THE WEEK (January 12-18)
EAST
Quick quiz: When is a game over? If you said, "When time runs out," you're wrong. If you answered, "When the final buzzer or horn or gun sounds," you're 0 for 2. As Edinboro State and host Lock Haven State learned during a Pennsylvania Conference battle, a game isn't over until the officials say so. In this case, referees Bob King and Pat Scullen called the teams back on the floor 30 minutes after Lock Haven's Bald Eagles left with what they felt was an 84-82 home-court victory. At least that's what the scoreboard said. But while checking their books after the game, both scorekeepers came up with 84 points for the Fighting Scots, so an overtime period was ordered. First, however, a substitute scoreboard operator was enlisted because the regular one had gone home. Lock Haven finally won after the second extra period, 97-92. The Bald Eagles' Ken Richter scored 27 points.
Maryland fans also learned that victory can never be assumed. With 55 seconds left in a showdown with Virginia for first place in the ACC, the Terrapins led 63-60 and had hot-shooting Ernest Graham at the foul line in a bonus situation. Graham missed, and Virginia's Jeff Jones canned a jumper to make the score 63-62 with 39 seconds left. After Dutch Morley made it 64-62 and then missed his bonus free throw, Jeff Lamp tied the game on a jump shot with 10 seconds remaining. Graham, who had trouble inbounding the ball, waited too long to call a time-out and the Cavaliers got the game's last points on Lamp's baseliner six seconds from the end. Virginia later beat Georgia Tech 85-48, and Maryland was a 68-62 overtime winner at Clemson. The Tigers, who had won their last 22 home games, led 42-36 at halftime of a fast-paced contest. The Terps' triangle-and-two zone slowed the action in the second half and held Clemson to 16 points. With Albert King scoring six of his 22 points in the extra period, Maryland climaxed its comeback.
By winning 76-73 at Duke and beating North Carolina State 60-52, Wake Forest stayed within half a game of Virginia. ACC road wins have been rare for the Deacons—two in the last three seasons—but a 15-point edge, with 12 minutes left, helped them survive the Blue Devils. North Carolina State resorted to a waltzlike pace against the Deacons, who handled it well and ran their record to 14-0, their finest start since 1927.
North Carolina squandered a 14-point advantage over North Carolina State, but James Worthy, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds, put the Tar Heels back in front 63-62 when he scored from inside. After the 73-70 triumph. North Carolina drubbed Duke 80-65.
"There's been more emphasis on winning than on playing well, and we've got to get back to doing that," said Corny Thompson of Connecticut following the Huskies' 61-58 win at New Hampshire after leading by 17. In a Big East game, Boston College handed Connecticut its first loss, 58-57. After BC's Bennett Adams stole the ball with 5:50 left, the Eagles stalled until John Bagley sank a jumper for a 57-53 lead with 1:22 to go. Three days later, on the third anniversary of the Hartford Civic Center roof collapse, Connecticut brought down the roof again by beating St. John's 69-68. Chuck Aleksinas had 25 points for the Huskies, his last basket putting them ahead 67-66. After the Redmen regained the lead, Thompson got the last of his 22 points on an 18-footer with eight seconds left.
Colgate's Mike Ferrara, who is second in the nation in scoring with a 28.9 average, pumped in 42 points during a 93-90 win over Bucknell. That was more points than either team had when Catholic University stopped the Red Raiders 38-37 in triple overtime. In that game, Ferrara scored seven points.
Another high scorer, Boo Bowers of American University, was sidelined with a badly sprained right knee. Bowers, who'll be out for three to six weeks, was third in the nation with a 27-point average, and his career average of 22.2 was the highest for any senior in the country. Even without Bowers, American beat Bucknell 75-65 for its ninth straight win, a team record.
WEST
The loudest noises in the Pacific Northwest since Mount St. Helens erupted came from the chest-thumping of Oregon State rooters, who were wildly ecstatic that their team had been ranked No. 1 in the polls. Never before had the Beavers been voted first in any sport, and their accomplishments on the court did much to assuage the frustrations of an 0-11 football season. The No. 1 ranking was also a first for craggy-faced Coach Ralph Miller, now in his 30th season of chalk talks. Waiting for a shot at the eager Beavers last Saturday in Corvallis was archrival Oregon. Speaking of Oregon State's possible weaknesses, all Duck Coach Jim Haney could come up with was: "I'm not fond of their colors." But for a few minutes it seemed the Orange and Black might wind up black and blue. The Beavers missed their first six shots and went nearly five minutes without scoring. Furthermore, Center Steve Johnson was benched after drawing two quick fouls and Miller received a technical for protesting the calls. After that, however, the Orange Express highballed to an 82—55 win. Johnson came back to get 24 points, tied a Pac-10 mark by sinking all 10 of his floor shots and raised his field-goal accuracy to 79.1%, well ahead of the NCAA-record 71.0% he set last season. As a team, Oregon State is shooting 59.0% this season, more than a point better than the NCAA mark established a year ago by Missouri.
