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Show ' ports & Outdoors SOUTHERN UTAH STATE COLLEGE, CEDAR CITY THE THUNDERBIRD PAGE 10 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 19S9 Birds open with win BY BRENT RICHEY Clara Peller would love this. Shes the woman who did the Wheres the beef? Wendys commercials. She could sit in the stands at an SUSC basketball game and the yell, Wheres the defense? Saturday night the Birds opened demolition of Division II Cal Poly Pomona. season with a That score is virtually identical to the 110-9- 3 defeat of the Germans in exhibition play. True, it didnt count. But a near instant replay of the score implies that the Birds know how to shoot the ball, but also that they let the other guys shoot, too. have Coach Neil Roberts points out that the Broncos, now a have been averaging more than 90 points a contest, but he did few words to say about his teams performance. It was a typical first game guys playing as hard as they can and still making mistakes. SUSC had 22 turnovers. I didn t feel said Roberts, though they like we did they type of job board-wisthe biggest concern I But smaller the outrebounded team had was the missed layups. Im always pleased with wins, but I really wasnt happy with the way we played. Hopefully the first 112-9- 4 2, e, 55-4- 6. game jitters are gone. The Birds are on the road to take on the Montana State Bobcats tonight at 7:30. Roberts said the squad should play better since there is less pressure away from the home crowd. Saturday night, however, in spite of the defensive letdovn, was the Kelvin Lee show. The senior point man was hot. He downed bagging 33 points and dished out five assists. eight And he only played 27 minutes, Roberts fault, the coach later confessed. I oversubstituted, he said. I would stop the momentum in order to give a lot of players a lot of minutes. When you have the opportunity to be ahead, its a great chance to play the other players. The Thunderbirds certainly had their chances to be ahead. They went up by as many as 29 in the second half after DeMar Beck hit d two of his 17 points on a jumper to make it 108-7- 9 with five minutes to play in the game. Cal Poly made the score look closer than it was by outscoring SU 15-- 4 in the final five minutes, thanks to two D.J. Norman treys. He had 18 for Pomona. The first 13 minutes of the first half was much closer, and Ken Scalmanini slammed one in for the Broncs to tie it at 2 1 with 1 1 minutes to play in the half. Terry Ross, who led the scoring for Cal Poly with 20 points, added another dunk with 10:21 to go in the half to give Pomona a 23-2- 1 lead. But Lee bombed consecutive three-pointeand Chris Naulls tipped in a layup to help Southern 35-3- 1 Utah to a advantage with 6:57 on the clock. 5 when he drove the lane, Lee then put the Birds up play with a free scooped the shot, and completed the three-poithrow. SUSC led 57-4- 2 at the intermission. three-pointer- s, soft-hande- rs 41-3- Kelvin Lee was the man of the hour Saturday night and only played 27 minutes. He led the 'Birds with 33 SUSC win over Cal Poly Pomona. Lee also had five assists in the 112-9- 4 points, including eight three-pointer- s. nt Lady Birds host Creighton today A repeat of last year was not in the cards for the SUSC Lady Birds this weekend. They opened the season with a tournament' appearance in Boise State, the same opening as last year. But the results this year were definitely different. Boise State took advantage of SUSCs new team, winning the tourney opener 86-6Saturday afternoon the Lady Thunderbirds faced Portland State and rebounded but it ended in the Lady Vikings favor 94-9Today at 5:15 p.m. the Lady Thunderbirds, now get the opportunity to play their first home at game against Creighton in the 0. 0. 0-- 2, Centrum. Coach Clay Anderson was disappointed with his teams performance in the tournament one Southern Utah won last year. Each game we got a little bit better, but right now we dont have five girls on the court that click together, said Anderson. Evidence of that was a rash of turnovers by the Lady Birds. Against BSU, SUSC committed 40 turnovers and didnt score until seven minutes had elapsed in the game. Against PSU, Andersons squad had 31 TOs. Right now were struggling to get a starting five, he said. Probable Starters: SUSC at MONTANA STATE Shooting was cold in Fridays loss. Lexa Larsen led SU with 14 points. Four players had eight, and Paula Sawyer had eight assists. Stacey French woke SUSC up Saturday against PSU, scoring 25, followed by Larsens 17. Sawyer had 15 to go with nine assists. Debbie Whitlock, the phenom from three-poirange, struggled all weekend. She had three points total, shooting 9 from trey land. last year and has eight Creighton was freshmen this season. Anderson said they are a lot like Boise State in quickness and size. nt 0-- 2-- SUSC F Roger McDonald 6-F Chris Naulls 5 C Richard Barton 6--9 G Kelvin Lee G Peter Johnson 4 MONTANA STATE F Todd Dickson F Steve Kunst 6-- 4 C Allen Ltghtfoot 6-- 6 G Gale Berry 6 7 G Alonzo Stephens SUSC: Defense will continue to be the key if the Birds want to win on the road. Size should be a factor inside. The Birds will have to eliminate turnovers and spread the scoring around. MSU may look like a relatively new team, said Coach Neil Roberts, but they have four of their starters who are familiar with their system. Theyll be plenty tough. Montana State: A key matchup will be 7 Gale Berry on of the capable bearing scoring load, and Alonzo Stephens may be up for postseason recognition at the off guard position. Kelvin Lee. Berry is ilurriiMM. 6-- |