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Show 'Birds win final game Of the season I SU 's defense then held Eastern Washington to a punt situation at the 38-yard line. Defensive back Clint Brown returned the punt 65 yards for a TD, marking the first punt since 1992 that the 'Birds have returned BYU and the University of Utah ended rivalry week for a touchdown . with a Cougar victory of 26-24, but that The 'Birds then recovered an Eagles wasn 't the only football game that was fumble on the SU eight-yard line. played Saturday. Cannon side stepped two Eagles, broke SU 's 'Birds ended the 1998 football a tackle, and sprinted his way across the season on a positive note while bidding field up to Eastern Washington's 14-yard farewell to several seniors. "We are ljnc. With 33 seconds left in the half, losing some real quality players after this Cannon plowed his way in for a TD, season. We' re going to miss them , and I ending the half with SU in the control hope we can find some people that can 26-14. replace them," said SU Head Coach Ray A field goal b y kicker Jerry Holstrom Gregory. and a 14-yard dash to the end zone hy In addition co winning their final game running hack Koby Leon put the ' Birds of the year against the Eastern comfortably in ahead during the third Washington Eagles 43-21 , the ' Birds quarter. Then an explosive 71 -yard enjoyed an afternoon of record setting sprint hy MacKenzie put the Eagles hack rushing, gaining 545 yards on the in the game, ending the quarter 36-21. ground , a new single game record for The 'Birds' defense held the Eagles SU. The former record was set in 1980 during th.c fourth quarter, and SU added when the 'Birds ran up 500 yards against a final touch to its victory with a two· Mesa State. yard push to the end zone by Madsen. Quarterback Matt Cannon rushed for "This was a really good note to end 205 yards, moving him into second ~the season on," said Madsen , who place for most yards rushed in a season ~ finished 11 yards shy of having a 1,000 by a SU player. The only 'Bird ahead of gyard rushing season. "It was kind of a Cannon is Zed Robinson , who had ~disappointing season for us because we 1,828 yards during the 1991 season. -=:::,.1-~!5didn't win as many as we would have Cannon 's season total for rushing yards ~ liked, but that's something we can build is 1,553. ~on next year." "Cannon has pretty much guaranteed 1 . -_ _.....:;..._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _......_._..:..:.....;;:.:...~!!:. "This was an awesome win for us. that he will finish the season as the They hav~ beaten a lot of teams this NCAA record holder [for rushing yards Senior Clay Marshall, playing in his final game as a 'Bird, sacks Eastern Washington quarterback Scott Mitchell. SU finished its football season by season, " said Gregory. "The wind helped gained by a quarterback]," said Neil us out a lot. You can 't play in November Gardner, director of sports information defeating Eastern Washington 43-21 around here if you can't run the ball. " for SU. "But it still depends on what · SU ends the season with a 5-6 record . The ' Birds had end of Lhc fi rst quarter. (Western Kentucky's] Willie Taggart docs." Taggart hopes of frnishing over .500 for the season, hut were The next scoring play came when running back currently has 1,254 yards with one game to play. beaten by UC Davis 25-35 during a showdown on Terry Rose snatched a 20-yard pass from Cannon in "Cannon's just amazing to watch . He's had a great Nov. 14. Lhe end zone. Later Eastern Washington 's Joe Levens year," said Gregory. "We have some real talent here, and we have a good The game started with an 80-yard drive by the Eagles grnbbed a t 0-yard pass from quarterback Griffin chance in the future if we build on what we have Garske for a touchdown with 2:27 to go in the half. to the end zone, where running hack Mike Mackenzie By D.W. ANDERSON JOURNAL SPORTS EDITOR dove in from one yard out. The 'Birds answered the Eagle drive with a seven-play drive of their own, which culminated with fullback Rod Madsen muscling his way in for two yards to tic the game at seven at the Hoopsters start \Ninning streak The SU men's basketball team had a thriller of a game Thursday night in Missoula, Mont. The Montana Grizzlies had formidable defense which held the ' Birds to 43 percent shooting from the floor. SU won the game in part due to free throws 74-70 . "Tarvish (Felton] showed a lot of cour·agc and character in the last few minutes of the game," SU Coach Bill Evans said. SU hit all eight of its second half free throws, Felton hit six of them the final stretch, giving SU the last-minute advantage it needed to win. "This was really a team effort," said Evans. "We were fortunate to win , but our guys deserve a lot of credit." Another player that contributed to SU's victory was freshman Nie Fitzgerald, who scored eight points for the 'Birds after Kenyatta Clyde and Nate Pugmire ran into foul trouble. "Nie really stepped up when it counted. I was really proud o( him; that w.as a lot of pressure for such a young player, n Evans said. "I told these guys at the beginning of the year, plays don't make players, p layers make plays." Scoring wanned up slowly for both teams. The game was almost two minutes old before SU's Clyde made the first basket of the game. The ' Birds and Grizzlies fought for the lead throughout the entire first half, with neither team gaining more than a six-point advantage. The second half started with the 'Birds holding slim lead of 35·32. They continued to lead until shortly after Pugmire fouled out with 13:02 left in the game. The Grizzlies nailed 15 of 19 from the free throw line during the second half which helped them catch up to the 'Birds and gain a one-point advantage with 3:28 left in the game. "They took the lead with about five minutes to go, so we had to increase pressure in the zone," said Evans. "It proved to be effective." The 'Birds passed the Grizzlies with 2:31 left in the game, and continued to lead until the end. "You win games with defensive effort," said Evans. "We held them to 37 percent from the floor. If you can keep people shooting 37 percent from the floor, you' re going to win games." This week the 'Birds arc in Anchorage Alaska for the Great Alaska Shootout. "This is one of the premier NCAA basketball tournaments, " said Evans. The Great Alaska Shootout starts Wednesday and continues through Saturday with eight teams playing for the title. The ' Birds will open up with a matchup against the Cincinnati Bearcats. Other teams that SU may face during the Shootout include Duke, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Fresno State, St. Mary's, and Alaska-Anchorage. Cincinnati has been a continual top-10 team in NCAA basketball, and in the 1990s has notched a record of 220·76. They have never played against SU and like the 'Birds, the Bcarcats will be making their first appearance in the Great Alaska Shootout. ' I. 'Btrd]eff Monaco drives his way to the paint. 1he 'Birds won a matchup against Montana 1hursday night 74-70. 1hts week they head up north to the Great Alaska Shootout. |