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Show SPORTS Page 7 Monday, February 5,2007 SCOREBOARD Women's Tennis MSU-BillingsO Utah 7 Men's Tennis New Mexico St. 0 Utah 7 Out of the gutter Baseball UtahO Santa Clara .8 Baseball Utah 5 Santa Clara 6 Baseball Utah 2 Santa Clara 3 Women's Hoops Utah 6 6 SDSU 71 TCU The new Ford focus Red Rock captain has season's best performance in front of old coach Tony Pizza Chronicle Asst. Sports Editor Runnin' Utes stave off late run from TCU Cody Brunner The Daily Utah Chronicle The U men's basketball team has rarely won close games this season. So when the Runnin1 Utes found themselves guarding a 64-63 lead with just more than a minute left against TCU last Saturday, Ute fans probably started asking themselves how their team was going to lose this one. Enter Ricky Johns. The sole senior on the Utah roster found a niche in the Horned Frogs' defense and sliced to the basket for a layup, putting Utah fans' collective minds at ease in a 70-65 victory. The win marks the first time this season that the Utes were victorious away from the friendly confines of the Huntsman Center. "It's been frustrating coming out on the road and coming so close and not getting the win, but we finally got this one," Johns said after the game. "It just comes down to playing defense." The senior guard scored 15 of his teamhigh 18 points in the second half to lead the Utes over TCU, which has now lost its last seven games. Utah led by as much as 13 in the second half, but the Horned Frogs pieced together a 10-0 run midway through the period to close the gap, giving Ute fans and players alike the deja vu feeling. "We had a pretty good lead, but they were starting to make a comeback," U forward Shaun Green said. "Luckily, we were able to finish this one." The Horned Frogs were led by sharpshooting guard Brent Hackett, who converted on six of his nine three-point attempts to lead the team with 22 points. Sophomore forward Kevin Langford also pitched in 21 points and five rebounds in the losing effort. Despite winning the game, the Utes struggled with their ball control throughout the contest, committing a seasonhigh 25 turnovers. "It just goes to show you that if you compete, rebound and defend, you can be deficient in other areas and still win," Ute head coach Ray Giacoletti said. "We have not done that this year, but we did it tonight." Utah center Luke Nevill turned in yet another solid performance for the Utes, throwing down for 13 points and 10 rebounds. Meanwhile, freshman forward MEN'S HOOPS g) UTES 7 0 KIM PETERSON/ The /,Wv Utah Chtoniclr Nicolle Ford sticks the landing after her beam routine Friday in the Huntsman Center. Her 9.9 helped lead the Utes to a win over visiting Arkansas, BYU and Southern Utah. S« R U N N I N ' Page 10 Southern Tier Gymnastics coach Daile VanPatten has not been involved in Nicolle Ford's gymnastics life since the U senior finished her club gymnastic days in 2003. Although the two have remained close throughout the years, VanPatten had never seen Ford compete in person during the three-plus years she has spent at the U. All that changed Friday night at the Huntsman Center. VanPatten watched along with the other 14,044 fans as Ford and the Red Rocks coasted to a win so easy, none of the other three teams was within two points of Utah's final score of 196.150. Ford led the way for the Red Rocks as she cruised to a win in the Ail-Around by posting a season-high combined score of 39.6 in a performance that was anything but ordinary for the Binghamton, N.Y., native. "I knew this would be a great night for Nicolle (Ford)," U head coach Greg Marsden said. "Her club coach was here. I knew she would bring it tonight." Ford started the competition more collected and focused than she had been at any other time during the Utes' first three meets of the season. The sole U senior posted a meet-high 9.9 on vault that her teammate, Kristina Baskett, would go on to tie two performances later. The Red Rock captain then posted a meet-high 9.925 on bars, only to be matched by her sophomore teammate again. Ford then watched as her teammates Annie DiLuzio and Baskett fell off the beam on the Utes' next rotation, setting up a pressure situation for Ford. When it came time to do her beam routine, she intensified her focus even more. At one point during Ford's routine, her gaze was so intense, she looked as if she could have vaporized the first three rows of the MUSS had she held her eyes on them for a few more seconds. Ford executed her beam routine in the same near-perfect fashion as the previous two events and followed her stuck landing with a cock of her head to the roof and full extension of her arms as the applause from the Huntsman Center washed over her. Ford capped off her best performance of the season when she debuted a double layout on the first pass of her floor routine. Ford—who has been rather inconsistent on floor all season—performed the routine upgrade smoothly and came away with a 9.875 to See F O R D Page 8 Three strikes Ute baseball swept by Santa Clara Chris Bellamy Chronicle Sports Editor KJM PETERSON/ The Daily Utah Chronicle Ricky Johns throws a no-look pass after getting forced out of bounds In the Utes' loss to BYU on Wednesday. Johns led Utah with 18 points in the Utes' 70-65 victory over TCU on Friday. The first weekend of the season has come and gone, and the U baseball team is still waiting for its first victory. The Utes traveled to the much-warmer clunate of Santa Clara, Calif, over the weekend, where they met their match against the Santa Clara Broncos, who pulled off a clean sweep to send Utah back home winless. The Utes dropped two games by just one run, fighting their way back after dropping behind early both times before eventually falling. The high-powered offense that has been able to carry the Utes in seasons past—particularly last year—was nowhere to be found this weekend. The team scored just seven runs in three games and led for a grand total of one half-inning. Though the bullpen, a major Achilles' heel during the latter part of 2006, held firm with two strong showings on Saturday and Sunday, it was the lack of offensive firepower that prevented the Utes from overcoming their early deficits. Of course, as is often the case with college clubs this early in the season, that likely has as much to do with the new look of the lineup as anything else. Gone is 2006 All-American Ryan Khoury, last year's star shortstop who was not only the team's top regular-season run producer but did pretty much, everything—and from the top spot in the lineup, no less, setting the table for the rest of the lineup. He was the engine that made the Utes go last season, and the chemistry and cohesiveness the team got so used to last year hasn't yet caught on. Head coach Bill Kinneberg is breaking in a group of new players into his offensive nucleus, including new leadoff man Nate Burnham (who takes over in center field) and Khoury's replacement in the infield, Corey Shimada, a sophomore who played in the outfield last season. Also filling in is Scottsdale Community College transfer Nick Lowery, who will split time at second base, outfield and even back Shimada up at short. Even the returning players are facing new roles. Three-time all-MWC selection Jay Brossman is moving back to his natural position of third base after one year on the opposite corner, while Erich Kemp is moving over to first. The Utes couldn't sustain many long innings this weekend, though they still had their chances. After a lackluster performance in an 8-0 loss in Friday's season opener, the Utes jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead Saturday afternoon, before senior starter Lucas Trinnaman suffered through one of his shortest collegiate performance, giving up five runs (two earned) in the bottom half before being pulled. That was nearly all the Broncos got, and the Utes knotted the game at 5-5 thanks to a Brossman homer and RBIs from Cody Guymon and Mike Mitchell in the top of the third, but Santa Clara's Gabe Alcantar sent what proved to be the winning run over the plate with a single in the bottom of the third. Sunday's contest was just as close, but after starter Eric King fell behind by a pair of runs in the first, the Utes couldn't quite climb back into contention despite nearly five innings of scoreless work by the Utah bullpen. The team will be back on the road this weekend, traveling south to take on New Mexico State. c.bellamy@chronicle.utah.edu |
