Show Zto5alt fait Zribunt SATURDAY MARCH 6 SPO i NHL D4 'p If's 0 College Basketball 9 D5 NBA D3 Innvsitribtwa D6 NBA I lio M Stow 1 I 17:t I 4: 0 13(ejecteE TbT 2004 -- 1 : 1: i''' 2 1 Another key game: Contest with UNLV has NCAA ramifications for the league Between porous defense late misses and miscues Jazz can't pull it out BY PHIL MILLER LAS VEGAS — The game of the year part eight awaits Brigham Young today Since ending January with a conference record the Cougars have taken a must-wiapproach into each game The mentality has worked every time as BYU brings a seven-gam- e winning streak into the regular-seasofinale against 4 Sali Lake Tribune The formula has been so trusty so familiar maybe the Delta Center crowd expected it to work every time Maybe the Jan did too The Pac- not so ers d 1— much the For fifth straight Utah game Pacers 96 entered thefourth quarJazz 88 ter trailing hit the turbo- UP NEXT y charge ton and Utah at Portland roared into a 8 pm lead Indiana missed its cue however and instead of folding fought back with an onslaught s from the finally snapping the Jazz's winning streak with a victory Jermaine O'Neal scored 30 points 10 in the fourth quarter and Ron Artest added 17 six in the final four minutes The Jazz? They responded to a tie game by piling up three turnovers and six missed shots in the final three minutes And that wasn't even the worst of their problems "We just let them walk in the paint and turn around and shoot" coach Jerry Sloan complained of the Jazz's fourth-quarte- r defense particularly on Artest "When they scored as easily as they did you don't give yourself much of a 2-- 4 ' '4 the routine I - -- z 1 -! l 4' - ' y l - - ''i ''V ' 13 ol k ' ‘oe i o'''''''' 0 44 '4 7 4e- 4: ' --- 4 -- I- ' ' '?''-- : 3 ' See COUGARS e1l 0 41" U needs what it once scorned ) toe i 44k- k : ' 114"'k ‘ - t a" I 4 I' - ' - tl 11 I ft 1 ‘ ' Ililt i '7 '' ' i i 111:o Illy SIEVE LUIINI TheSali Laker:71mm ‘ ''' ' 17'11' :1- 1 - i k fl1 That the Jazz had any chance at all was remarkable enough Indiana scored 35 points in the first quarter 12 of them on free throws the worst start for Utah's defense all season It wasn't much better offensively considering the Jazz's with problems layups Utah missed eight layups in the first half alone "I've never seen a team have so much trouble with easy shots as this one does" said Sloan "We work hard get good I don't know shots and then cl r 'Res no longer can show contempt for the league tourney as it may be their only shot at the NCAAs Na more disdain: f '4 Ili ir11 chance" i -- c-- SAN DIEGO — During the Rick MRjerus Era Utah detested its conference postseason tournament Merus considered the annual rite a waste of time — something that could compromise the accomplishments of a team which excelled during the long arduous regular season But guess what? Majerus is no longer the coach at Utah having resigned on Jan 28 citing health weight and stress issues Utah at Former assistant Kerry San Diego Rupp is the Utes' acting head Time: 4:05 pm coach and he is already lookTV: KJZZ to forward next week's ing Mountain West Conference Radio: 700 tournament at the Pepsi Cen- - Records: Utah 26-ter in Denver San Diego State "Our thing now" he said "is to finish strong and be at our best for the tournament" Perhaps Rupp knows the Utes might need to win the tournament to gain the conference's automatic bid and reach the NCAA tournament for the ninth time in 10 years Utah closes an regular season today at San Diego State The Utes (20-need a victory - 1 i ( i t ' t p what" it' il ' i 1-- See JAll D6 KALL-A- If - ) St' k s 72-6- 6 1)5 4 -- 4 --- " IA KR-A- 19-- t'''' 1 ' - UM - ) : 1 96-8- 3 e" )) '' I 44 "The last seven games have been the biggest games of the season" said forward Mark BYU at Bigelow "This game is no dif-ferent We're still right up lime:130 pm MST TV: Ch 4 against the wall" At 19-- and with a strong 1160 Radio: power rating BYU could lose