Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Tuesday February 24 2004 — B3 Utes blow out Lobos by 30 aIbSsketbaiqi to tie it at Andrew Bogut scored 20 points and had 14 rebounds and Tim Frost added 14 points as Utah shot 53 percent from the field the Utes’ best mark in their last 1 games! The Utes completed their home schedule with a 1 record and avoided their firsthome losses since 989 after losing to Air 7 on Saturday Force Despite playing his second ' straight subpargame Danny 1 led the Lobos (13-1 Granger three-poi- nt By The Associated Press Rafael Araujo and Mark Bigelow scored 21 points apiece to lead Brigham Young tb a 67-6- 1 victory over Air Force on Monday keeping the Falcons from clinching a share of their first-evconference championship Air Force could have locked up the No! 1 seed in the Mountain West Conference " tournament next month and clinched the first conference seaChampionship and 20-wson in school history but could not hang on slier taking lead early in the an eight-poisecond half er ' in : nt ' The 1 t-1 Araujo was at least 2 inches taller and SO pounds heavier than any of the Falcons (19-- 5 and BYU (187 used the bulky Brazilian to wear down Air Foret and avoid being swept for the first time in the season series The Cougars who shot 824 in the secpeicent(14-for-1ond half still have an outside n shot at the MWC title after a 4 conference ! 8--4) 7) regular-sea-so- 2-- start 15-1- 4' 15-- - 52-4- back-to-ba- 59-5- 4-- 7) 43-4- 1 2 points as they w nine points at BYU on Saturday and was just 1 as the Utes seemed determined not to let Granger ! repeat his 28 point performance when the Lobos beat Utah 70-5- 4 on January 24 Javin Tindall scored 10 ' points for New Mexico which managed just 33 percent shooting and made just f17 from the line season-lo- 4-o- f-l nt 62-5- ar with dropped their 25th straight road game Granger the con- ference’s leading scorer had a 1- leader in shooting tied his career-hig- h with 28 points including six from beyond the arc to lead Utah past New Mexico 73-4- 3 Monday night In his final regular-seaso- n home game Jacobson made on three consecutive possessions in the second half to run his Utah record to 262 The fifth-yesenior tied his ' six in high mark of a game as the Utes (20-- 7 84 Mountain West) reached 20 wins for the 12th time in the !' last 15 seasons ck 1 Jacobson capped a 12-- 2 run to end the first half with a ' layup and then left a lasting impression with his second-ha- lf marksmanship The third of his three straight gave Utah a 2 lead with 7:38 to play He and Frost the team's only juniors or seniors came out of the game to standing ovations with over-fivminutes left Utah interim coach Kerry Rupp improved to 2 after Rick Majenis left the team and ended his career to tend to his health problems On the other side New Mexico coach Richie McKay watched the final minutes of the game sitting still and his from ! legs crossed as walk-on- s both teamplayed out the clock 'V BYU’s Kevin Woodberiy (0) drives to the basket past on another road loss 65-3- all-ti- Nick Welch led Air Force with 16 points Tim Keller scored 14 and Antoine Hood finished with 10 points and seven rebounds Bigelow added five assists and Araujo finished with eight rebounds for BYU Aftergoing nearly the first five minutes of the second ' half without a field goal the Cougars made6 of 7 from the field while turning an eight- point deficit into a 1 lead Bigelow scored seven straight for BYU on two jumpers and e 5-- 15-ye- ar ' - attai ns No 4 Gonzaga it 1 54-5- 280-pou-nd 9-- 2) play Shoff drove for a layup that gave the Cougars their first lead since BYU extended the lead to 5 before the Falcons started to make a comeback after A J Kuhle was fouled hard by Araujo with 538 remaining Air Force coach Joe Scott was livid at the foul which Kuhle came up from with a bloody mouth and had to leave for a few minutes It seemed to spark the cons who started to rally when Matt McCraw came in to shoot for Kuhle and went for-- 2 from the line followed by two free throws by Welch and Keller’s three-poiplay to cut the lead to 1 Welch made two more free throws to pull Air Force to 56- 55 with 2:33 remaining but the Falcons couldn’t overtake the Cougars Araujo kored on a layup Bigelow made two free throws and Mike Rose was all alone under tire basket after BYU broke Air Force’s press to put the Cougars up 6 Utah 73 New Mexico 43 Nick Jacobson the school’s 41 then Jake best national ranking up (AP) — Gonzaga has made some deep runs in the NCAA tournament and now has its highest AP Top 25 ranking: No 4 The Bulldogs whose only Tosses this season are to Stanford and Saint Joseph’s moved up two spots in The Associated Press men’s basketball pollMonday - Stanford and Saint Joseph’s each won two games last week to remain the nation’s only