- Publish date:
A roundup of the week Jan. 18-24
BASKETBALL—ABA: Runner-up Indiana, whose six-game winning streak was broken by Kentucky 108-88 the night before, defeated West leader Utah 119-113 (page 46) and climbed within three games of the sinking Stars, who dropped three of four overall. Kentucky held its eight-game lead over Virginia in the East Division as both teams won two of three, including a split with each other on successive nights. In the first game, the Squires, led by Charlie Scott's 46 points, snapped the Colonels' 10-game winning string with a 138-132 victory on the loser's home court, and, in the return game, the Colonels gained their 10th consecutive road victory by beating the Squires 118-115. Rookie Artis Gilmore and Dan Issel totaled 72 points for Kentucky, while rookie Julius Erving scored 40 points and pulled down 21 rebounds for Virginia.
NBA: "We were the poor kids playing the rich kids and we should have won," said East Coach Tom Heinsohn after Jerry West popped in a 20-foot jump shot with two seconds left to give the WEST a 112-110 victory in the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. The East, a 10-point underdog, had hustled to a 64-54 halftime lead, fallen behind by nine points with less than three minutes to play and tied the score at 110-110 on Dave Cowens' basket with 11 seconds to go.
Following the All-Star Game break, Pacific leader Los Angeles continued its inexplicable slump, losing to New York 104-101 as Earl Monroe and Dean Meminger came off the bench to total 27 points, and to Phoenix 116-102, making it four losses in six games since the record 33-game winning streak. Golden State zipped to its 11th win in a row and moved half a game past Seattle into second place, still a formidable 12 games behind the Lakers. Boston held its five-game lead over the Knicks in the Atlantic Division, and Milwaukee remained 4½ ahead of Chicago in the Midwest. The closest race was going on in the all-losing Central Division. Cleveland, the brief leader only a few weeks earlier, dropped its ninth consecutive game and plummeted into the cellar, replacing Cincinnati, which ran its modest winning string to four games, including a 128-108 victory over Cleveland on Nate Archibald's 41 points. Despite its sudden reversal, Cleveland was only 6½ games behind first-place Baltimore. In the gunners' battle of the week. Pistol Pete Maravich popped in 50 points for Atlanta, and Billy Cunningham tossed in 45 for the 76ers as Atlanta whacked Philadelphia 124-116.
GOLF—MILLER BARBER, on the 3rd hole of sudden death after an 18-hole playoff, defeated George Archer to win the Tucson Open (page 54).
HOCKEY—Improving St. Louis (page 18) won two of three to move into third place in the West but was still an insurmountable 26 points away from first-place Chicago and a discouraging 16 behind runner-up Minnesota. Red-hot Boston scorched Detroit 9-2 with six goals in the second period as Derek Sanderson scored three and assisted on two others, shut out St. Louis 2-0 and blasted Montreal 8-5 on five second-period goals to gain a two-point lead over New York in the East. Rookie Ken Dryden, who had a back injury, played his first game in the goal for Montreal since Dec. 6 and turned away 32 shots in a 1-0 shutout of Toronto before being buffeted by the Bruins.
MOTOR SPORTS—Defending world champion JACKIE STEWART, driving a Tyrrell-Ford, led all the way to take the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires, the first Formula I race of the season.
SKIING—ANNEMARIE PROELL of Austria won her fourth downhill of the season, and France's BRITT LAFFORGUE took her second slalom in a row at World Cup events in Grindelwald, Switzerland. In the last race before the Olympics, Proell won the giant slalom at St.-Gervais, France and climbed into the lead in the World Cup standings, 203-187 over Fran√ßoise Macchi of France.
TRACK & FIELD—JIM RYUN, with a 4:06.8, defeated Kipchoge Keino by seven yards in the mile at the Sunkist Invitational in Los Angeles (page 12). The night before, at the San Francisco Examiner Games, Keino won the mile in 4:01.2. Many of the same athletes competed in the two meets, with AL FEUERBACH, REYNALDO BROWN and LEE EVANS gaining back-to-back victories. Feuerbach made it three straight wins in two weeks over Randy Matson when he heaved the shot 68'2¼" at S.F. and 67'4" at L.A. Brown high-jumped seven feet and followed it with a 7'2" leap, while Evans took the 600-yard run with a 1:10.3 the first night and a 1:10.7 the next. FRANK SHORTER and GEORGE YOUNG traded victories in the two-mile run, with Shorter winning the Examiner Games in 8:52.6 and Young taking the Sunkist in 8:47.2. Sweden's KJELL ISAKSSON and HANS LAGERQVIST also took turns defeating each other in the pole vault as Isaksson leaped 17'1½" at S.F. and Lagerqvist reached 17 feet at L.A. WILLIE DAVENPORT won the 60-yard hurdles in 7.1 the first night and finished second to PAUL GIBSON the following night as both were timed in 7.1.
At the Philadelphia Classic the ADELPHI mile-relay team, which set a world indoor mark with a 3:13.7 a week earlier, lost its record to the Philadelphia Pioneer Club, which clocked 3:13.3 in a heat. In the finals, however, Adelphi (Keith Davis, 49.6; Larry Ross, 47.9; Dennis Walker, 47.5 and Clyde McPherson, 47.2) lowered the record to 3:12.2. In other events BYRON DYCE won the mile in 4:01.8, BRIAN McELROY took the 1,000-yard run in 2:08.2 and TOM BLAIR won the pole vault at 17'¼".
MILEPOSTS—ELECTED: To baseball's Hall of Fame, Pitchers SANDY KOUFAX, 36, and EARLY WYNN, 52, and Catcher YOGI BERRA, 46. Koufax, a lefthander and the youngest player ever selected, had only a 36-40 record in his first six seasons with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. But in his last six years he won 129 games and lost only 47 (with 25-5, 26-8 and 27-9 seasons), gained five straight ERA titles, took the Cy Young Award three of four years and pitched four no-hitters, including a perfect game, in leading the Dodgers to three pennants. Overall he struck out 2,396 batters in 2,324‚Öì innings before retiring at 30 in 1966 because of the risk of permanent damage to his arthritic left elbow. Wynn, a righthander, pitched 23 years (a major league record) for three American League clubs from 1939 to 1963, and is only the 14th (and last) pitcher to win 300 or more games. He won 22 games for the pennant-winning Chicago White Sox in 1959 at age 39 and gained his 300th victory (against 244 losses) in 1963 at 43. Berra, a superb catcher, batted .285, hit 358 home runs and had 1,430 RBIs in his 19 seasons. He played in 14 All-Star Games and 14 World Series (he holds 10 Series catching records) and won the American League MVP award three times (1951, 1954 and 1955).
HIRED: Two Stanford assistants as head football coaches at Stanford and California. JACK CHRISTIANSEN, 44, a former All-Pro defensive back and once head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, takes over the Indians, and MIKE WHITE, 36, will lead the Bears. At Georgia Tech, BILL FULCHER, 38, who completed his first season at Tampa with a 6-5 record, was named head coach.
PURCHASED: BY ANDY GRANATELLI, 48, the racing operation of RICHARD PETTY, 34, for the 1972 season for approximately $1 million. Besides Petty, who set a NASCAR record with $333,148 in 1971, Granatelli obtained the services of BUDDY BAKER, 31, the No. 3 money-winner with $116,942.
RESIGNED: As head football coach at Oregon, JERRY FREI, 47, after five years and a 22-29-2 record.
