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Show cr, For Sports Information Call v 521-150- 1 alt fab UiibviM Salt Lake City, Utah Section B Sunday Morning March For Sports Scores 500 Call 52 ? 1- -1 Page 10 11, 1973 Beach StaggersPast Crew StaMbom By Steve Wilson Tribune Sports Writer Jesus Christ. They played Super Star when Long Beach State entered the playing arena for the first time, a triumphant tnbute to that awesome collection of men who make the nations No. 3 ranked basketball team. LOGAN e But the 49ers came to being serenaded with Im Feeling Blue," or an equally appropriate tune kiss-clos- there arc too many individuals out there. Small carried Weber in the first half and his presence was vital. He finished with 18 points to lead W'eber while Flemblanket-sof- t touch from ing, displaying a 16 had the outside, who stifling to the seven Weber seniors W ildcats. as final game played their I certainly felt we would win it. Rich Cooper said, but we had that lapse with about six minutes to go and they took advantage of it. Small, who harassed Long Beach's fine guard Rick Abregg to the breaking point, thought he saw a weakness in the 49er team Near Upset with precision performing zest and good enthusiasm, almast toppled that tower of bulging strength they call Long Beach here Saturday afternoon And the 49ers crumbled and cracked, but they didnt wilt. The free spirit on this Long Beach team finally yielded to togetherness in the iinal minutes and the whizzed b visitors from California m an NCAA regional Weber State, playoff game m the US I' Spectrum Weber, th to True, Weber didnt play anyone nearly as strong as Long Beach State during the season But the 49ers dont hae any- thing on their schedule which can touch UCLA And since Weber proved that Long Beach is impressionable and somewhat inconsistent, the Bruins must bg breathing easier Potentially, they could be a lot I think Long better. Small obsened Beach depends on (Ed) Ratleff a little too much They hae fine players, but CA Long Beach now enters the Western Regionals next week m Los Angeles where its opponent will be the San Francisco Dons. Webers season ended with the loss, but the Wildcat performance in defeat will be engraved m the peoples memories for a long time to come. Webers assistant coach. Neil McCarthy, stood in the Spectrums southwest runway before the game and perhaps the awkward silence prompted him to speak You know, sometimes its not how big you are, its how big you pla. McCarthy mused, referring of course, to Weber's size problem When the two teams lined up for the opening tipoff. a few bystanders wondered out loud how a team of Webers frailty and short statute could compete with huge, ominous Long Beach State Coach Is a Prophet Tribune Staff Photos bv Ross Welser, Frank Porschatis Steve Fleming of Weber (23) makes valiant effort to block shot bj Roscoe Pondexter of Long Beach in ' Saturdays the 49ers Height f5'om Mirror I Wins Over Weber Desire I By Marion Dunn Tribune Sports Writer LOGAN You had to see it to believe it. but there it was late in the second half and mighty Long Beach State had to resort to the most elementary physical aspects of the game against little known and Weber State in the first game of the NCAA playoffs in the Spectrum here Saturday afternoon lightly-regarde- d Weber had a lead and Long Beach sent Ed Ratleff to Ihe top of the keyhole to shoot and if he missed the 49ers big men were to tip it in. And that is what happened with fi ll 8 Leonard Gray Jyate Stephens and doing the tipping It was just that simple. It was height 'over desire. I Long Beach coach Jerry Tarkaman Isaid that simple strategy was the key to "Tthewin. There was one fan from W'eber who hadnt heard that Long Beach was a heavy favonte While the teams were battling point for point m the first half he turned to a neighbor and said. Long Beach State is staying right with them " pretty good Stirred Up Crowd Tarkaman. who wvdks around the bench like he is stomping out forest fires, stirred up the crowd with his antics. Many coaches like to use a timeout before a rival player takes a foul pitch to rattle him, but TV did this in the Weber game With Long Beach ahead. and 3 53 to play m the first half. Weber's Steve Fleming was fouled Before he could step to the line a TV timeout was called But the Weber ace came back to hit both ends of a one and one and that sparked Weber to a halftime lead . - Before the game started the Weber students unfolded a sign that stated. Weber State No 1 m Utah -- The Arizona City game was dull by comparison with the .opener as there were moments when both teams played as if they knew what a Victory meant. It means playing UCLA m Los Angeles next week and neither team seemed eager for that challenge Some Questions Bother a After Long Beach had beaten Weber. Coach Tarkaman was talking with the We didnt have good shooting press from the perimeter. In fact. I don't think anyone but Ratleff made one from there all day, Tarkaman said But a boy in the seats questioned him Abercgg