Arizona State was second in the league following a pair of home victories, 78-74 over UCLA in triple overtime and 69-55 over Southern Cal. Two Williamses kept the Sun Devils rolling. Paul Williams' two baskets in the final period helped jar the Bruins, who were outrebounded 51-34. Alton Lister, who had 22 points against UCLA, strained ligaments in his right knee in that game and sat out the next. No problem. Sam Williams, normally a forward, took over at center for Lister and scored 27 points to beat USC. Meanwhile, UCLA blew a 12-point second-half lead at Arizona but averted a third straight loss when Darren Daye broke a 76-76 deadlock with a 15-foot, last-second jumper.
Like UCLA, Notre Dame and Brigham Young were bushwhacked on the road. In a game in Oakland, San Francisco befuddled the Irish with a switching man-to-man defense, led 35-25 at halftime and held on for a 66-63 overtime win. Ken McAlister put the Dons on top 64-63 by sinking two foul shots in the last 14 seconds. And then Guard Quintin Dailey, who picked apart every defense used by Notre Dame, added two more free throws to finish with 21 points. Later in the week, San Francisco opened its West Coast AC competition by coming from behind to defeat Gonzaga 63-61 and then hanging on to the last two points of an 18-point advantage to edge Portland 88-86.
BYU was corraled at Texas-El Paso 64-62 when Julius Wayne netted a 20-foot shot with four seconds remaining. The Cougars had earlier survived a 44-point bombing by New Mexico's Kenny Page, winning 92-87 as Danny Ainge scored 28 points and Fred Roberts 21. Tom Chambers twice scored 23 points as Utah won 69-64 at El Paso and 82-76 in overtime at New Mexico. The Utes sank 28 of 36 free throws against the Lobos, got 24 points from Danny Vranes and boosted their WAC record to 5-0. Wyoming was 13-2 overall and tied with Utah after drubbing Colorado State 85-54.
Idaho had a 15-1 record and was 4-0 in the Big Sky after downing Nevada-Reno 63-59 and Boise State 57-45 in league games. The on-target Vandals are shooting 56% from the floor, the second-best mark in the country.
MIDWEST
Creighton's 6'7", 220-pound George Morrow gets little appreciation because, as Coach Tom Apke puts it, "He's more of a blue-collar player than an executive type. He does the dirty work." But in a 54-51 victory over visiting Bradley that left the Bluejays atop the Missouri Valley Conference, Morrow was the boss in three categories, scoring 22 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and figuring in most of the pivotal plays near the end, one a three-pointer that gave Creighton a 52-47 lead. Moreover, he didn't neglect his defense. With Morrow hounding him when the Bluejays went man-to-man, Mitchell Anderson, the Braves' big gun, was held to just 10 points.
In the future, Arkansas Coach Eddie Sutton is likely to be more guarded about his comments—especially those about opponents' guards. Before Baylor came to town, Sutton said the Bears' guards "aren't great ball handlers. We feel we can put some pressure on them." Those backcourters—Jay Shakir and Pat Nunley—let the words sink in and then, fully aroused, left the Hogs wallowing in a 67-58 loss. Shakir scored 15 points and dished out seven assists, and he and Nunley committed only three turnovers. Baylor, which earlier in the week beat Rice 72-61, thus improved its Southwest Conference record to 4-0. Another guard, freshman Ray Harper of Texas, had 16 points during an earlier 62-60 upset at Arkansas. "When a team gets used to running, it's hard on them when they can't," said Coach Abe Lemons, who had his Longhorns slow down the tempo.
Texas A&M finally ended its Humpty-Dumpty routine. After five successive defeats, the Aggies put all the pieces back together again by beating Southern Methodist 71-51.
Three teams shared the top spot in the Big Eight with 2-0 records. Oklahoma State, which is 12—2 overall, beat Nebraska 81-70. Kansas stopped Iowa State 70-58 and won at Oklahoma 82-78. And Missouri overpowered Oklahoma 81-52 and Iowa State 92-69 at home. Those victories gave the Tigers a seven-game winning streak, and that's where it ended when Louisville beat them 71-49 on Sunday. The Cardinals, who are scrambling to atone for a disappointing start, got 19 points from Freshman Lancaster Gordon.
