had basketball on his mind. Moreover. Brown was lightly recruited by the Old Dominion's “I wasn‘t expecting to have a two Division IA schools — Virgin- great year in football." Brown ia Tech and Virginia. said. “I didn't have too good a “Tech and UV were looking at junior year. I wasn't looking at me." said Brown. "UV was going college for football at all. I wanted to get basketball scholarship. Basketball is still my first love. " Although Edwards visited Brown and his family the Wednes— day before national signing date. the Cougar coaching staff has only seen Brown play football on film. "Brown didn't start producing highlight clips until his junior year was nearly complete. putting together back'to—back big games against Highlands District powers Lee and Gate City. This year Brown shrugged off an ankle inju— ry to gain 868 yards during the regular season and led Abingdon to the Region N. Division 4 championship game. "As a junior he really didn't start hitting his stride until we played Lee High." Flinchum said. "He had I40-150 yards against good competition. This year he had three games he didn't play in and he still gained almost 1,200 yards." Early on the knock against Brown was that he didn‘t have a nose for contact. He admitted it wasn't entirely unwarranted. “They said I wasn't aggres— sive," Brown said. “It was kind of legitimate but I used it as a motivator. It was my first year playing varsity football and you just don't go out and take over. “I battled a lot of injuries my junior year and this year. Toward the end of last season when my leg started getting better I started performing better." Brown wasn't shying away from anybody as a senior. In practice Flinchum would often put Brown up against 255-pound lineman Jamie Harless. who signed with VMI. “Ty has got great explosion." Flinchum said. “He and Jamie would go one-on-one in practice and there would be some real colli- "I guess it's the way I was brought up." Brown said. "You know. don't try to be a Showoff. Don't try to be the one in the spotlight." who didn't win anything." Willie Brown said. “He went up and gave them each one of his. I asked him why he did that and he said that maybe by giving a kid a trophy it would keep him from giving up." There was no way the focus would not be someone with Brown's combination of size and acceleration in high school foot— ball. "I realized that a lot this year. I felt like people were looking at me more." Brown said. “It was kind of scary. Next year I'll be starting over. I'm back at the bottom. But I'll have the inspiration to work my way up. " Brown’s next decision will be whether to take a voluntary church mission, possibly delaying the start of his football career by two years. ' “I'm pretty sure I‘m going to do it," Brown said. Pella said there is no way to measure what effect serving a mission will have on an athlete. Next season all eyes will be on BYU’s 76 basketball star Shawn Bradley, who hasn't played since the 1990— Much of the credit for Brown's 91 season due to missionary work success as a student-athlete has to abroad. got to his father and his mother, “We've already encouraged Pauline. Willie Brown, who grew up around the coal mines of Jen- him to go on his mission next fall," kins. Ky.. stands 6—3. He played said Pella. “We have nine or 10 basketball at Clinch Valley Col- kids a year coming and going. It‘s lege. although he never graduated. always a little bit of a cycle. Sometimes it‘s a good situation and “We‘ve always stressed getting sometimes they lose interest for the an education," Willie Brown said. game." ”In high school they gave me my BYU‘s program was featured in grades because I was a basketball player. Later on in life, I kind of a recent Sports Illustrated article. regretted that. When I got to col- the crux of which was that the Coulege I needed tutors. I basically did gars are widely disliked for reawhat I wanted to do. I didn’t apply sons including religion and race. myself. I said to myself that if ever “That’s one writer's opinion," I had kids I 'm not going to let that Pella said. “We’ve been fortunate happen to them. ' ’ to win a national championship and “I told Tyrone. ‘Don't expect we‘ve been to 16 bowl games in anything for free. When you work the last 16 years. When you beat hard at something you appreciate it people all the time. they can get more.‘ The kid has worked hard pretty upset.’ ' for a long time. He's a good kid. No matter what role Brown He‘s never caused us a problem. eventually has in BYU's program. He’s a very humble boy. " he already has a proud set of parAn example ot' Brown's charac- ems. ,ter came during a basketball camp “Coach Don Williams at Lee last summer in North Carolina, High came up to me and told me where he eamod several awards how much all the kids out there and notched an unofficial one-on- respected Tyrone," Willie Brown sions. If he had played football as a one victory over former North said. “I've had referees come up 10th grader he‘d have really been a Carolina State guard Chris Corchi— to me after the game and tell me ani. what a good, well-mannered playgreat player. " Brown said his reserved nature “He won three trophies and or my son is. That really means a there were two kids down there lot to me. “ caused him to hold back at times. |