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Show Tough foes invade SUS lair this week Three fine veterans and a tall transfer are mainly responsible for the unexpected strength of the Raiders from Fort Lewis. Rick Clark who has three years of varsity experience has proven a strong scorer and a good rebounder. He stands 6-5. Other vets back are Kelly McCabe, 6-4, and Chuck Pierce, 6-5. Western State fields a team with only one senior, 6-6 Jim Greene. The Mountaineers are a young team which is expected to get stronger later in the season. "We do have fair size," Western State Coach Bob Decker said, "but most of the time we will be playing against teams bigger than we are." Game times each night will be 7:30 p.m. at War Memorial Fieldhouse. An upstart and a spoiler will provide the opposition Friday and Saturday as Southern Utah State works to keep its drive toward a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference basketball championship alive. Fort Lewis, the upstart, will swing into Cedar City for a Friday 7:30 p.m. game. Western State, the spoiler, will be the competition Saturday. Starting the week (prior to SUSC's Tuesday confrontation with Westminster Tuesday), the Thunderbirds i and Fort Lewis were tied for first place with 3-0 records. SUSC was expected to gravitate to the top, but Fort Lewis was figured to finish in the upper middle of the standings, not at the top. Western State has a winless 0-2 record, but the Mountaineers have enough developing talent to be dangerous against any opponent op-ponent who is tempted to take them lightly. "We are shooting well now," Stan Jack, Thunderbird coach, says, "and of course scoring and good percentage shooting is our strength." Jack is also proud of the balance of his squad. Five players are averaging in double figures on the season, and the bench support has been excellent. ex-cellent. Leading the scoring is 6-9 Jim Wilding with 14.1 points per game. Jack alternates his starting lineup a lot, but his four other "usual" starters are also averaging over ten points. These include 6-5 forward Robert Lee (12.7), 6-7 Steve Laing (12.4), 6-0 Gary Crosby (11.7) and 6-4 Kerry Rupp (10.6). |