Records: BM to the Rebels and still have a MIN good shot at making the NCAA Tournament A win almost assul edly would make next week's Mountain West tournament irrelevant for BYU's NCAA aspirations If the Cougars get a win today and pick up at least two games in Denver they could receive a favorable 1- ' e The Pacers' lead reached 15 midway through in the third quarter and even a Jazz surge left them behind entering the fourth Indiana wasn't fooled "We know that Utah is a great second-hal- f team" said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle "They kept coming at us" They did and the Jazz's fast break fueled by rookies Raul Lopez and Mo Williams finally overtook Indiana on an Andrei Kirilenko A n UNLIT but-Toda- four-gam- BY PATRICK KINAIIAN Th1i!i bike Tribune 4 4 t 8 4 4 r I : 1 l' ' " : 1 I :' 4 1 ' I 1 ' 8-- ' 41 f 4 i) ‘ 0 10'?4 1 ' ' ' ' ‘ IsAAc !WAKEN' lite Salt bike ihbune The Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal right who scored 30 points in the game Including 10 in the final quarter gets off a shot over the outstretched arm of Jazz center Greg Ostertag 8 8-- See VIES D5 BAFFLING ON LIFE'S COURT Graves' disease MS leaves Bill's Oswald with uncertainsfitture ' Into her consciousness Oswald 22 once one of the top junior tennis players in Utah and the Intermountain Section of the United States Tennis Association and now a senior at BYU is BY GORDON MONSON lite Salt Lake Tribune ostly Lu Oswald looks ahead It's not a particularly comforting endeavor reminded of what's real every day given the uncertainty that lingers around every She takes a pill to regulate her body's organs as a turning bend behind every shooting tingle at the root means of battling Graves' disease She has the scars on of every aching pain her shoulder from rotator-cuf- f surgery She wore a For her the ftiture is a blind bargain brace on her neck for two months after discovAnd maybe a raw deal ered she had two inter But it's the former not MONSON'S PEOPLE locking vertebrae She the latter that troubles takes a weekly self her the most She hates the BTU tennis play er 111 OsTcydd injected dose of Avonex randomthe serendipity an aggressive medication ness of what's to come that renders weak slow the effects of her and to sick in whatever it might be She loathes it part because she multiple sclerosis with which she was diagnosed less can neither control it nor trust it than a year ago and she feels the pains of two herniated Comfort comes more quickly when she looks back disks in her back wrenched during the USTAITA naThat's what she found herself doing the other day tional indoor team championships last month while she was sitting next to a row of tennis courts "The past few weeks we've Just looked at each other at warm teammates Brigham Young up watching her and laughed" says Oswald's mother Leslie "What else for practice can you do? One of Lu's Former teammates Eline ' "I remembered back to the days when I could go out Chiew used to tell her back when she was a freshman there without my shoulder without my back without that in tennis you have to love the battle That's what the other stuff and Just play" Oswald says "It's hard Lu's done in her life" because I realized that I'd never be the person I was The youngest of six children born to Leslie and Mcnever be able to do what I did Now I have to be realistic about who I am and what I can accomplish" Kinley Oswald she was surrounded by sports-mindeSee OSWALD 1)7 The realities of the present have crammed that much ' - I ': 7 Imo I A'' P e ' c I o 1 kt I tl ' ' Ins 1 ' : - -i -- ' -- "Axsell 40' ' d 1 1? ' 4 cr ' v 4e I '' ' 1 - r'1 l''- - 7 7-! TeN 0 j '' 0- - t ' I A --- - A i I - 111cvdteilElealbilvg411 PAUL FRAUGIITIPOWSidi Mkt Minim Brigham Young's Lu Oswald only can watch as the rest of her teammates practice on the court She Is recovering from herniated disks and Is battling Graves' diesease and MS tennis I i ' agELAA aft0 i 4 |