MIDEAST
"When it got to three seconds and we were ahead by six, I figured we had it won if we could keep the gym from burning down," Alabama Coach Wimp Sanderson said after the Tide stunned Kentucky 59-55. It might not have been a gym-burner, but the game was definitely a barn-burner. The Wildcats were held to 40% shooting by a zone that kept them away from the basket and the Tide shot 44.4% against a wilting man-to-man. After 13 ties and nine lead changes, Alabama went ahead to stay 53-51 with 4:44 left. Eddie Adams put it there with a jumper and rounded out his 20-point performance with two free throws that made the score 57-53.
Earlier, Kentucky beat Mississippi at home 64-55, with school-record 78.6% shooting in the first half. Nevertheless, the Rebels trailed by only five at the half because they shot 75%. Wildcat Coach Joe Hall was angry about his team's defense, saying, "We didn't cut off the baseline and that's what you're supposed to do when you're in the zone. Maybe some of our players have holes in them."
Alabama had come close to another upset earlier in the week when the Tide led LSU 40-28 early in the second half. The Tigers recovered to win 59-56 thanks to superior shooting—58% to 45% from the floor and 72% to 50% from the foul line. LSU got off to a better start at home against Georgia, building a 16-8 lead as Durand Macklin scored 12 quick points. At game's end, Macklin had 21 points and 13 rebounds, and the Bulldogs had been charged with 23 turnovers and suffered a 78-65 defeat. The week's action left LSU one game ahead of Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference race.
Tennessee's Gary Carter swished in 30 points during a 78-64 win over Florida and 21 more as the Vols beat Vanderbilt 72-66. Georgia doused Mississippi State 66-64 as Dominique Wilkins accentuated his 31 points with three dunks. This season, Wilkins, a 6'7" sophomore, already has 30-odd stuffs, a 24.3 scoring average and 35 blocked shots.
Just as Coach Ray Meyer had hoped, his team's loss to Old Dominion the week before awoke his slumbering Blue Demons. Mark Aguirre was the sparkplug during two spirited practices following that defeat. Then, after Aguirre hit on 15 of 21 shots and had 36 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a 93-67 win over St. Louis, he volunteered the squad for another long workout the next day. That done, Aguirre had 25 more points as De-Paul defeated Wagner 90-75.
Rebounding from losses to Marquette and San Francisco, Notre Dame knocked off Hofstra. The Flying Dutchmen trailed only 57-53 with 1:37 left, before succumbing 65-55.
South Alabama breezed past North Carolina at Charlotte 80-63 in a Sun Belt game and clobbered Nicholls State 95-62, Ed Rains scoring 31 points for the Jaguars in the first and 23 in the second. In other Sun Belt action, South Florida downed Alabama-Birmingham 79-77. The Bulls, 6-21 last season, have won 11 straight and are 13-4.
Mark Smith of Illinois did a little bit of everything during two Big Ten wins at home. While the Illini beat Purdue 87-65 and Minnesota 80-76, Smith accumulated 36 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, seven steals and two blocked shots.
Decisive first-half spurts enabled Iowa to take two road games, 76-66 at Wisconsin and 73-58 at Michigan. The Hawkeyes broke away from a 24-all tie with the Badgers by out-scoring them 17-6 and blew away the Wolverines with a 17-2 burst. Wisconsin's Claude Gregory had 32 points against Iowa and 27 during a 71-69 loss to Purdue.
There was one second left in overtime at Michigan when Indiana Coach Bobby Knight walked off the floor and left his team behind. Knight was in no mood to see if Mike Mc-Gee of the Wolverines would add to his 21-point total when he stepped to the foul line with the Hoosiers trailing 55-52. He missed, Bobby. Michigan's Bodnar twins were instrumental in the outcome, Marty sinking two free throws for a 52-50 lead and Mark adding three more in the last 23 seconds. On Sunday, Indiana beat Ohio State 67-60.
Ohio University's 78-63 victory over Bowling Green gave the Bobcats reason to celebrate. After all, it ended a two-year, 12-game string of losses.
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PLAYER OF THE WEEK
GARY SPRINGER: The 6'7" Iona freshman had 58 points, 23 rebounds and two game-winning shots. He beat Wagner 82-80 with a basket at the buzzer, and his 20-footer with six seconds to go nipped Holy Cross 57-56.