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Show 'BIRD SPORTS SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1996 Lady 'Birds dropped by Pilots SUs home winning streak is snapped by Portland three-gam- e By TIM MAXWELL JOURNAL SPORTS EDITOR Ball handling is essential in the game of basketball, and that is exactly what SU could not do successfully in a 63-5- 2 loss to the Portland Pilots last night in the Centrum. turnovers coupled with a terrible Twenty-fiv- e shooting night for the Lady 'Birds was all Portland needed for the victory. It was only three days ago that SU handed d Oklahoma State its first loss of the season behind the dominant play of Myndee Larsen and her 33 points. How things can change in such a short period of time. Larsen could only score nine points in last night's game, two in the second half. SU, which dropped to 1 1 with the loss, started the game strong and had the lead until five minutes to go in the first half. The Lady 'Birds hit their first four shots from the field, but from there it was all downhill. That is when Portland's Kristin Hepton, Wendy Toon-en- , and Jill Peterson took over. It seemed they couldn't miss for the rest of the opening half lead at the break and the Pilots took a 36-3despite 50 percent SU shooting in the half. The second half belonged to Portland forward Laura Sale. After scoring only three points in the first half, Sale came out on fire and stretched Portland's lead to double digits. Cherri Frandsen tried to stop the route with inspired play, but her individual performance 20th-ranke- 5-- 0 Linsey Mortensen (42) looks past an Oklahoma State defender (31) in trying to make the interior pass. wasn't enough to stop the Pilots' team effort. The rebounding numbers were quite lopsided, but not in favor of Portland as one might expect. The Lady 'Birds pulled down 49 rebounds compared to the Pilots' 28. Frandsen had 14 boards herself. Larsen grabbed eight rebounds, six offensive, and Linsey Mortensen also had eight. The turnovers were the obvious story of the game. Four Lady 'Birds had four or more turnovers in the game compared to only one player for Portland. As a team, SU's 25 turnovers more than doubled the 1 1 that the Pilots committed. No other SU player scored in double figures besides Frandsen. Frandsen and Larsen's 29 points aside, the top scorers were Tami Newton with seven and Monica Doman's six points. Nobody else had more than three points. For Portland, now 4 on th year, the scoring was about as balanced as it can get. Sale led the team with 14 points, Hepten and Toonen each had 11, Deana Lansing scored 10, and Peterson added 9 for the Pilots. It was a tough loss for a team that was coming off the high of the Oklahoma State win. In that game Larsen pulled down eight seven blocked rebounds and had a career-higshots to go with her career-hig- h point total. The Lady 'Birds stopped OSU's winning streak at 10 games with the 0 win. SU plays tomorrow night at Oral Roberts. 5-- h 78-6- Men lose another close one There is plenty of action Birds fold in the final minutes on the road at Portland coming to the Centrum With five minutes left to play, it looked as though SU would be the one to halt the University of Portland's home win streak Wednesday. When it was over, SU Head Coach Bill Evans and the 'Birds were left wondering how another road game got away. Daryl 18-ga- Christopher's three-point- with 5:00 left in the game pushed SU's lead to but the bulge signaled the start of a 25-- run that enabled Portland to close the game with an victory. The win moved Portland on the year to and dropped SU to 75-6- 79-7- 8 88-8- 3 able to put a team away late in the game when we had a big lead. I take the blame. We should have won the game," said Evans. SU shot a season-hig- h 58.2 percent from the field in the defeat, but lost the At the 12- rebounding battle 38-2minute mark of the second halt, the rebounding tally was tied at 21. With 2:26 left in the game, SU led 5 before Portland's Chivo " Anderson tied it on a pair of free throws after a double technical was called on Christopher and rvr ;; - vi L v a Portland's Dionn Holton. After Anderson made both to tie the Lemont Daniels game at 79, Ingram scored a game and made one and 23 career-higmissed one to give Daryl Christopher (22) swings the pass the 'Birds a 80-7- 9 points, including around an outstretched defender. nine straight that lead. A Jimmie started the Pilots' Rainwater lay-u- p on final charge. Christopher led SU with 22 the next possession gave Portland an 0 lead and the Pilots would never trail points and Reggie Ingram added 21 in the losing cause. again. "I need to do a better job of preparing SU returned home yesterday and will e our guys for situations. This is be preparing for tomorrow night's battle two games in a row that we haven't been against Oral Roberts in the Centrum. 9-- 2 6-- h 81-8- late-gam- By BRETT JEWKES OF THE SPORTS MEDIA RELATIONS STAFF Some very difficult questions await the students, faculty and staff of Southern Utah University this month, but the most compelling question to be answered is just how all those associated with the greatest school on the planet will spend those cold January nights. What will it be? You could sit around and wait for Camie to grace the tube. Spending money you don't have on a trip to a movie theater that has more soda on the floor than in the cups is also an option. Thankfully, it's a decision made easy when you see what's on tap at the Centrum in the next three or so weeks. The nation's leading scorer, an instate rival that fully expects to win and a team that just knocked off the 20th ranked team in the country are just some of the headliners coming to town for what looks to be a great stretch of hoops for any fan, especially a fan that gets in the building for free. It all starts tomorrow night when SU faces the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts University-- a team that coasted to an easy win over 20th ranked Tulsa. The win was good enough to warrant a feature story on ESPN about the ORU program. On Jan. 12, Northern Iowa and Jason Daisy come to town for a rematch of a Nov. 26 game in Cedar Falls, Iowa that saw UNI take a 77-6- 5 win from the 'Birds. That day 28 Daisy matched a career-higpoints and SU thought it had been beaten by a fluke. As it turns out, a fluke it wasn't as Daisy is now numero uno among all NCAA Division I scorers, averaging just over 30 points a game. Add to that, the way UNI taunted the 'Birds after its November win and Jan. 12 should be an interesting night in the 'Birds house of pain. If those games weren't enough, SU closes out the month with maybe the two most important games of the year. who SU defeated in the American West Conference championship game last year, comes to Cedar City on Jan. 27 and three days later SU gets its shot at avenging last year's nine-poin- t loss to Weber State on Jan. 30. All in all, it looks like the kind of h home basketball schedule that should have SU students and fans drooling and filling up the seats of the Centrum As of now, any win against any of those teams would definitely be chalked up as a "quality" win. |