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Show !MONDAY, JANUARY ll., l.001 'Birds take two on home floor BY JASON ERICKSON JOURNAL SPORTS EDITOR Southern Utah hit 10-of-16 free throws with a little over three minutes remaining in the game to seal the victory, and improve to 5-2 in Mid-Contintent Conference play. Southern Utah Universitys men's Saturday night SUU 's Monaco basketball continues to dominate the scored 23 points as he knocked Mid-Continent Conference with wins down seven three-polnters to·give over Valparaiso , 70-66 Friday night, the 'Birds the win . House added 18 and IUPUI, 86-74 Saturday night at to the Thunderbird effort. the Centrum. "I thought we executed well A matchup of last year's Mid-Con tonight," SUU coach Bill Evans said. championship game, SUU ~1was pleased with the way our (6-2 , 14-4) gave Valparaiso (2-2, 11team came out ready to play." 6) all it could handle, connecting on SUU opened the game with a 22-of-40 from the floor for 55 percent. 17 -4 run connecting on four threeSUU's Jeff Monaco was up to old pointers. tricks, connecting on· 7-of-14 field The Jaguars would answer back goals, for a team high 23 points. Fred with a 16-6 run to end the first half House added 17 points in the with the 'Birds leading 45-30. Thunderbird effort. The Jaguars came out tough in SUU forced the Crusaders to turn the second half to cut the lead to the ball over 22 times. However, .;I.just 11 with under five minutes left in more important, Valparaiso gave the ~the game. 'Birds the ball back five times in the g "This is a game of runs and we final ·two minutes of play to help SUU mwere fortunate enough tonight to secure the win. ~ answer their runs tonight," Evans With the score notched at 61 with ~said. just over three minutes remaining, ffi SUU connected on 31-of-50 field the 'Birds managed to stand their goals for an impressive 62 percent. SUU's Fred House drives around a ground, causing the Crusaders to The 'Birds were 68 percent from the Valparaiso defender. House scored 17 commit offensive fouls. travel and three point line. points in the 'Birds 70-67 win. fling the ball out of bounds. With the win , SUU improves to 6,2 The Crusaders led for most of the · in conference play and 11-4 overall. . first half connecting on 7 -of-11 three-pointers for an SUU moved into a three-way tie at the top of the loop with impressive 63 percent. With just over five minutes left In Youngstown State, who defeated Chicago State in double the half, the 'Birds went on an 8-1 run and end the first overtime 71-68 Saturday night, and Oakland . who was a half, leading 36-32 . winner over Western Illinois Saturday night 83-74. L-~~~~~~~~~~~~""""''-' Ladies take care of Mid-Con business •BY LYLE GOULDING JOURNAL STAFF WRITER The SUU women 's basketball team lost 83-75 to IUPUI Saturday night in the Centrum Arena and the loss dropped the Thunderb,rds ' record to 9-9 on the season The loss is only the second one at home for the Thunderbirds this season. The team 's conference record dropped to 4-3. The game was close throughout the first half, neither team led by more than five points . With 6:25 to go in the first half the 'Birds went ahead 30-25 on a jumper by Caroline Heaton. IUPUI then went on a 10-0 run to go ahead 35-30 , with 2:47 left in the half. The score at halftime had IUPUI up 40-36. . After halftime SUU was able to cut into IUPUl's lead as the Thunderbirds went ahead 48-47 with 13:28 to go in the game. That was the last time the 'Birds had the lead . IUPUI led by 10, 69-59 with five minutes left. SUU was able 10 make one final run at the Jaguars, cutting the lead to four with 1 :30 left in the game. Free throw shooting b1 IUPUI was too much for the Thunderbirds down the stretch . IUPUI was a perfect 29of-29 from charity stripe , including 8-of-8 in the final minute of the game SUU shot 67 percent from the freethrow line making 20 out of 30 attempts. The Thunderbirds shot only 3-of-13 from beh ind the three-point line, while IUPUJ made eight of the team 's 13 three point attempts. Kelli Ely of IUPUI led all scorers with 22 points, including four three pointers. Angie Watt scored 16 and Amy Frey added 12 for the Jaguars. Sarah Mortensen led the Thunderbirds 1n scoring with 21 Seventeen of her 21 came m the second half, not to mention her three rebounds and four blocked shots . Heaton came into the game after Mortensen got into foul trouble . Heaton scored 10 points in the game. ' Caroline did a great job backing her (Mortensen) up ," said coach Joe Hillock. Sally Johnson was the only other player who scored In double figures for the Thunderbirds with 12 points. The Thunderbirds stole the ball from the Jaguars eight times and IUPUI ended the game with 17 turnovers. SUU protected the ball well , turning it over only 11 times . SUU lacked the intensity needed to win a conference game like this, said Hillock. "Number one , I don't think we came here ready to play tonight ," he said . SUU had won six of its last eight games before playing against IUPUI. The Thl:Jnderbirds will host Valparaiso tonight at 7:35 in the Centrum . "We better be ready to play ," said Hillock. "Valparaiso is no easy task.