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Show The Salt Lake Tribune SPORTS MSCOREBOARD F-3. ME NHL HOCKEY F-5 ml NBABASKETB LL F-6 Mi JAZZ-MAVS PREVIEWF-7 Mi COLLEGE BASKETBALL F-9 FEBRUARY 26, 1999 tes Have ard Time ith UTEP ERBEEWISTATE HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS! DICK ROSETTA Hunter’s Come A Long Way BY PATRICK KINAHAN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUN From 0-8 Start ? supto Thesigns wereominous all week, lead Thursdaynight With the WAC’s Pacific Division clinched Utah began to coast alittle. When game time Hunter High School's basketball team reached the .500 level Thursdayafternoon. The Wolverines also arrived, the Utes were not ready reached the 5-A Final Four. When they surf the archives years from nowin searchofan uplifting what the Utes were looking for, a week before They still had enoughto beat Texas-El Paso 7570 in the Huntsman Center, but theeffort was not the WACbasketball tournament Wedidn't handle our success athletic experience, surely the cur- week,” sor will stop on thefile dated Feb. 25, 1999, from WeberState's Dee Events Center. It wouldn't mean muchto the casual observer — state basketball starts. well this past said Ute forward Alex Jensen. senseof that before the game. “I had a Wethought because we're Utah and they're UTEP, we're going to beat them. Welooked by them. Wefelt we had the WAC wrappedup, so wejust need to show upandwin, which isn't the tournament gamebetween two teamsthat had lost about as many case. It’s never thecase Even with their admittedly mediocre perfor mance, the Utes tied a school record set last sea. son for consecutive wins with 18. With only New Mexicoleft Saturday afternoon, No. 12 Utah is 13-0 in ine ; AC. overall TEP fell a g ame be- gamesas they had wonsincelate November. Of course, these two schools remember last November for another reason — their doubleovertime 5-A football semifinal gamethat Jordan won, 29-28. The Wolverines, who evenedtheir hind NewMexico for secondplace. In Don Haskins’ last conference gameat Utah record at 11-11 in downing Jordan the Miners were solid for the entire 40 minutes. UTEP, which was not invited to join the Moun: tain West Conference, led 47-46with 11:17 left in the game. Utah, on the strength of Jensen’s 10 points. assumed control with a 17-6 run, But the Miners still made it exciting, burying three three-point- 51-48 in overtime Thursday,lost their first eight basketball games. The school’s football team had gone 11-0 before bowing to the Beetdig- gers. Wolverines coach Bernie Graziano was saying over and over Thursday thatit didn't take a rocketscientist to figure out whyhis kids had made See UTAH, PageF-9 a U-turn from darkness into light. HowHunter could win 11 games in 14 tries. How they could regroup to becometheonly team to beatstate tournament favorite Bingham. “Theystayed focused,” said the veteran of seven Hunter campaigns. “We kept playing together.” Still, he was doing everything but pinching himself Thursdayoutside a dressing room where players were whooping and hollering in response to a postgamepeptalk from school Principal Mike Fraser. ** in there,” said Graziano, “ guys in there alw: i said they won't seed teamsat state based on the preseason. Region play will determinethat.” Even though Hunter finished third in Region 2, there was no great an- ticipation for Wolverine success at state. This was a football school. “We had never won a basketball game in a college arena,” reminded Graziano. In December, they never won a gameat home. But they never had David Fiefia in uniform,either. Jordan remem- bers him from football. Everybody does. A two-time Salt Lake Tribune all-state running back. “A born lead er,” says Graziano. Whenhereturned from aninjury one-third through the season, the Wolverine Rick Eyan/The Salt Lake Tribune Bingham’s Tyler Holt tries to save the basketball, but crashes into Tyson Donaldson of Northridge in boys prep playoff action Thursday night at Weber State. Bingham wenton to claim a 54-47 5-A quarterfinal win Miners Advanceto Semis, But Not Without a Fight hoopstock did a heavy up-tick Ron Tupea transformedhis football tight-end rambunctioness into a clearing-house force at forward. Se- BY JAY DREW THESALTLAKETRIBUNE 1@3-A Boys: BearRiverTips Lehi nior Trent Erickson put together what Grazianocalls a “huge year" at thepoint, and Brandon Moore, the OGDEN — Next time, the Miners are going for the lips, Maybe then ence, kept applying his senior resuscitation whenthe team heartbeat boys basketball tournament, everyoneis still waiting for the Bingham one Wolverinewith varsity experislowed. “Berniedid all the right things, pushed all the right switches," says Fraser who, like most