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Show The Thunderbird Wednesday, January 4, 1984 Page 13 SUSC wins Classic Lady Birds top UR, NAU for tourney title by Paul Husselbee Sparked by a Gwen Thomas performance that won her Most Valuable Player honors, Southern Utah State turned in a pair of impressive performances to win first place in the womens division of the Color Country Classic last week. The Lady Birds opened the 6 win over tourney with a Redlands University Thursday, and iced the championship by beating Northern Arizona, Friday. After watching Northern Arizona win a close decision over Cal-SaDiego Thursday 69-3- 67-6- n afternoon, Southern Utah put the screws to Redlands, a team the 'Birds defeated just a week before. Thomas led a potent floor attack, engineering fast breaks and hitting on outside jumpers. Lisa Stolk and Lisa Ballantyne converted offensive rebounds to easy baskets, and SUSC led at the half, 34-1- Lady Bird coach Boyd Adams substituted freely, as all players saw action. Frequent changes in the Southern Utah lineup made no difference, however, and SUSC coasted to an easy win. Thomas led all Southern Utah scorers with 10 points. Pat Roundy and Leslie Magnuson each came off the bench to score nine points, while Darla Hunt and Denise Muir had six each. Stolk and Ballantyne shared the rebounding lead with five each. I tried to spread playing time out between all the girls on the team, Adams commented following the win. I knew we would play Northern Arizona, and I wanted our players to be fresh and prepared for the title game. Led by playmaking guard Julie Hanks, Northern Arizona jumped out to an early lead in the championship game, and stretched that advantage to as much as eight points midway through the first half. Southern Utah fought back on the strength of Laurie Garretts 12 first-hapoints, eight of which came from the free throw line. SUSC pulled to within three, at the half. Garrett led SUSC scorers with 19 points, while Thomas, voted the tournament MVP by coaches and media, finished lf 40-3- with 17. UCR ruins i T-Bi- rd club from Riverside, Calif., A prevented Southern Utah State from successfully defending its title in the mens division of the Color Country Holiday Classic last weekend. Southern Utah State advanced into the championship round with a 5 win over Cal Hills Thursday, but fell to Friday. The Thunderbirds weathered a severe drought e from the free throw line to hold off a Dominguez Hills rally. Employing a patient offense that yielded high percentage shots, Southern Utah built a seven-poilead in the first half. Guard Maz Trakh made the most of his first starting assignment of the year with accurate passing that assisted John Pierce to several layups in the first stanza. Pierce, who scored 10 points in the half, kept himself busy on the boards also, pulling down tght rebounds. Despite the intensity produced by a Dominguez Hills press, the Thunderbirds kept their lead at seven through most of the second half. After Southern Utah opted to stall away the remaining time with less than four minutes to play, Dominguez Hills commenced what turned out to be a string of intentional fouls. 58-5- e, 69-5- '! ,r V f.nf A -- O i ettfc- 1 ? V Ji s j Thunderbird forward John Pierce (44) musters up a shot amid a crowd of Cal State Dominguez Hills cagers -- Thursday. late-gam- full-cou- rt holiday 69-5- 3 The strategy almost worked, as the Thunderbirds missed seven charity shots in the final two minutes. Coach promised Shawn Only when Daniels a steak dinner he made two foul shots did an SUSC player with 30 seconds remaining convert on two consecutive free throws. Daniels foul shots iced the victory for SUSC. Pierce, who led all scorers with 15, received additional help in the second half from Daniels and Todd Jeffs, who finished with 12 and 10 points respectively. Daniels also went to work on the boards in the second half. He and Pierce both tallied 1 1 boards on the night. We played very well, Schermerhorn said. We took our shots and played our game. I was happy to see our kids play that well together. The SUSC team that took the floor the following evening, however, bore little or no resemblance to the team that beat Dpminguez Hills the night before. Riverside forward James Fontanette ripped off a string of five long jumpers in the opening minutes, putting the Thunderbirds down before they ever got untracked. Pierce and Daniels were named to the alltournament team. |
