Show Section D WEDNESDAYFebruary 25 1998 CLASSIFIEDS OBITUARIES Page D-1- Page 0 Heat Bombs Sink the Jazz GORDON MONSON Utah Forges A Comeback But Falls Short Yuuuck! Meet New Breed Of Gym Rat BY MICHAEL C LEWIS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE There were precisely 17 seconds left basin the first half of the Utah-UNLketball game late Monday night when the weirdness took over at the Huntsman Center When it started raining cats and dogs rats Well actually It rained rats Did you catch this? Willard Night on ESPN Utah forward Alex Jensen was struggling for position posting up in the lane mindmg his own business looking to bust a move when suddenly a fat furry rodent skidded across the floor right up under his Reeboks UNLV players responded as though a e had been tossed live The Jazz played one heck of a fourth quarter against the Miami Heat on Tuesday night Scored 35 points Forced seven turnovers defiCame back from a cit But nothing they did in the final 12 minutes was able to overshadow the fact that for the first three periods the Jazz wandered They let Alonzo Mourning dominate inside They let Voshon Lenard kill em from outside late rally or And the result 2 was a no late rally Heat victory that extended Miamis winning streak to seven games while spoiling the Jazz's chance at stretching its own to a season-hig- h eight games The Heat also have won eight straight games on the road and the Jazz still have not won a game this season in which they trailed after for the three quarters Thats trivia buffs "They just came right at us growled Coach Jerry Sloan And we just bailed out They just went right into the lane and waxed us and said Get out of my way here we come youre not tough enough to play us For the most part the Jazz 104-10- hand-grenad- Incoming! Everybody scattered Except for Jensen UNLVs Tyrone Nesby who saw the entirety of the rats descent from the sky quite heroically attempted to pull Jensen out of harms way although it was the rat who was stunned and stomped on Yeah I stomped on it said Jensen nicknamed thereafter The ExI killed it It was weird I terminator stepped on something soft At first I thought it was somebodys foot werent It was Ben Or Mrs Brisby Or Mickey Or a cousin Chaos and confusion ensued Some witnesses say the varmint flew down from the upper bowl or more accurately was heaved by a fan barely clearing the heads of fans seated in the front row Some say it flew courtward from the general area where the Utah pep band was seated Others say it came from behind the grassy knoll At first some people thought it came up from underneath the court says Bruce Woodbury Utahs longtime director of media relations for athletics "Or that it had fallen from the beams up above But the band guys said they saw it coming from over their heads I dont know unless it was Mighty Mouses brother somebody threw it from the stands Ill tell you it was goofy Probably the strangest thing Ive seen here Mostly we dont throw live animals on the floor I dont know why anyone would bring their pet rat to the game with them And then launch it from 200 feet onto the hardwood Certainly the Ute crowd was grossed out How Bizarre: One fan gave this account: The players were grouped together on the court going for a rebound and next thing we saw a brown blob on the floor All of them got this horrified look on their faces and started running away Everyone in the crowd started going: Oooooooh yuuuuuucckkkk! We thought it was feces Then it started well moving and we knew it was a rat Man it was bizarre After a janitor stepped onto the court and swept the quivering convulsing critter into a green scooper announcer Bret Conpublic-addres- s nor asked fans Please do not throw mice onto the court Laughs all around Woodbury holds out hope that Ute fans find no reason or need for tradition along these lines that they do not start hurling and lobbing pet hamsters and guinea pigs and bunnies and ger-bil- s and muskrats and cats and small dogs and mice and rats at every game No he says No With any luck from here on out the only gym rats on the floor at the Huntsman will be in Reeboks or Nikes not under them Report on Monday's Utah Win D-- 2 A1 HartmannThe Salt Lake Tnbune Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley patrols the sidelines Tuesday 3 Ooooh Gross: Nope Full D-- ll Mourning was such a physical presence in the middle that he had all three Jazz centers in foul trouble by the middle of the second quarter and Lenard blew up for 15 of his 20 points before halftime Mourning finished with 20 points too and Tim Hardaway and Dan Majerle each added 18 in the Heats first win in Utah since 1994 The Heat also hit three-pointe- A1 HartmannThe Salt Lake Tnbune Miamis Tim Hardaway swoops to the hoop Tuesday night in the Delta Center but finds a big obstruction in the form of Utah's Adam Keefe The Heat melted the Jazz 1 04-10- 2 But after a miserable third quarter in which Karl Malone shots and the made just Heat executed an 18-- run the THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The grades are in for minority hiring in college sports and theyre lousy A new study released Tuesday by Northeastern Universitys Center for the Study of Sport in Society found that while the record for minority hiring in pro basketball football and baseball is poor its even worse at the college level The Racial Report Card coveracademic year ing the 1995-9- 6 showed that college sports have the worst record for hiring women and minorities the percentage of black players decreased in college and pro sports and that majority own BOSTON ership in sports for minorities does not