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Show SUSC I-li&tls, Westminster plan strategy for Satis relay HIM AC clash One television newsman has actually suggested (privately) that Southern Utah State College and Westminster got together and planned the whole thing. While the Thunderbirds and Parsons did manage to set up the area's most crucial basketball meeting of the week, it wasn't pre-planned. SUSC and Westminster each have identical 8-1 records in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Con-ference basketball race. Their first place tie, however, will not last past Saturday evening when the two meet at Westminster's Payne Gym in Salt Lake City for a geniune showdown. Physically, Westminster may have a slight advantage. SUSC's Steve Laing, a bruising 6-7, 210 pound starting forward, is still nursing a nasty cold. Alan Wit-tenbraker, Wit-tenbraker, starting center, is hobbling on a sprained ankle. . Mentally, theT-birds ars riding sky high. How else could they be after sweeping two weekend road games (they are. unbeaten in RMAC action away from home) and watching the Parsons stumble and only split against the same opposition? "We are looking for a whale of a game; these two teams are so evenly matched,'" Stan Jack, Thunderbird coach, commented. "The Westminster floor is a little cramped, but this team of our plays extremely well on the road. This will simply be a good, evenly matched contest between two fine teams." Jack is well aware of the fine individual talent the Parsons have in Jeff Shumway, Mark Peterson, John Hampton and Bosco Pearson. Hampton may be of particular concern. He has never really broken loose against the Thunderbirds Thun-derbirds in two previous meetings. Last week he set a new conference scoring record against Regis with 40 points, and Jack is worried that he may be in top mid-season form. Some statistical comparisons (against identical RMAC teams) indicates the closeness of the teams. --Southern Utah State has a winning margin of 10.8 points per game to top the RMAC. Westminster West-minster wins its, games by an average of 6.3 points. -SUSC connects on 48.4 percent of its field goal attempts; Westminster averages 46.7 percent accuracy. -The Parsons'Hampton is the conference's top scorer (26.7 per outing! , but the Thunderbirds have the fourth (Kohn Smith-21.0), Smith-21.0), seventh (Steve Laing-19.3) and eighth (Gary Crosby-17.6) best scorers in the RMAC. -In rebounding, the 'Birds and Parsons rank number two and three respectively in the conference. con-ference. SUSC gets an average of l!lliill!WliimWtfW!JilMWM , ;f ) 34 - t 4 .' - THUNDERBIRD IN QUESTION. Steve Laing, second " leading scorer with a 16.2 per game average and one of top rebounder sustained injury two weeks ago. T- Bird coach Stan Jack looks for him to be a key factor in battle for conference title against Westminster in Salt Lake City Saturday, 54.7 percent of the reboui.ds in any given game, while the Parsons haul down 51.6 percent of the missed shots in an average contest. --Westminster ranks second in scoring with 87.4 points per game. Southern Utah is third with 86.3 points on the average. --Defensively, SUSC allows , only 75.6 points to opponents, while Westminster gives up 81.1 points per game. In two meetings so far this season-both at Cedar City--the two tea'ms have split. Southern Utah won the first meeting, a non-conference contest in the Color Country Tournament, 96-82. 96-82. Westminster won, 82-81, in a conference game. That is the only RMAC loss for Southern Utah State. Last year the Thunderbirds won both conference games against the Parsons, but lost at Phoenix, Ariz., in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) District Seven playoffs. Saturday's winner will definitely have an inside track for the RMAC title and also for the host team position (with its accompanying home court advantage) ad-vantage) in this year's NAIA district playoff. SouthernUtah State's starting lineup is somewhat questionable at two positions. The -starting center will be either Wit-tenbraker Wit-tenbraker (6-6, 210, senior from Layton High School via Eastern Arizona J.C.) or Robin Haight (6-8, (6-8, 220, sophomore from Cedar City). Strong recent performances by freshman Dunn Lee (6-4, 190 from Layton High School have catapulted him into a possible starting forward spot. The other possibility is regular starter Rick Jackson (6-4, 190, from Orange, Calif., and Santa Ana Junior College.) Laing, Crosby and Smith, barring major problems, will definitely start. All three are strong scorers, and Laing is a good rebounder. Coach Jack calls Crosby and Smith one of the best guardline combinations in the area. |