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Show Road trip important to SUSC team trouble in their first meeting with Regis. Joe Butkovich, a 6-9 center, has been an SUSC headache every time it met Mines in the last two years. "If we can put a damper on him, our chances of a win will be greatly improved," Jack said. " Doug Rhodus, Chuck Anderson Ander-son and Scott Gilmore are ; each scoring over 15 points ' per game for SUSC Strong rebounding re-bounding is coming from Anderson, An-derson, Scott, Gilmore and Hal Hamblin. j The Southern Utah State ! College basketball team has i turned over a new leaf it j hopes. I An 82-61 victory Monday I over respected Grand Canyon College opened the second half of the season. The Thun-derbirds Thun-derbirds opened the first half of the year with a loss to the same Grand Canyon College. "Several things point to a better second half of the season," sea-son," Stan Jack, head coach, said. "Among them are the development of a couple of players, better shooting recently, re-cently, and an improved attitude atti-tude within the team." The new 'Birds get stiff road tests Friday and Saturday. Satur-day. Regis .College in Denver is the first weekend stop. The Rangers took advantage of icy SUSC shooting to pin an 82-67 loss on the T-Birds in I their first meeting in Cedar City. Saturday, it's on to Golden for a battle with Colorado Mines. SUSC whipped the Orediggers 95-84 earlier when they met in Cedar City. Better defensive performances perform-ances have given the T-Birds hope in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference chase, in spite of two home court losses. Recent strong and consistent consist-ent performances from 6-9 Ray Scott and 6-3 freshman guard Syd Sincock have made the SUSC attack more balanced balanc-ed and effective. Sincock, who has been coming off the bench, may challenge Dave Paur for a starting spot. "Of course we have a lot ol ground to make up, but 1 would have to say that we are probably a better team right now than we have beer all season," Jack said. "We know a little aboul both Regis and Mines, and we know that both will be rough on their home courts." Big Dave Klassen (6-10 and 230 pounds) and slick Raj Stosik, a 6-4 forward, gave the Thunderbirds the mos |