Show STANDARD-EXAMINE- R SATURDAY APRIL 21 1990 0 SPORTS EDITOR: 625-426- Lady Ute gymnasts take title By DIRK FACER Snndw$£upww corespondent Utah San Antonio tied three straight Tod Murphy — who IS Tod Murphy? three-poishots and Sidney Lowe’s jumper at the By JOHN YOUNGREN Stand JExarrwwr SALT LAKE CITY — In the midst of game scores and dis- patches from around the league on a playoff-fevFriday Eight it took everything the Utah Jazz had to gear down and pull out this 9 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves The battle complete the war rages on: San Antonio also won victory at Friday — a 1 8 Denver — meaning the Jazz and Spurs each have 6 re- cords and remain tied in the race for the NBA Midwest Division title The Jazz will be at Houston ' on Sunday while the Spurs will host Phoenix The Jazz need a win and a Spurs’ loss to win the Midwest title That simple “We have one game left and it’s the most important game we have all year Jazz Coach Jerry : Sloan said Friday But never mind the Spurs — or Rockets Suns oranycne else the Jazz might have an eye on It was Minnesota that was characteristically causing all kinds of problems for the Jazz on Friday Utah night and it took a 1 run some solid defense three spectacular Karl Malone jump shots and a general Jazzman to defeat the Timber-wolve- s nt 22-fo- ot buzzer seem routine “They’re a very tough team Sloan said “They’re in every game they play because of the way they play" Finally with most of the sellout Salt Palace crowd sitting on-ithands the Jazz clicked into gear After Donald Royal's pair of free throws gave Minnesota a 4 lead the ’Wolves were called for an illegal defense and John Stockton cut their lead to third-quart- er 97-8- 12-10- 55-2- gut-che- ck s 77-7- ’ 0 er 77-7- all-arou- 5 5am Mitchell missed on Minnesota’s ensuing possession allowing Utah to get the rebound and the break which the Jazz capped on Malone’s dunk off Darrell Griffith’s missed shot With 9:32 to go Utah had tied it up 7 The Jazz took a lead just seconds later when Griffith drifted in a jumper and brought the crowd to its feet for the first time all night A pair of Jazz slam dunks — by Thurl Bailey and Malone — off the break gave the Jazz an 7 lead and Stockton himself capped the run when he drove the lane for a score jumpers by Malone over MurBut the ’Wolves weren’t done phy boosted the Jazz to an 1 lead the ’Wolves scored six yet — not surprisingly Minnesota has played the Jazz tough straight points and cut Utah’s in three of its four previous edge to 7 with 2:48 to go But the Jazz defense only almeetings with Utah this season “They’ve given us problems lowed one more Minnesota basall year said Utah’s Mike ket and the Jazz offense got a Brown who helped key the boost when Bobby Hansen beat fourth-quartrun as much as the Timberwolves’ trap for a anybody with his four rebounds driving score and Malone nailed (nine in the game) “They play another of those turnaround — this one while hard they never give up" Murthe over turnSo after falling — 9 around to a Utah phy give two-poi- 21-fo- -- nt ot 83-7- 89-8- “You do what you have to : do said Malone who finished ' 36 points and with a game-hig- h 10 rebounds in this the game the Jazz had to have “To win a game that was this big we had t to step it up a notch The Jazz — outhustled and outrebounded for most of the night — entered the fourth quarter down 0 The Timberwolves now 9 overall were making things like out-sh- ot 74-7- 22-5- all-arou- 77-7- ‘ 89-8- er fade-awa- back-to-ba- semi-amazi- ys ck fall-aw- ay ng 93-8- Down the stretch Friday the Jazz sealed it at the line — to the collective sigh of the Salt Palace crowd “The defense picked it up in the fourth quarter and Karl did a nice job" Sloan said “All the guys showed a great deal of heart in the fourth quarter they got in the open court and they gave us a nice run” Behind Malone Stockton had 17 points and 18 assists — he needs just six more to break his own NBA record of 1128 edge the superstar hits three turnaround jumpshots when Murphy has a hand in his face and that was the difference" said Minnesota Coach “Malone free-thro- Bill Musselman who wore a dif- ferent mask than he did on his last visit to Salt Lake City when his comments about the Mailman were largely disparaging “Malone’s a winner and a helhe’s a credit to luva player this league because he plays hard day in and day out w Eagles one game away from semifinals Special to the for the Eagles Standard-Examine- MILWAUKEE — The Salt Lake Golden Eagles are within one victory of moving into the West Division semifinals of the Turner Cup Playoffs Fueled by two goals and two assists from team captain Rich Chernomaz the Eagles flew past 5 the Milwaukee Admirals Friday night in the Bradley Center to take a commanding 1 Interlead in their national Hockey League quarterfinal playoff series RSch Cemomaz 7-- 3-- best-of-sev- Game 5 past the Admirals en is today at noon (MDT) also in the Bradley