exist There has been very little pro-- ' gress in the patterns of hiring people of color and women in pro and college sport said Richard Lapchick author of the report and director of the center The center conducts an annual study of the racial composition of players coaches and front office employees in pro basketball football and baseball This year it widened its focus to include colleges efDespite forts white males still control most of our teams front offices and athletic departments Lapchick said The center found that in 1996 714 percent of the NCAAs top ex Heat 104 Jazz 102 Fast Fact: The win was Pat Riley's first vs the Jazz as coach of the Heat Next: Thursday Utah vs Phoenix at the Delta Center 7 pm Wizards Dump the Rockets ecutives were white and about 21 percent were black About 921 percent of the organizations chief aides were white 53 percent were black and 26 percent were Latino More than 80 percent of the NCAAs office managers were white 94 percent were black and 19 percent were Latino In pro sports the NBA was given the highest grade in opportunities for minorities for the ninth straight year The NFL was next and major league baseball was given a conditional grade because it did not provide data for the second straight year See MINORITY Page D-- 3 D-- 8 Jazz made their push with 11 minMiami led utes left in the game but Bryon 79-6- 7 Russell sparked the rally with a and a dunk Pretty soon Malone started hitting again and r John Stockton buried a that cut the Heats lead to 101-9with 38 8 seconds left After a Mourning jumper Stockton tip-i- n three-pointe- 9 See JAZZ Page 2 Failing Grades Issued in Minority Hiring BY BILL PORTER GAME AT A GLANCE D-- 8 Hull Says Real Room Trash ers Should Fess Up THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Brett Hull wants the US hockey ST LOUIS players who trashed rooms at the Olympic village to step forward and apologize so other team members don't have to suffer The St Louis Blues star was blamed in initial reports along with Chris Chelios Gary Suter and Joel s Otto Hull angrily denied it vouched for his and threatened to sue those slandering" him Hull said Monday he knows which players caused $3000 in damage to the rooms and furniture but wont reveal their identities because it's not his place He said an NHL official gave him the names There comes a point in time where you have to stand up and be a man Hull told theSf Louis to It's up to the people who did it come forward and have respect for the other players and say It was me I apologize It was a stupid thing to do Theres nothing that can be harder but bigger to do Hopefully well find out who did what and we can get some apologies out so the rest of the people who weren't involved dont have to suffer he said Hull was critical of some media coverage of the team in Nagano Japan particularly reports that some players including Hull were out late two days before their game against Team Canada We went out and had a few beers Whats the big deal? Hull said It wasn't the night before a game Why was it blown so out of proportion? Whether we were at a strip club whether we were singing or we weren't it had nothing to do with anything suite-mate- Post-Dispatc- h Knights Get to BY LYA WODRASKA More THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The third-ranke- d Semis But Pay Steep Price 4-- A Lone Peak state Knights reached the Class semifinals with a 46-3- 2 win over Cyprus Tuesday but they paid a heavy price for the victory Amber Harr who averages 13 points a game went down at the end of the first quarter with a knee injury Its doubtful the junior will play in Thursdays semifinal game against Murray Harr was hampered by the same injury in Lone Peaks win over Sky B B 5-3-- 4-- Girls Boys Olympus lops Weber loumey Preview loumey Preview D-- 3 D-- 3 D-- 3 4-- View in the first round but still scored 18 "We cant replace her Lone Peak coach Shauna Kay said Everyone else did a good job but she is our scorer Harr scored nine in the first quarter as the Knights opened up with a 18-lead We were lucky we had an early lead and didnt have much pressure 9 on us after that Kay said While the Knights offense held its own defense was the key as Lone Peak extended its lead to 8 after three quarters Senior Tara Cook had the task of slowing down Cyprus Katrena Ellett Class leading scorer (22 points per game) She all but stopped her as Ellett scored just nine points Cook scored eight points and had seven rebounds "Tara was our player of the game 41-1- 4-- See LONE PEAK Page D-- 3 B Finally NHL Gets Back in Action Tonight D-- 6 THE BOTTOM LINE Air Force Hoop Coach Marti Gasser who has coached the Air Force womens basketball team since 1983 said Tuesday she will resign June 30 Its time for a change in this program Gasser said I want this team and this program to go to the next level and be successful I love the academy Thats why I feel it is necessary to step aside and let someone else breathe new life into this program career record but her team Gasser has a has struggled since jumping from Division II to Division I two years ago Heading into the season finale Thursday Air Force is 5 and 4 in the WAC I reluctantly accepted Marti Gassers resignation Air Force athletic director Col Randall Spetman said 232-17- Time Out Gasser to Resign most conLosing It secutive college basketball lossesCitadel 37 Mens Div I losses (ended 1955) Womens Div I Brooklyn 58 losses (1989) Olivet Mich Mens Div II 46 losses (1973) Notie Womens Div II Dame Ca 70 losses (1992) Rutgers-Camde- n Mens Div Ill NJ 117 losses (1997) Oberlin Womens Div Ill Ohio 56 losses (1955) e 2 Marti Gasser 1 V f |