unbeaten teams and stayed in the poll was sixth last week Gonzaga (23-' matching its spot for the final two weeks of 2001-0- 2- Wins last week oyer Portland —the game when John Stockton’s jersey was retired and the Bulldogs clinched die West Coast Conference regular season title — and at Tulsa moved the Bulldogs up two places' Gonzaga reached the regional final in 1999 losing to eventual national champion Connecticut and made it to the round ' of 16 the next two years: Stanford (23-0- ) beat Southern Califor-nia and UCLA on the road last week to hold the No 1 spot for a second straight week while Saint Joseph’s (24-0- ) had wins over Fordham and Temple 'For die second week in a row Stanford had a 64--8 advantage in first-plavotes " from the national media panel but the Hawks closed the point gap slightly ' : 2) ' 1 six-ga- ed : made Its first poll Utah State (22-appearance since 1971 three weeks ago but fell out last week after losing at Pacif-ic The Aggies are back in following wins over UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton ! LSU (17-6) moved into the Tbp25 last week for the first time this season but 2) 3-- ng 23-0-- : - playing without injured leading scorer and rebounder Jamie Lloreda the Tigers lost to Auburn and Vanderbilt SouthCarolina (20-6- ) was ranked for the last five weeks never getting higher than 24th The Gamecocks lost to' ' Arkansas in their only game last week The loss of LSU and South Carolina' cut the Southeastern Conference’s num' bom 70 tb 59 ber of ranked teams in half with Missis-sip' Pittsburgh (24-State and Kentucky the only league moved up two spots to third the Panthers’ highest ranking V members still in the Top 25 ' since Louisville and Wisconsin joined LSU they were No 2 for two weeks last as ranked teams to lose two games last losweek and both took a big fall in the poll Duke which snapped a Louisville (17-- has lost five of its last ing streak with a win over Maryland on mid third six to fifth bom games including last week’s tosses to Sunday dropped Texas Christiaq and Cincinnati The Car-was followed by Oklahoma State Misdinats who were ranked No 4 last sissippi State Connecticut Kentucky y month fell 1 1 places to No 21 ! and Texas-'Wake Forest which beat Duke and Wisconsin (17-lost consecutive the first last in 13 months The Tech four for time week Georgia games jumped spots to Na ll The Demon Deacons ! road losses to Illinois and Michigan saw the Badgers fall from No 12 to 22 were followed by North Carolina Provi : : in the first half frusuating It's disheartening" Tb put their losing in perspec- - tive their 192 winning percentage (when overtime losses are! counted and ties are discarded) is below the 265 of last year’s hopeless Detroit Tigers (43-11It’s above the impossibly low 1 10 of the 1972-7- 3 Philadelphia 76ers but not as good as the most renowned losers ever the 1962 Mets (40:120 250) ' That’s where those ’89-'9- 0 Nordiques come into play Just like these Penguins! who ' have won only 66 of 226 over the last three seasons the Nordiques’ losing wasn’t confined to a single dreadful season A succession of poor finishes allowed them to drab a stream of stars (Sakic Mats Sundin Adam Foote Owen " Nolan Eric Undros) who became the foundation of their teams two Stanley in Colorado or were traded for others who' did (Peter Forsberg) 9) (9-7- 3) ! pi 2) : two-ga- : v 11-- ed 82-6- half-gam- sixth-rardr- : 6) ! Topl25lmen! 2 Big 12)! Longhorns (204 “Our intensity as a team has stepped up’’ Mouton said “I’m feeding off of them and they’re feeding off me” PJ Dicker added 1 1 points and rebounds as the Longhorns eight : fifth d secured their Cowboys leading n season straight ' Mouton: who went scoreless in James Thomas scored eight of a win over Baylor back on Feb his nine points in a key 90ec-- y 1 0 has scored at least 20 points : ond span of the second half that in the last four games for the V lOth-rank- 6) : AUSTIN Texas (AP) — Brandon Mouton keeps scoring at a torrid pace and the Texas Long- horns are staying right on Oklahoma State’s heels in the Big 12 Mouton scored 23 points Monday night to lead the Longhorns to an 7 win over No 20 Kansas keeping Texas e of the league within a ? school-recor- ed 20-wi- - helped the Longhorns protect the ?lead ! ! “lames put it on him for a good two minutes and they had no answer for him” guard Royal N Ivey said! “After that we just rolled second Big 12 regular-seaso-n title Texas has three games Ieb on the schedule including a matchup next Monday with Oklahoma State in Stillwater Mi ' : himself the first three minutes It showed With Preston and darn good” Pratt said “Our of die fourth quarter Snake River combining to defense just came out and we ' Preston led by 13 points from shoot s horrific weren’t going to let them do s die field in die first