made one." the boy' said. . Tarkaman smiled and replied, that s fhy boy. t It was his son, Danny, game, but 88-7- who is tne battle. tough pride. Its hard for players to be up emotionally over a long schedule, began, "and thats John Mooney whv vou'll see a club like San Diego or Dallas give the Stars a lot of trouble. "1 know a lot of people dont believe winning and losing means that much to a pro club, but the other night the Stars were trailing Virginia by 19 points and the Squires were hot. Now the logical assumption is that the Stars will say something like, Virginia is hot, so let 'em have their fun. Weil get em next time and anyway we have a safe lead m the division race, so why kill ourselves? "But the Stars rallied and came back from a game to pull out a victory. Winning the division means added money, but the money isn t that important in the salary bracket most of the pro basketball players are, Ferrin continued The players want to be known as champions I know this may sound corny, but winning means a lot to the top players. Played to Win forward at the Ferrin, an University of Utah and a member of the champion Lakers when the club was based in Minneapolis, continued. Willie Wise is a good example of the pride this team has I don't believe anyone has mentioned this but the other night when Willie suffered a bad cut m his hand he showed his spunk Wise rushed to the dressing room where the doctor was preparing to take seven stitches m his hand Willie asked the doctor if deadening the hand would keep him from playing and would it affect his shooting touch. Willie knew he had to get back m the game and help bring a victory "The doc said that deadening the hand probably would take away his shooting touch so Willie took the seven stitches with no deadening of the pam, just so he could gf-- t back in the game Does that sound like a guy Ferrin playing for the salary lenged just chal- Different Ball Game on the Stars squad who are making more money than the whole Laker pavroll when I plaved in Minneapolis, Ferrin recalled "When I played in our roll for the year would be $75,000. 1949-50-5- 1 prophet, a clairvoyant of great merit. W'eber played big, all right, and Long Beach was virtually dumbfounded by the Ogden clubs tenacity. The Wildcats, with Brady Small in a stamng role, said the heck with the 49ers height, and raced halftime lead. away to a Long Beach, to the accompaniment of soul music put out by its band, cascaded to a lead as Ed Ratleff hit a with 5:41 to go before intermission. X pay- Then when the season ended, we had a barnstorming tour. We played robably 150 games one year, Ferrin smiled The general manager of the Stars has one wish to see Utah win the whole ABA bundle. You know, I was on the championship team in college and with the NBA champions and now Id like to complete the sweep, Arnie added. There is one added reason for the Stars battling to win every game and the division The team with the highest percentage gets to play the extra game in the playoff in their home court Harvey Kirkpatrick, the drumbeater for the Stars, pointed out that the Stars for their and have been 35-three years in the Salt Palace, and countplayoff record, the ing a home court advantage stands 115 victories and 24 losses over three years. 34-- 13-- 2 Pride may inspire a team to victory, but good business sense knows that home court advantage is not to be missed. On the other hand, the Utah fans may have been so spoiled with all those victories that they dont know how to accept a defeat Observation Ward started out wanting to write something that would last forever, but I've note at the bank. settled for a long-ter1 Today in Sport TV, Radio Slate The following is Sunday's schedule of nationally televised and locallv "broadcast sports events PRO BASKETBALL. New Aork Kmckx vs Boston Celtics, noon. Channel 4. Itah Stars vs San Diego, 8 30 p m , K ALL radio HO( KEY. Toronto vs N Y. Rangers. Lake Golden Ea3pm, Channel 72. Salt KN AK radio. m.. vs p Denver, gles (.OLE. Final round coverage of the Doral Open. 1 p m., Channel 2. Then, W'eber, with Riley Wimberly, Steve Fleming and Wes Van Dyke scortie at ing the baskets, pulled into a the 1.32 mark. And the Wildcats definitely saved the best for last. 1 After stalling for a full 55 seconds. Small got the ball in low and proceeded to twist inside for a successful shovel shot with only two seconds left. 1 A . " v I -- i 7 One big difference m the game today and when I played is the bench strength of the teams. We had a small squad, and we wanted it that way because the general manager would allow so much for salaries and we knew less players meant more money for the rest of us In those days, there was no limit on the number of preseason games you could schedule, so we played 20 games before the regular schedule started 33-- Well, based on what transpired m the first half, McCarthy turned out to be a 1 Tribune Sports Editor one thing in common players after John Mooney The salaries are much higher, the schedule is shortened considerably and