everybody else at Hunter, was immersed in a football funk for a few weeksafter thestate semifinal loss. “There were a lot of growling parents on my phone when wewere 0-8." ‘Theonecertainty about today's matchup with heavily favored Moun- tain Viewis that the Bruins won't be looking past the Wolverines to Saturday’ 's finals, “T they can start to enjoy the dance ‘Twogamesintothes team that went 19-1 in the regular season to explode, The No. 3-ranked Miners ekedout another close oneon Thursday in the quarterfinals, edging Northridge54-47 after trailing in the fourth quarter at the Dee Events Center. “Nobody said the championship count, Hunter wastheonly 5-A Schoolstill around that had been in the “Final Four” of both major BY LYA WODRASKA THESALT LAKE TRIBUNE TAYLORSVILLE — The fifth. ranked Bountiful girls basketball teamovercameaslow start Thursday to beat Fremont 54-45 and earn a sports in the same school year. That tripto the Class 4-A semifinals. ranked Lone years from now The Braves (17-5) play second: Peak(21-1) at 6:30p.m. tonight at Salt Lake Community Col lege. The championship gameis Sat urday at 2 p.m SCORE:LIN NBA Phoenix 94, Vancouver 86 Sacramento 115 Indiana 81, New York 115, Dallas 90, Washington 105 Cleveland 74 Minn. 113 (OT) Denver 81 Philadelphia 98, Chicago 80 Atlanta 93, OPY! Houston 87 ham junior Mike Higgins, with a sigh. Higgins led Binghamwith 19 points, including a basket that proba bly saved the heavily favored Miners. Northridge hadtrailed theentire way before jumping ahead 46-45 when Chet Thomas followed a miss with a layup with 3:25 remaining The Northridge student body, out- numbering Bingham's 4-1, was going bonkers and the momentum was However, set after Binghamranits stack timeout and sprung Hig gins for an 18-foot jumper on the baseline. He swished it, and then made a 16-footer from the free. throw area moments later. Jason Baker capped the runwith ast and layup, and the upset bid was over “Higgins,” said Bingham coach George Sluga, “earnedhisall-state ranking tonight RyanPetersen had 13 points and L.A, Lakers 115, L A. Clippers 100 NCAA Fever, Blister Cougars BY JOE BAIRD THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE See BINGHAM, Page F-4 Wehave a goodshot at them,” said Bountiful senior Hailey MacKay, who ledthe Braves with 21 points and eight rebounds. “If our defenseis up, our offense will run well.” The Knights beat Murray 61-29 to advance. Lone Peak m to stop the6-foot-1 Ma erages 18 points, The The Lobos Catch 10 rebounds for Northridge and the Knights stayed in the gameby beat clearly in the Knights’ favor. 1 3-A Girls: Snow CanyonStruggles F4 will be some kindof history to read, 1 More on Hunter's PlayoffVictoryHM P4 said 6-foot-8 Bing. MacKay Jump-Starts Bountiful to Girls 4-A Semis athlet- ic,” says Graziano. But whenit comestoathleticism, the Wolverines don't have to answer to “who are they?” anymore. Atlast hadto bepretty,’’ Douglas C. PlaaciThe Associated Press Utah's Andre Miller quickly hits the brakes after running into UTEP’s William Smith on Thursday. Utah claimed a 75-70 WACwin. s tall lineup, but they expect Mac ay to be even more that against Murr: of a challenge. MacKaywasthekey to Bountiful’s rally, after the Braves trailed 16-8 MacKayscoredfivestraight points to tie the gam the first half. 21 with 1:12 leftin Teammate Rachelle Dixon then hit two free throws and Bountiful nevertrailed again y ights did Dixon finished with 17 points, nine PROVO — The New Mexico Lobosareserious about getting back to the NCAA basketball tour- nament. Howserious? Just ask the BYU Cougars Exploding for 54 points inthesecondhalf, the No, 21 Lobos hammered the Cougars 85-64 at the Marriott Center Thursday night for their fifth consecutive victory and 22nd win of the season. Thedestruction was tot Wewere overwhelmed and overmatched. said BYU Coach Steve Cleveland ‘The Cougars were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Lobos hit the skids at midseason, dropping four of five, including games to Utah and Hawaii, Suddenly, stretch of NCAA tourney appearances See BYU, Page F-9 See BOUNTIFUL, PageF-4 A quicklookatkeyfinal results in the world of sports N.M. State 55, Utah State 52 Weber State 95, CS-Northridge 78 Big 5 Men WAC Men Utah 75, UTEP 70 New Mexico 65, BYU 64 UNLV64, Colorado St. 61 no St. 95, San Diego St. F Wyoming 93, Air F TCU 63, Tulsa 76, Rice 62 64 Cincinnati 64, South Florida 53 SMU 77 San Jose St. at Hawail, late Big 5 Women Utah 54, UTEP 44 Top 10 Men New Mexico 68, BYU 60 Stanford 87, Arizona State 77 (OT) California 89. Arizona 76 CS-Northridge 60, Weber State 47 their three NHL Hockey New Jersey 3, Ottawa 3, Boston 3 Montreal 1 Toronto 4, N.Y. Islanders | Pittsburgh 3, Colorado 2 |
