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Show ... jMONDAY, FEBRUARY S, 2001 'Birds stay atop Mid-Con standings did a great job on us defensively today. They took us out Dan Beus scored 22 points combined with 11 rebounds to record his thfrd straight double-double and lead of our rhythm and didn't allow us to do the things we like to do . We also missed John [Wheeler), Southern Utah to a 70-57 win at but Jeff [Dorenbosch] and B.J. Chicago State Saturday afternoon. Fred House, who played just five [Chandler] did a good job for us in minutes of the first half because of the middle . foul trouble, finished with 17 points, "I was also encouraged by the fact 16 of them after halftime, while Justin we were able to win the game while Sant scored 13 points for the Jeff [Monaco] wasn't on his best Thunderbirds._The win moved SUU game," Evans added. "Jeff couldn't ·to 18-4, 9-2 in Mid-Continent get his shot to fall today but I've got Conference play while CSU dropped to give Chicago State's players and to 3-18, 0-10 in league play. staff a lot of credit for that." Although the Thunderbirds ended Monaco finished with just slx points up winning by 13, they didn't put the on 2-of-11 shooting, his lowest point game away until the final three output of the season. Coming into the minutes when they outscored the game Monaco had scored in double Cougars 13-4. Chris Wallin hit a figures in 10 straight games. layup to stake SUU to a 59-53 With Wheeler sidelined with a leg advantage with 2:39 to go, then after injury and Chris Wallin hampered by an offensive foul on CSU 's Terrence foul trouble the Thunderbirds went West House hit a 3-pointer for a 62with a small lineup much of the 53 edge . Sant followed that with game. The result was a season-low another 3-pointer, then after Tpny seve·n turnovers while the 'Birds Jones hit one of two free throws ' - - ---'--~~~-=--=-"'"-------' ~ combined for 17 assists. The 'Birds also defeated Western House got loose on a breakaway for Dan Beus had his third straight doublellhnois Thursday night 80-70 to give a thunderous dunk·to give the T-Birds double to help SUU defeat CSU 70-57. a 67-55 advantage and virtually sew SUU its first sweep of a two-game up the outcome. league road series since the T-Birds joined the Mid-Con in 'This game was a lot closer than the final score might 1997-98. SUU will begin another two-game road trip Feb. make you believe ," SUU Coach Bill Evans. "Chicago State 8 against conference foe Valparaiso. Ladies strugg_ l e against Chic~go St. Southern Utah's women's basketball team suffered through its worst shooting performance of the season and committed 28 turnovers as the Thunderbirds fell at Chicago State, 66-57 , Saturday afternoon in Chicago, Ill. The loss is SUU's first to CSU since joining the MidContinent Conference in the 1997-98 season . In a foul-plagued first half, both teams see-sawed through four lead changes and three ties before CSU took a 28-26 lead at intermission. The Thunderbirds went to the free throw line 22 times in the opening stanza , but converted on only 15 atte,:npts. The Cougars opened the SEtcond half with a 14-7 spurt to lead by nine at 42.-33 with 14:43 remaining. Si.JU stormed back to pull to within one at 51-50 with four and a half minutes left, but Carrie Klimson halted the T-Bird rally with back-to-back three- pointers to help seal the win for the Cougars. Junior guard Megan Woolston led all scorers with 17 points, including 11-of-12 from the free throw line. However, Woolston finished the game 3-of-11 from the field, including O-of-5 from beyond the arc. Sophomore Lindsey Hille was the only other T-Bird in double figures with 10 points. Center Siobhan Dantzler ted the Cougars with 13 points. CSU shot 41 .2 percent from the field , while holding SUU to 30.2 percent ( 13-of-43). The Cougar defense also recorded 15 steals, including six by the Mid-Con's steals leader Krisey Sanders. SUU won the battle of the boards, 38-37 . SUU will travel to Macomb to face Western Illinois tonight at 7 p.m. Softball knocks off Gymnasts lose meetin_g with USU 16th ranked OSU SUU's softball team opened the season at the Inaugural Canyon Park Thunderbird Classic Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in St. George . The 'Birds won two of four games that included a win over Brigham Young 7-5. However, the biggest win for the Thunderbirds came on day two of the three-day event, when the 'Bird~ upset Oregon State behind the four-hit shut-out performance of junior pitcher Mandy Flint. The 'Birds provided the lone run of the contest when OSU's catcher Traci Feldt misplayed a throw from centerfield, allowing SUU's Lacee LePrey to cross the plate. The Beavers attempted to come back in the seventh inning on a sacrifice bunt to advance a baserunner to second base, but Flint forced a pop-up and struck out Oregon State's last batter to clinch the upset victory. Flint improved to 2-0 with the win. Other highlights included solid hitting performances by Emily Cederholm , who batted an impresive .500 