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Show WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2001 THE Men, from page Dixie 1 1 Rebels must win the automatic bid by winning the SWAC tournament. In NJCAA basketball, only the conference tournament champions advance to the national tournament If the Rebels are to earn their ticket to Kansas, they will have to play better than they did against the Bruins and Wolverines, specifically Dixie must overcome its struggles from the free throw line and avoid long scoring droughts "We played just good enough to win," said Banks, "but we didn't play as well as we did earlier in the season " Dixie State 56, Salt Lake 55 When the lights went out in the Bums Arena at the start of the second half, Dixies offense must have went with it During halftime, the lights on the north end of the arena, where D'xie would shoot in the second half, went out The Rebels decided to play anyway But their offense in the half was just as dim as the lighting Although the lights eventually came back on, the Dixie offense never did The Rebels managed just 21 points in the half, scored just one field goal m the final 5 54, and made just one of seven free throw the down stretch, including three attempts consecutive misses on the front end of Dixies poor free throw shooting mav have caught up with them and caused the Rebels to drop what was supposed to be an easy win at home against the struggling Bruins, if Eddie Shelby hadnt stepped in front of a Wolverine pass with 16 seconds left The steal led to an A1 Williams free throw, which increased the Rebel lead to three, but more importantly, it proved to be the decisive point in the contest Salt Lake would score a basket with 3 6 seconds left and managed to foul Gary Colbert with 2.5 seconds left Colbert missed both free throws, but the Bruins couldnt advance the ball past half court The Rebels appeared to have the game wrapped up 6 with 8 18 left in the contest, but Salt Lake quickly responded with a 14-run that closed Dixies lead to three. Williams would hit the Rebels final field goal with 2 03 left to put Dixie ahead with 42 secEric Boyces onds left cut the Rebel lead to two, and came in the midst of a series of trips in which Jaime Lloreda missed three front end shots of a After his final miss, Salt Lake had a chance to tie, but thats when Shelby found himself in the middle of Bruin communication that set up Dixies game winning free throw The game, however, should not have been close Dixies trademark weakness, free throw shooting, showed up, but more importantly, the Rebels routinely ignored advice from Dixie State coach Jeff Kidder Almost unavoidably, each piece of advice they ignored led to mistakes that kept the Bruins in the contest 50-3- 3 55-5- 0 State 71, Utah Valley SUN 68 The final minute of the game belonged to Jaime Lloreda. Lloreda rejected three shots and hit two crucial free throws in that last minute, as Dixie evaded a persistent Wolverine squad SWAC) Lloredas minute of glory started when he brought to an end a minute of uninterrupted Wolverine possession UVSC, trailing with 2 47 left in the game, had a bizarre trip dow'n the court, in which they recorded five offensive rebounds but still couldnt score Lloreda finally hauled in a missed Wolverine shot to end UVSCs possession After Dixie had an unsuccessful turn on offense, Lloreda again surfaced, returning a Wolverine attempt, this time, however, Dixie picked up the ball After a free throw by Banks put the Rebels up 67 65, Lloreda again sent UVSCs attempt northward On the subsequent possession, A1 Williams shot failed, and Dominique Townes rebounded and was fouled But Townes, as was typical of the Rebels night, missed both free throws, however, Lloreda rebounded the second miss and was fouled Lloreda, who up to that point was from the line, managed to hit both free throws, giving Dixie a 4 point edge The only thing that was going through 1 my mind at the free throw line is that have got to do this, said Lloreda A1 After UVSC hit a Williams hit a pair of free throws with 9 8 seconds left, and John Hilles last second attempt to tie the game never had a chance And the Rebels earned the win and the conference title The game, however, should not have been this close, but the Rebels shot a woeful from the free throw line "Obviously, we need to work on our free throws," said Banks Eddie Shelby led the way for the Rebels m the victory with 22 points. "Its a time to for everybody to come to play," said Shelby "Everybody has a time when they just step up, and I came out and was that player" Shelby was unquestionably the Rebels star this weekend, without him, it is likely that the Rebels would not have been cutting down the nets on Saturday night 66-6- 5 three-pointe- r, three-point- for both games over the weekend were among the best that the Rebels have had all year, numbering an estimated 3,000 for the contest against Salt Lake, and about 4,000 for the game against Utah Valley The Rebels need it too "If we were on the road, we probably lose this said Dixie coach Jeff Kidder after the win against Salt Lake "The crowd really excited us and made us play aggressive," said Shelby after the win over Utah Valley State . The wins extend Dixies home College 24 The Rebels last loss in streak to winning the Bums Arena was to UVSC on Jan. 21, 2000 ... The Rebels wrap up the regular season this weekend with a road game at Snow NOTES The crowds ," |