quarter The ' some of the things they did to 'when Parker leb the game : : Continued bon B1 free throws hit Indians hit three of those shots us in the first two games” down the stretch to keep the ' before the NBA said the trade The Panthers refused to go to take a 9--6 lead after one ! ! was ‘final iuid complete”) Panthers at bay ' down without a fight though Unfortunately for the Panaccordance “In -withleague deficit thers they would never heat What was a “(Parker played) very very was cut to 24-2- 0 bn a Derek y gooid” Prati raid “He was a ' rules each team was informed up from die field ' ' ! '' that none of the traded players off the bench” 16 points) lYeston Would take advantage Fumiss (game-hig- h great could play with their new ! District note as Kelly Rawlpgs arid Chris putback midwaythrough the : teams until all conditions of Snake River will now face' Larsen scored four points apiece third quarter the trade had been met includ' 12-Marsh Valley Wednesday In need of a spark Preston ina 0 nm spanning the first ’ ' ing the signing of certifica- ' and second quarters Snake turned to its bench and Todd night for the right to play the : tions ‘ by teams players and runner-u- p from the Sixth Dis--: Parker was up to the task River which shot 23 percent (9- ' involved in thedeal” agents bf-3for die coolest had five trict on Saturday the winner The senior guard (seven NBA said in a statement the turoovers in that stretch of that contest will be state rebounds) outreoounded and “The Pistons violated this rule ! tournament bound “Our defense was pretty outscored the Panthers by -- ! 24 'J-an- Continued firomBl -6 v Before Preston started to entertain state tourney thoughts it had to get pasra Snake River (13-team ! which had dropped die two ' meetings by a'-total of five jxnnts Like the other two games Monday V certainly appeared to be one of the variety in the emiy going as both club’s came out r tight on offense : 9) ! regular-season - " closely-contest- ed ’ Cup-winni- Texas' seniors had never beat- en Kansas and the win kept the Longhorns within right of their ‘ 13-po- int sik 8) : ! : by playing Wallace and James in the first half of the game against the Dmberwolves even though the required certifications were not yet signed’’ Pistons prerident Joe Dumars said the team would-'- v n’t have used Wallace and !' James if it knew the other ! teams hadn’t submitted the required paperwork : ' “We are happy that this unfortunate situation is ova and that we can get back to focusing on basketball” r! ' Dumars said before Detroit on at Philadelphia played ' Monday night : - f IT I ! ' Texas keeps pace with OSU : : ' : ce i i be sion-winni- s m r-u- years after winning a league-recor- d 17 straight games the two-tim- e Stanley Cup champions haul an 1 losing streak into Wednesday’s game at Phoenix No team in NHL histo- ry has lost so many in a row Just don’t look for die streak in the NHL’s record book The Pen- - ' guins' 2' loss in Si Louis on Feb 14 came in overtime so their offiavercial record since their last victory goalies had a goals-again- st JanT2 in Philadelphia is age below 461 and the Nords finished 70 points behind divi- But technicalities can’t cover Boston up what's going wrong wjthi the’ so Penguins and that’s a lot They ' The Penguins are 1142-5-- 4 V they probably Won’t quite reach a have lost 14 straight at home — level of inepti- Nordiques-lik- e yes that is a record— and are2- over their last 26 games tude — they must lose all but one ‘ 1 we’re getting sick of their final 20 to do so — but “Obviously ' their rapid fall bom grace has of losing” rookie forward Ryari Malone said been steep and almost without “We keep losing the same way rival in recent NHL history : over and over” rookie defense- - Three years after reaching the man Birooks Orpik said “It's Eastern Conference finals and 11 - ' 1- -2 (AP) — As the Pittsburgh Penguins skid toward one of the worst records by any team in pro sports history maybe the 1989-9- 0 bee Nordiques offer some hope ’ and encouragement: Les Nordiques were the role models for losing! a miscast (Joe Sakic) group of stars-to-or stars who no longer were (Guy Lafleur) that won only 1 2 of 80 games None of the team’s Force’s Antoine Hood trying to losing streak 18-ga- me ibrSBURGH dence North CaroIfttX'Stkt$t3ltdftilati Southern Illinois Arizona Georgia Tech Memphis and Kansas The last five ranked teams were Louisville Wisconsin Illinois Utah State and Texas Tech Illinois and Utah State returned to the Top 25 this week replacing LSU and South Carolina who fell out bom 24th and 25th The Fighting Illini (18-5- ) fell out of the poll for five weeks after being ranked all season and getting as high as No-on a They winning 'streak including victories last week over ' Wisconsin and Penn State APphoto Air !' |