on 4-of-6 from the plate. "It was a surprising day," SUU Coach Laurel Simmons said. "We came out with nothing to lose and surprised the 16th-ranked team in the nation." The next game for SUU will be Feb. 15 in St. George against Portland State University. · PAGE 13 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS SUU scored a season-high 194.025 , but it wasn't quite enough to overcome Utah State as the Aggies edged the Thunderbirds with a 194.350 score. Erica Burk notched season-highs of 9.825 on both bars and beam to help lead the Thunderbirds, while Heather Slack posted a 38.75 and Suzi Clar.k a 38 .7?5 to finish second ~nd third in the all-around. USU's Tina Ellis won the all-around with a 39 .025 . As a team the Thunderbirds posted season-bests on three of the four events, scoring a 48.30 on vaul\, a 48 .325 on bars and a 48.725 on floor, while the 48.675 was shy of the 48.75 the team posted at UCLA but still ranked among the top-10 beam scores in school history, coming in s1xth at SUU all-time. Individually, the Thunderbirds bettered three careerhighs and notched nine more season-highs. Burk's 9.825 on beam was a personal-best while her score on bars was a season-high. Slack hit a career-best vault (9.775) and a season-high on beam (9.825) while Harmony Greene notched a career-best 9.75 on bars. Jayme Morgan tied her season-bests on vault (9.625) and beam (9.675), despite taking a standard deduction on beam and Clark had her season-best bars performance (9.675). Cayce Overstreet had season-bests on vault (9.60) and floor (9.80) and tied her season-best performance on bars (9.675) and Sarah Geisler had a season-best effort on vault (9. 70). OUT OF BOUNDS •tit. ,.,/, • . SPORTS COMMENTARY BY JOHNNY WRIGHT Reallocate this..... . Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a group of friends concerning the Utah Su mmer Games. The content of that discussion caused me to look at the Summer Games more closely than I did Britney Spears' outfit at last week's Super Bowl Halftime Show. Every summer, athletes young and old compete in track and field, basketball , baseball , tennis, and other mainstream sports. They also can compete in equestrian , fencing , sculling , table tenn is, and power tumbling . T.here are more categories of events than recent Presidential pardons . There are 54 different sections of competition for bowling, 39 for archery, 76 for shooting , and 18 for horseshoes. That's right, horseshoes. You might as well throw in shuffleboard and darts if you're going to have horseshoes. The po in t of all this is the Summer Games doesn't make sense anymore, it' s too big. The result, the Games lose money, a huge amount of money. I know the figure, it's staggering , it could cover the debt of a few Balkan countries. Let's just . say there's about six digits involved. The money is lost, in my view, because there are too many events, and not enough competitors. Summer Games would probably argue this , but allow me to share two examples. · A few years back , a mother called a loca l newspaper to complain that her son was not given reco.gnition for winning five gold medals in Tae Kwon Do. Th inking maybe the paper could have overlooked th is im pressiv e feat , the reporter checked into the situation . The young man did win five go ld medals , beat in g himself. He was unopposed in all events. A friend of mine , who is an accomplished golfer, recently decided to compete in the 18 to 34-yearold golf tournament. He competed aga inst two other people. That means that I could enter this tourney, shoot my usual 306 , and still walk away with the bronze . The Games ins i sts that all non-profit organizations lose money . They say it shouldn 't matter, considering the Games helps SUU in the long run, working as a recruiting tool. I spoke to several SUU coaches, none of whom could tell me that Summer Games was a direct factor in recruiting students. There is also the problem concerning fundraising for athletics. A recurrent theme kept popping up when I spoke w ith people in the Athletic Department . They hear every year from local businesses "I donated to athletics already , I donated to Summer Games .· They are not connected al all . The way 1 see it, The Games costs athletics donations. In an attempt to try to draw more than the horseshoe crowd, the Games are now -st~fting to offer trendy X-Games style events. That should really help the school considering SUU's in-line skating team is on the rise. Hopefully our HackySack team will give Valpo a run for their money for the conference championship soon. I' m not saying Summer Games shou ld be abolished , I ani saying that SUU shou ld not continue to support it. Especially ~hen m~mey is needed so desperately in the athletic department. If loca l bus ·n esses that donated to Summer Games directed some of that money to SUU athletics , we wouldn 't have to worry about not having a baseball team next year. . Maybe I'll come back this summer and compete in that three-man golf tournament , I'm guaranteeing a medal. 1• |