Center The winner of the Salt series faces Indianap- Lake-Milwauk- ee olis in the division finals The Ice wrapped up their quarterfinal series 1 by beating Peoria 2 on Friday 4-- 3-- It was special teams’ play that was instrumental in Friday’s win and Bucyk for a 0 lead and that was it for Admirals’ 4-- on the Salt Lake went its while penalty killpower play ing blanked the Admirals on their seven chances first period saw the Eagles outshoot Milwaukee 14-- 7 on the power and go play to take a 0 edge A His two goals and two assists helped tha Eagles fly high-scori- ng 3-o-f-4 5-- Chernomaz scored his second of the playoffs by banging in a rebound of Randy Bucyk’s shot at 1:57 and Darryl Olsen made it 0 at 2:26 when rookie Tim Swgeney cut across the slot and fed Olsen who shot from the top of the circles goal 2-- The Eagles then added power-pla- y goals from Martin Simard goal-tend- er Troy Gamble Frank Caprice replaced Gamble at 1 1:07 but Chernomaz worked a perfect with Bucyk on the power play to notch his second goal of the game at 12:51 which boosted Salt Lake into a 0 advantage Milwaukee outshot the Eagles give-and-- go 5-- 17-- 5 in the second period and scored four goals in the period against Salt Lake goalie Wayne Cowley who was replaced at the end of the second period by Steve Guenette The Admirals’ David Bruce scored twice in the second period with Rob Murphy and Todd Hawkins notching the other Milwaukee goals Salt Lake’s Marc Bureau got his second goal of the playoffs between Bruce’s second goal and Hawkins’ tally to keep Salt Lake in front 4 at the second intermission Each team scored a goal in the third period with Milwaukee’s Jay Mazur beating Guenette with a soft wrist shot on the stick side at 15:20 to trim the Eagles lead to 5 6-- 6-- Matteau Stephane who notched a hat trick in Monday’s 3 Salt Lake win got an unasscore at 19:45 sisted empty-nafter the Admirals had pulled Caprice for a sixth skater 5-- et Love motivates Layton’s Cano to win long jump By DENNIS LARSEN StandardExammer SALT LAKE CITY — Love has been known to cure many ills but to Layton High’s Leon Cano it’s a prime motivator Cano who has been sidelined by a cold and then a pulled ligament in his right knee said his new week-ollove helped inspire him to win the long jump in Friday’s opening day of competition in the High Mountain Track and d Field Invitational at Cottonwood High School Cano sailed 22 feet 5' inches on his final jump in the trials and his mark stood up the rest of the day “This is a new personal record for me and it’s because of my new love life I can’t tell you her name but her initials are AC and she goes to Layton" said Cano “She’s gotten me fired up" “As long as it works we’ll let it CORVALLIS Ore — The University of Utah climbed back to the top of the college women’s gymnastics world Friday night by amasing a score of 19490 to edge Alabama and capture the NCAA National Championship for the first time since 1986 "It feels good to be back" said University of Utah Coach Greg Marsden “I really wondered after those falls on the (balance) beam I wasn’t so concerned when we had one fell on each event “In most events the falls came early and the other girls had to hold on and come through They (the Lady Utes) couldn’t be tentative because wc needed big scores" Utah enjoyed a balanced effort as Shelly Schaerrer and Kristen Kenoyer placed second and third respectively in the competition to lead the Lady Utes total was Kenoyer’s 39200 and Schaerrer totaled i 39225 Dee Dee Fester of the University of Alabama won the with a score of 3930 “It’s incredible Every one of us is so excited" said Schaerrer “I just came into this meet wanting to hit my routines I didn’t think the scoring would be real high because they (the judges) like to hold it down at the national meets I came in just trying to do my best" Kenoyer said she was confident in herself and her team’s ability to be successful “I knew I was ready for it" she 1 said “I was confident coming off of regionals We fell on every event so we had a lot of pressure on us It helped me because I do J well under pressure" Coming in second was Alabama f with 194575 followed by Georgia with 193225 Rounding out the top five was UCLA at 19310 and i V Nebraska at 192225 Utah overcame several falls the first of which came when sopho- - j more Missy Marlowe who led off! for the Lady Utes in the first rotation fell twice while attempting landings on the vault and settled for a score of 9175 Fortunately Marlowe’s teammates responded I with a school-recor- d 48975 to set the tone for Utah’s national cham-pionship drive Kristie Pmnick a junior capped the event with a school-recor- d ty- - go" said Layton Coach Van Price with a smirk on bis face “Seriously Leon’s speed down the runway is a lot better and he’s stopped leaning backward" e Friday’s other local winner in the field events was Roy’s Laura Weaver who had her best shot put throw of the outdoor season — Weaver