OCR Text |
Show T-birds meet Regis - Mines in Colorado points and handed out six assists. He hit on 14 of 28 shots from the floor and 8 of 9 free throws. SUSC remains on the road next week with games at New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico. points. The Orediggers also start Jeff Rhodes, 6-6 freshman, at center and Greg Larrabee, 6-3 freshman, at forward. Rhodes scores at 11.1 and adds 10.4 rebounds. Rhodes is also the top field goal shooter in both the RMAC and District with 77 for 111, good for a 69.4 percentage. Larrabee didn't even make the trip to Cedar City but has come on to start. Mines has been playing well as of late, losing at Mesa 69-68 and taking Regis into overtime before dropping a 72-67 decision. Statistically for the T-Birds, T-Birds, all five starters average in double figures. Chava Lopez (6-4 senior guard) is averaging 16.4 points to lead the squad. Butch Douglas (6-3 junior forward) and Marc Wilson (6-9 senior center) are both at 15.5 Scott Brown (6-6 sophomore forward) scores at 14.7 and Ron Harrell (6-2 senior guard), 12.7. The rebounding is led by Dougals with a 9.2 average, while Wilson hauls down 9.0 boards. As a team, SUSC ranks number one in the RMAC and District in scoring margin (14.2), team offense of-fense (88.8), team field goal percentage ( .556), and team free throw percentage (.746). For his weekend performance per-formance against Western State and Mesa, Harell was named NAIA District Seven player-of-the-week. In the two games he hit for 36 The real hazards of the road confront Southern Utah State College this week when the Thunderbirds travel to the mile high city of Denver for two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference basketball games. Friday, the T-Birds will challenge Regis in Denver; Saturday, it's down to Golden to take on Colorado School of Mines. "We are at a critical part of our season," states SUSC Coach Stan Jack. "What we see ahead this week is two very able opponents. Regis will be ready for us, and Mines is a team just good enough to be dangerous. We have to win on the road, and it will be tough to do it at both places." . , SUSC will go into the Regis game with a 14-3 overall record and a 10-3 conference mark to lead the RMAC. A pair of wins would make the Thunderbirds difficult to catch down the homestretch of the conference chase. A pair of losses would force the T-Birds to scratch hard to come up with a berth in the postseason NAIA District Seven playoffs. A year ago the Thunderbirds Thun-derbirds were handed one of their worst defeats ever at Regis (91-58) but came back to whip Mines (84-65). SUSC beat both teams earlier this year. The T-Birds T-Birds clipped Regis (72-59), back on January 6, and stopped Mines January 8, 94-80. 94-80. Both games were played in Cedar City. "Regis is a very physical ball club," Jack points out. "They are very well coached and will give uis one heck of a game." Carl Rustin, a 6-5 senior center (17.7)' Tom Wente, a 6-8 senior forward (12.2); and Mitch Peterson, a 6-2 sophomore guard (8.5), do most of the scoring for the Rangers. George Aguilar, a 5- 11 junior guard, scores at 6.5 and Earl Sango, a rugged 6- 5 sophomore forward, puts in 7.5 points. As a team the Rangers average only 64.5 points per game (last in both the RMAC. and NAIA District Seven offensively), but they give up only 63.8 points per game, which gives them the top defense in both the conference and district. The Rangers were struck a blow last week, when they were forced to forfeit victories vic-tories over New Mexico Highlands (103-79) and Westminster (56-51) due to the use of two ineligible players. Regis now has a 9-11 overall record and 5-6 RMAC mark. "We know that Mines is playing better ball than in recent years. Their scores and the way they played against us here indicate that they'll be tough; we certainly cer-tainly aren't expecting any pushover," said Jack. Mines will start four freshmen fresh-men and a sophomore. The Orediggers have a 6-11 overall record and a 2-9 RMAC slate. Guard Paul Groven (6-2 sophomore) leads the Orediggers in scoring (14.1), while forward Bert Fleck (6-4 (6-4 freshman) puts in 12.9 points. Guard Tim Hermann (6-4 freshman) gets 11.4 |