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Show Mathematically T-Birds still in race (or BfflAC basketball title showdowns. Frc'bable starters good shape for the Colorado will be guards Rhodus and Sineock, forwards Gilmore and Anderson, and center Hal Hamblin. Early reserve duty will probably pro-bably go to Griffin and Dave Paur. Only Colorado Mines (with a 2-9 record) can be spared the agony of plotting a method meth-od to win a championship. After SUSC's lopsided 105-69 105-69 win over Westminster, the Mountain Division standings look like this: Adams State, 8-4; Westminster, 7-5; Regis, G-5; Southern Utah, G-G; Western West-ern State, G-6; Fort Lewis, G-G; Western New Mexico, G-G; and Colorado Mines, 2-9. I It took some deep consultation consulta-tion with a mathematics expert, ex-pert, but a way has been found for Southern Utah State's . basketball team to win a share of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Mountain Division championship. champion-ship. To accomplish the task, however, will require the close cooperation of every other team in the division. To begin, the Thunderbirds will have to win Friday . at Although the mathematician mathematic-ian didn't give an official opinion,, op-inion,, he did hint that Southern South-ern Utah State also has "a ghost of a chance" to earn a berth in the four-team District Dis-trict Seven NAIA playoffs. Strong performances recently recent-ly by the first six men have made the Thunderbirds much improved over the early season. sea-son. Chuck Anderson, Scott Gilmore, Boyd Griffin, Hal Hamblin, Syd Sineock, and Doug Rhodus have each had a turn with sterling performances performan-ces in recent outings. "We've reached a stage where we think on a given i night we can beat any other i team in the conference," Stan : Jack, Thunder-bird coach, said. ' "If we just take our outstanding out-standing SUSC crowds with us on the road, we could do even ; better," Jack said. The cheers I of a capacity crowd celebrat- ing the Westminster victory ; were still ringing in his ears. Physically, the 'Birds are in Gunnison, Colorado, against, .Western State and Saturday at Durango, Colorado, against Fort Lewis. - A loss against either opponent op-ponent would kill any T-Bird : chances. "In addition, Adams State would have to lose both of its remaining games; Regis College Col-lege would have to lose one " of three games, but win against again-st Adams State. , And finally, Westminster would have to lose at least one of its two remaining road games. If all of that happened (and, according to the mathematician, mathematic-ian, it's possilble) Southern Utah Sate could end up in first place tie--with almost anyone--for the division title with and 8-6 record. The mathematics expert also al-so figured out that seven of the division's eight teams still have a shot at a tie for the title going into the last week of play. |