· Bullock, Moore break school marks Seniors Curtis Moore and Anna Bullock each broke school records at the Idaho State/Snake River Track and 1-ield Invitational Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho. It was the first meet of the season for the Thunderbirds. Moore took second in the 5,000-meters with an NCAA r;,rovisional qualifying time of 14:16.48 (altitude adjusted) , ~esting the mark set by former T-Bird Jody Benson by early a second and a half (0:01 .34) . Bullock broke her chool mark in the weight throw with a toss of 52-7 . 2000 Newcomer of the Year Kassandra Harrell also had a good showing , placing seventh in the shot put (42-225) and recorded a personal-best 42-10.75 (third all-time at SUU) in the weight throw. Sophomore Marques Rose PA~E 13 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS recorded the third-fastest 60-m mark in SUU history with a time of 7.19. In the women's 60-m , senior Kristen Connell matched Rose with the third-fastest time of 8.39. SUU's men were ranked number one in the preseason Mid-Con coaches poll. The women were tied for the. number-one ranking with UMKC . Bullock was also named the Mid-Continent Conference's women's athlete of the week for her performance at the Idaho State/Snake River Invitational in Pocatello,. Idaho. She is the defending Mid-Con indoor champion In the event. The 'Birds' next competition will come at the Northern Arizona Invitational Jan . 27. OUT OF BOUNDS SPORTS COMMENTARY BY JOHNNY WRIGHT Xtreme gymnastics Being a li fe-long sports fan I have attended countless athletic events Obviously . the major sports : football , basketba ll , baseba ll , go lf tournaments , hockey games and even tenn is matches. Last week I attended a new event , my fir st gymnastics meet. I have seen this on television and of course I watch the Olympics rehgrously, and know some of the basic s Mary Lou Retton ·s performance in Los Angeles in 1984. Kern Strug competing on a broken ankle to lead the USA to gold in Atlanta and a few names of athletes and coaches over the years. Other than that, I honestly didn 't know much . I would like to share what I learned and even offer some suggestions on how to make a good sport even better. Here's what I know: "Stick the landing ," ,s the phrase to know . You hear that all the time during the meet. "Did she stick the land ing?" "Ooh , she stuck that landing: It seems to me a routine largely depends on how well you execute the dismount. It is especially good if you stick It. Stick, stick, stick . A very important word to remember. You can actually sound somewhat intelligent if you use that phrase in a sentence during the meet Hugs are good. Apparently, gymnasts need hugs after every thing they do II doesn't seem to matter 1f your performance 1s a success or failure , you get a hug. A 9.8 score on the beam , get a hug. Fall on your head twice and receive a 5.4, same hug. This isn 't a normal hug mmd you . The athletes stand about two feet apart. lean towards one another, wraps one arm around the other gymnast , touch cheeks, and whisper, "good Job." It is the same hug most everywhere , except when watching the Russians or Rumanians, who practically gwe one another trench kisses after each event. Maybe gymnasts should take a tip from footba ll , basketball , and baseball Try slappin' the buttocks That always seems to make an athlete feel better It JUSt brightens your day when a teammate smacks your rear end 1n encouragement That brings me to my suggestions on how to make gymnastics more exciting for the casual spectator. I have .two ideas that would really liven things up. First , I believe the athletes should be able to complain to the judges . There are times you see a competitor grimace as if someone was amputating a limb when they see a score they disagree with In this case , the gymnast should run over to the judges and go Dennis Rodman on them . "Are you kidding me? That is the worst score I've ever seen ! 9.4? That rs complete horse .. X You get the idea . Maybe the judg e agrees , maybe not. Jf the judge becames really angry he or she could assess a technical foul to the athlete, a technical could result in a 10th of a point deduction . Second , how about a little trash talk between competitors. I would love to see an SUU gymnast finish a great routine, walk over to the other team , find whoever follows her, and say, "You're mine. I own you . You couldn't dis.mount a horse '" Most girls would fold like a lawn chair after that Plus , I guarantee the crowd woi,ld get Involved after that display of gamesmanship. In all seriousness, go out and support SUU gymnastics this year. You won 't be disappointed. watching 1he skill and grace of these athletes, even if my ideas never make it into competition. If they do make it. and one of our athletes takes a tenth of a deduction for trash talkin', there is no need to worry. She still receives a hug |