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Show Thunderbircls Stage Rally to Down Rebels 79 to 73 Never has the roof of the College Col-lege of Southern Utah fieldhouse come so close to being lifted right off the rafters as it was Saturday Satur-day evening when the CSU Thunderbird basketball team staged a phenomenal comeback in the final six minutes of play to defeat the Dixie Rebels 79 to 73. Down by 11 points with Just six minutes and 20 seconds remaining re-maining the Thunderbirds, led by guards Glen Gray and Larry Dehlin, wen wild In scoring 19 points while holding the visiting Rebels to a single basket and two points. Packed House The game was played before a packed house of nearly 2000 and it was a game that featured outstanding out-standing playing and also a game that had its moments of ragged ball under the tremendous tremend-ous pressure of the traditional battle for the "Axe." The "Axe", which is a symbol of athletic supremacy and which is held by the school who last wins a victory in interschool competition, was returned to student body president Meredith Johnson by the Dixie College president at the conclusion of the game. The Rebels of St. George held the biggest margin in the contest con-test when they moved out in front by 11 points with Just over six minutes to play. A host of court errors by the Thunderbirds had allowed the wide margin and on the surface the game looked at that point as if the Rebels were in command. See-Saw Battle As the final outcome indicated, with the T-Bi'ds overcoming the 11 poi ; deficit, it was a game that was In question from the opening whistle. As a matter of fact the lead, sometimes changing chang-ing from one basket to the other, changed hands a total of 19 times during the 40 minutes of play. In addition to that the score was tied on 10 occasions at 1. 24, 26, 36, 38 and 40 during the first half of play. In the second sec-ond half it was tied at 42, 44, 46 and 51. The Rebels put on a comeback of their own in the first half of play. CSU broke away to a nine point margin at 20 to 11 only to have the Dixie quintet battle back to score 15 points while CSU hit for only 4 points, to take the lead at 26 to 21. Good Beginning As the game opened, the Tunderbirds moved out in front early on some fine floor play and good work under the basket, tanking seven from the field , while the Rebels hit for only two fieldgoals. The Rebels, however, stayed In the game as Dave Erickson stepped to the foul line to hit 7 out of 8 attempts, then Ken Black came through from the field on a Jumper and a tip to start the visitors on the scoring scor-ing trail. uien Gray, CSU team captain, was able early in the game to hit LaMar Pugh in the middle to initiate in-itiate the CSU offensive patterns and little Larry Dehlin, who was the top scorer of the evening with 24 points, was hitting from outside. Offensively the Thunderbirds slowed down midway in the first half and the Rebels took advantage advan-tage to move out in front 26 to 24 after trailing by nine points early in the period. Rebels Take Lead A pair of foul shots, one by Ron Van Wagenen and by Pugh tied it at 26 all, but Erickson and Kay Richards again put the Reb- els in front with scores from the . field. Marian Roper came off the I bench for CSU and hit almost immediately but two long shots by Richards and Keimit Butt pushed the Rebels out in front by six, 34 to 28. Pugh, Roper and Dehlin all hit for the T-Birds to tie it up at 36-all and Dehlin on a drive put CSU out in front with a field-goal, field-goal, 38 to 36. Two field throws by Black and a fieldgoal by Harris Smith of the Rebels moved them to 40 and Norm Francom tanked a pair from the charity line and Dehlin hit from outside for the final score of the first half giving the Thunderbirds a 42 to 40 edge. Zone Defense Harmful Coach Cleo Petty had moved his squad into a zone defense in the final three minutes of play in the first half and had effectively effec-tively slowed down the Rebels. The zone In the second half, however, how-ever, backfired with Richards and Butt hitting from outside along with Kaake, who came off the bench to almost single-handedly move the Rebels out into a substantial lead. Roper and Gray were matching the visitors somewhat, some-what, but six straight floor errors er-rors by CSU, in which they lost possession without an attempt at the basket gave the Rebels the opening they were looking for and they moved out to the biggest big-gest lead of the game with Kaake leading the way In scoring. scor-ing. . Robls Stage Rally With seven minutes left in the contest Coach Ray Englestead's Rebels held a 66 to GO advantage. Erickson connected from the foul lane, Kaake hit on a Jumper from the key and Butt scored from outside with Just 6:20 on the clock and the Rebels had moved It to 11 points, 71 to 60. At this point the Thunderbirds broke from the zone and with Dehlin and Gray each hitting on two drives for eight quick points ! the Rebels called a time with the I score standing at 69 to 73 with j Just 3:41 remaning in the gume. Following the time out Gayle MeKeachkne hit one of two foul pitches and Pugh came off with the rebound on the .second attempt at-tempt and stuffed the ball back through the hoop for a two pointer, point-er, leaving the Thunderbirds be-1 hind by only one, 73 to 72. I Final Score I With just one minute and 56 seconds remaining on the clock Roper hit from the sideline t put the T-Birds out in front. A steal as Dixie cume down the floor was picked off by Dehlin and Pugh came up with another big basket with 1:18 remaining, giving CSU a 76 to 73 bulfje. Dehlin Deh-lin was fouled as the T-Birds regained re-gained control and he made both shots. Roper then came to the foul line with 27 seconds remaining remain-ing and hit one which turned out to be the final score of the game. Another steal by the Thunderbirds Thunder-birds was missed on an easy lay-up, lay-up, but the game was already-won. already-won. Richards of Dixie came to the foul line with Just five sec- onds remaining, but failed to convert and the Thunderbirds I had wrapH'd up the contest with a tremendous comeback from j what looked like certain defeat. csu n DIXIE TO otfp crrr ' ' 1" PlurV vn Wam-nrn 13 1 S ooo o jonrt puKh T io an ; .' U U 10 Bull Cray IIOM I 4 i 11 1 vrlckwMt RlKKl 10 0 2 4 2 2 10 Richard Drhlin 34 i (i 4 Sm.ih Ripvr S 5 3 1.1 4 11 9 Kaakr D. Ommbrrlaln 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 Holt RciherlMi 10 0 3 MrKrwhnl 0 2 1 I Fiancufa 0 2 3 1 SI 24 19 T. TOTALS 30 30 19 7 Haftlrrw mrr: Dixl 40. CSU 43. |