the squads are larger, but the pro basketball champions of 1973 and 20 years ago still had We have only won hy Arnie Ferrin Shoot And Tip - NCAA duel. The touted 49ers finally ?!; i . r X gH: a $ N 1 I (! v , k t i 4 4 k S - $ ' s N. $ V That effort gave the underdog Wildlead and vigor for a second half run at the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn, champions Pile Lead cats a 43-4- 1 new-foun- d lp The courageous Wildcats sprinted leads on two occasions away to m the second half. In the meantime. Jerry Tarkaman, that loquacious little dnil sergeant who coaches Long Beach, was going through periods of severe defive-poi- pression. He begged, pleaded, beseeched and generally made himself an object of pity, hoping thereby to arouse his 49ers Whatever it was he did, Long Beach became aroused all nght. With Nate Stephens amd Leonard Gray, two unlikely heros. flaunting their muscles and leaping out of sight. Long Beach finally caught Weber. with 65-6- 7.48 to go. At this point, W'eber discontinued its scorching shooting, stopped moving well offensively and succumbed to the breakwhich Long neck, wild abandonment Beach had finally developed. To the great delight of Tarkaman, whose frowij turned upside down in a matter of minutes, the 49ers took stern command, scoring eight straight points to lead After this burst of power. Weber said goodbye to NCAA plav and packed its bags for Ogden instead of Los Angeles (;rpat jjav for (;raj Gray, of whom great deeds are usually not expected, was without doubt, the protagonist in Long Beach States victory' With ridiculous ease, he tossed in 25 points and his ballet-likgrace inside was a thing of beauty. Gray was so spectacular Saturday afternoon that Ratleff, about as impressive a basketball specimen as ever existed, was reduced to a secondary role That Weber team is organized and they box out well, Gray observed while attending to his fatigued condition m the It was really an 49er dressing room. effort to p'-- y wr 11 against them e the game was on national television and that inspired me, I guess If it hadnt been me though, it But I knew would have been somebody added else, Gray Over on the Weber side, no tears no feelings were hurt. There was some despair, but it was not easily detected. The Wildcats realized that they couldn't have played much better. The defeat, however, was particularly weie shed, Cl sh U L; ai ut le 9 ft y 1( e b 88-7- . ov Rudy White of the Sun Devils soars over Lacy Lanier (11) of Oklahoma City as he fires for basket in NCAA duel at Logan. Arizona State Pounds Chieftain Five, 103-7- 8 By John Moonev Tribune Sports Editor LOGAN Arizona States no star basketball team made Oklahoma City see stars Saturday afternoon as the WAC , champions blitzed the Chieftains, m the first round of the NCAA regionals. 103-78- Coach Abe Lemons of OCU had said Friday night his battle plan was don't bunch up and follow your shots. And as far as anyone could see here in the Utah State Spectrum the Chieftains followed that plan Fast Break Damaging The Arizona State quickness and fast break kept the Chieftains prettv well strung out all afternoon and as for following them shots Arizona State did a much better job. The Sun Devils who had qualified as WAC champion by winning the final game of the season in the last seconds, never let OCU get established after Arizona State grabbed a lead at the half. the 46-4- lemons contribution to the second half rout came following a technical foul on James Washington Lemons stalked the sidelines and muMerrd to the I don t know what he said to vou to the technical, but I wish I could say get the same thing " Wuik Wins Again Coach Ned W'ulk of ASU, m winning his first NCAA game sinre 1963, qualified the Sun Devils to play UCLA Thuisdav at Los Angeles It was ASU which handed the Bruins in NCAA championship play in 1963. The first half was a pretty good ball lead game with OCU jumping out to in the first minute and a half The score was then tied at 6, 10, 12, 14 and 22 before Jim Owens gave the WAC champi ons the lead for the first time at 24 22 with 8 52 left m the first half their last defeat 1 0 OCU came back to lead, but that was the final advantage for the at large team from the midwest ASU. Jed bv six going into the final two minutes of the first half and never trailed the (rest of the game , Heid Big Margin 32-3- Arizona State led, with six minutes to play and held its biggest margin at 3 with three minutes left. W'ulk said he felt Rudy White, coming off the bench midway m the first half, was the turning point for ASU. 84-6- 94-7- We were quite flat at that moment, but Rudy gave us penetration and scoring on offense and general t play that got us moving Wulk added that the Sun Devils ran the fast break as well as they have all season, which prompted Lemons to quip, "Heck, they had us four on one, that aint too hard One Edwards, the No. 7 scorer in lha nation, lived up o his reputation with 3! points for OCU. However, Marvin Rich, the No 12 scorer nationally, was held to IS points. . |