the defending state champion posted a personal best of 39-- 2 indoors in this year’s first-plac- 38-9- Vi 4--A Simplot Games at Idaho State University “This is not the kind of progress I want I would like to be at 40 feet but I need to get my head into things Right now I have the ability to be there" Weaver said Weaver who has yet to be beaten outdoors this season got a challenge from Hillcrest’s Kim Woolsey Woolsey who was second to Weaver in the Standard-ExaminInvitational again fin er behind Weaver ished runner-u- p by just m inches “Today was kind of close and it makes a big difference having somebody there pushing me I might have hit it better today than I should have and I definitely could have hit it better" said Weaver The width of the discus was all that separated Bonneville’s Jantz Afuvai from beating Mountain See TRACK on 2B 1 of 990 ing tally j And is if the drama of the first set were not enough the uneven bars also provided some adversity f for Utah This time it was Pinntpk who fell and like in the first rotation the rest of the squad bounced back in record fashion Utah re-corded a 4905 in the event paced by a 9875 score from Schaerrer Teammate Marlowe added a 9850 on the uneven bars The balance beam Utah’s next-eveyielded many of the same results as earlier including some personal bests and two falls led the Lady Utes with a 980 while Jessica Smith added a personal-be9775 Utah concluded the third event with a narrow 146075 to 145525 lead over d-place Alabama ! Ken--oy- er ’ st secon- Utah concluded the evening with the floor exercise Schaerrer assured the Utes’ seventh national championship by notching a score of 9850 in that event The high scores helped the Utes overcome four falls including a miscued landing by Pinnick on the floor The top eight competitors in each event Friday will return tonight to compete for individual NCAA titles A host of lady Utes will compete for individual honors Celtics take Bulls despite Bird and Johnson being out with injuries Associated Press er Great games in a losing cause are nothing new for Chicago Bulls’ scoring whiz Michael Jordan in Boston Garden Jordan poured in 45 points Friday night but the Boston Celtics 6 withstood the blitz for a victory over the Bulls at Boston On the fourth anniversary of Jordan’s playoff record 63 points e 1 in a a loss the Celtics did almost the same thing With Larry Bird and Dennis Johnson sidelined by injuries the Celtics picked up the slack with Reggie Lewis scoring 28 points and reserve Ed Pinckney a seaso- NBA Michael Jordan 120-11- 135-13- n-high 19 keyed a crucial fourth-quartburst that enabled Cleveland to stop an Orlando rally and clinch double-overtim- Despite his 45 points the Bulls lost to the Celtics Friday “It’s been a tough road from where I began to where I am now Jordan said when asked about the anniversary “I didn't get 63 tonight did I? They’re a better team with Bird but a good team without him" Chicago trailed by 14 points 2 with six minutes remaining then battled back and pulled within one point four times in the last 71 seconds before losing for just the third time in the Bulls' last 14 games Robert Parish added 15 points JimPaxson 11 and rookie Michael Smith 10 more for the Celtics who split four regular-seaso- n games with the Bulls 106-9- Cavaliers 118 Magic 104 At Orlando Fla Mark Price scored 19 points and Craig Ehlo the final Eastern Conference playoff berth Ehlo finished with 19 points The victory was the fifth straight for Geveland which has won 16 of 20 games to overcome n a rash of injuries and beat out Atlanta for the last n spot in the East early-seaso- post-seaso- Mavericks 121 Rockets 120 At Dallas Rolando Blackman scored six consecutive points in the final two minutes and James Donaldson added two clinching free throws with 13 seconds left as the Mavericks dealt a serious blow to Houston’s playoff hopes Houston and Seattle started the night tied for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference The Rockets must finish at least in a tie with the Sonics if they are to make the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season The Rockets hold the tiebreaker edge Derek Harper scored 26 points to lead the Mavericks Sleepy Floyd paced the Rockets with 35 Hawks 126 Knicks 112 At New York Dominique Wilkins scored 14 of his 32 points in the third quarter as Atlanta 4 shook off elimination from the NBA playoff race with a victory The Hawks’ last chance for a postseason berth ended when Geveland beat Orlando about an hour before their game ended The victory by Atlanta left the Hawks a game behind the eighth-plac- e Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference standings with a game remaining If the two teams finish in a tie Cleve-- 1 land would get the final playoff spot because it beat Atlanta their season series Patrick Ewing led New York' with 24 points to set a new franchise scoring record with 2324 points for the season Sea NBA on 2B |