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Show SUSC hosts 'International' hoop event By Klien Rollo An evening with an international in-ternational flavor was provided for area sports fans Monday evenings when the Southern Utah State College Thunderbird basketball team hosted the Republic of China National Team. After a rather slow start in which the visitors from Taiwan moved out to an eight point margin of 26-18, the T-Birds decided that they would have to play ball to come up with a victory. Sparked by the hustle of Amos James, who came off the bench end generated some offense, the T-Birds of Coach Stan Jack quickly came back and with a tip-in by Robert Lee with 5 :08 left in the first half regained the lead at 31-30. At halftime the Birds were out in front 51-34 and they main tained the lead through the remainder of the game. Final score was 92-78 for SUSC. But the game aside - it was an enjoyable evening. Fans were in attendance to be entertained and so they were. From the opening fanfare with the playing of the national anthems an-thems of both countires and the exchange of mementos by the players and coaches to the special halftime entertainment provided by the Mohey Tawa and the CHS Country Band to the SUSC Pep Band - it all provided an interesting and entertaining evening. Basketball was the name of the game, but the atmosphere and respect shown by the players and by the fans for each other made for a "good" evening with a little pride maintained by both SUSC, the fans and the visitors from the Republic of China. The bad sports included a "I don't quite know how to act" attitude at the outset that gave the visitors a chance to hold a lead late into the first half of play. During the second half the offense didn't entirely jell for the T-Birds and they were somewhat "anxious" but it appeared that the material is there to make SUSC squad an exciting club -one that certainly could challenge for the RMAC title this year. The Republic of China, although outmanned, nevertheless never-theless were exciting with their quickness and agility. They never lacked for hustle and they left the T-Birds standing in their tracks on a number of occasions. Our congratulations to SUSC for an outstanding evening of entertainment. Basketball - yes. But even more a fine cultural exchange. For Coach Jack it was a preview of his Thunderbirds, ranked as one of the top contenders con-tenders in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this year. He saw some good things and some bad. Some of the good things were the outstanding play of Robert Lee, the games top scorer with 19 points, the hustle of Steve Hodson andAmosJa mes on the back line and some unexpected strength in the middle shown by junior Dave Meyer and Monte Widdison, another junior at the forward spot. All but one the T-Birds got into the scoring column and all saw action with Coach Jack substituting sub-stituting freely throughout the game. Five of the T-Birds were in double figures. Lee was tops with 19 followed by James, Kerry Rupp, Eric Daniels and Quinton Davis, all with ten. PLAN DINNER. Studentbody officers at Parowan High School play for traditional Thanksgiving Dinner served Wednesday. The dinner included turkey and all the trimmings. Making preparations are, left to right, Mark Benson, seminary president; Janeal Stubbs, PHS Vice president and Donald Hulet, studentbody president. |