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Page 6B SPORTS ^KiarlotU Thursday, June 8,1989 James Cuthbertson Post Sports Writer Thumbs Up To Charlotte Track And Field Champs Congratulations to our state track champions. Montez Jones of West Mecklenburg won the boys' discus with a throw of 170 feet, two Inches. East Mecklenburg's Leslie McCasklll won the girls' 800 me ters with a time of two minutes, 17.66 seconds. The Eagles fin ished tied for eighth. Von Ross won the long jump at 18-4' - 3/4". This helped West Charlotte girls to a second place finish. «***««*« Congratulations to Harding's Terry Neal who won the Most Valuable Player trophy for the second straight year. He is only a tenth grader for the Rams but is one of the highly touted young talents in the area. Neal is the son of Terry and Linda Neal of Westhampton Drive. "I was very excited about winning the award," said Neal. "1 really am anticipating next year." Neal plays summer tennis in the Domino's league and with the BATCH Traveling All-Stars of the Southeastern Racquet Association. Look to hear great things from this young man. Want to get hooked on fishing? Enter the Fishing Derby. Kids from five to 16 and their parents who must accompany them are encouraged to participate In the 1989 Fishing Derby Saturday, June 10, from 9 a.m. to noon at Freedom Park. Prizes, Special Awards and Fishing Derby Patches will be furnished the participants. For further Information, call 336-2584 or pick up a registra tion form at the Charlotte Community Centers. Thife is In celebration of National Fishing Week, June 5-11. Once again a Charlotte team is in the finals of the state playoffs. Last year, the Harding Rams were the state 4A baseball champion and, this year, the South Mecklenburg Sabres have slugged their way to the final June 7-9 at either Wilson Hunt or Raleigh Cary. The Sabres did It on the pitching of Sammy Shannon. Shan non stopped Davie County on five hits as the Sabres rolled to an 11-1 win at home. The Sabres are 25-2 overall and will be making their first appearance In the state 4A championship. Shannon, who started only one other time, registered a one- hit complete game win over West Charlotte. Other outstanding players in the game were Mac White and Bobby Workman. ' ' ' ' n|Hf H'V'-v:'/ m \ * X..V •“ ““ '>**'• Ctallotte NBA FKh^Am Tipoll Totnnimait Photo/CALVIN FERGUSON at Johnson C. Smith. De- Leonard-Hearns IliWill History Repeat? Las Vegas Rematch PitsWarriors From 1981 Classic Nearly eight years after their classic confrontation. Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns—the only men ever to hold world titles in five differ ent weight dlvlslons--wlll at long last stage their rematch in "THE WAR," on June 12, at Cae sars Palace in Las Vegas. Promoted by Top Rank. Inc., in association with Caesars Pal ace, the 12-round rematch eve ryone has demanded but ap peared unlikely to ever come about will be shown live nation ally on closed-circuit and pay- per-view. The bout will be shown on closed-circuit television at the Charlotte Coliseum. All seats are reserved at $25 and are available at the coliseum box of fice emd all Tlcketbron outlets at 1-800-543-3041. The two long-time rivals step into the ring at the same venue as their Infamous September, 1981 battle for the undisputed world welterweight champion ship won by Leonard on a 14th- roimd knockout. Boxing fans still have not for gotten the first Leonard-Heams encounter, which featured sev eral swings in momentum. Bomber-turned-boxer Hearns, the WBA welterweight champ, dominated the first five rounds over the lightning-quick Leo nard, possessor of the WBC title belt. Leonard rallied to take the next three rounds before the "Hit Man" re-assumed control tn rounds nine through 12. Rlng- master-tumed-slugger Leonard turned the tables on Hearns once again with a big 13th roimd and, despite trailing slza- bly on all three judges' score- cards, Leonard managed to pull out the victory with a TKO at 1:45 of the 14th. Leonard (35-1, 25 KOs), 32, now living in Potomac, MD, burst into the public eye as the darling of the 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing team in Montreal, win ning the gold medal in the light welterweight division. He be- caqie a world champion for the The NBA Finals Lakers Look For Answers, super middleweight Pistons Go For The Mo Thomas Heams Oct 18,1S58 Memphis Detroit 30 168 6-1 78 40 151/2 111/2 TALE OF THE TAPE Blrthdate Birthplace Hometown Age Weight (approx.) Height Reach Chest Biceps Fist Sugar Ray Leonard M^ 17.1966 Wilmington, N.C. Potomac, Md. 32 168 5-10 74 39 15 11 first time in November, 1979, when he scored a 15th-round knockout of welterweight title holder Wilfred Benitez. The fol lowing June, he lost the WBC welterweight belt to Roberto Duran in Montreal, but regained it in the memorable "No mas" contest—his only other career rematch—in New Orleans five months later. In June, 1981, Leonard gained a world title in a second weight class by knocking out WBA jun ior middleweight champion Ayub Kalule and. Just three months later, he kayoed Heams. Leonard had originally retired from boxing after suffering an eye injury while training for a 1982 fight with Roger Stafford. He returned to the ring in May, 1984, to face Kevin Howard— with the prospects of a dream match against imdisputed world middleweight champion Marve lous Marvin Hagler in the offing. Although he stopped Howard in the ninth round, Leonard was disappointed with his perfor mance and announced a second retirement. He returned for the April, 1987 "SuperFlght" against Hagler and, with a split-decision victory, pulled off one of boxing's big gest upsets while claiming a world title (WBC middleweight, as Hagler had been stripped of' the WBA and IBF) in a third weight division. A chance to become the first man to win world titles in five different weight classes cur tailed Leonard's third crack at retirement. Both the newly- created WBC super middle weight and WBC champion Donny Lalonde's light heavy weight belt were at stake when Leonard challenged the much- larger "Golden Boy" last Novem ber 7th at Caesars Palace. Sur viving a fourth-round knock down, Leonard rebounded to score a ninth round TKO. The 30-year-old Heams (46-3, 38 KOs), who halls from Detroit, beat out Leonard for the un precedented fifth world title by three days when he out-pointed James "The Heat" Klnchen to become the first holder of the WBO crown. The rematch with Leonard will be the first in the professional career of Heams, who won his first world title with a devastat ing, second-round knockout of WBA welterweight champion Pl- plno Cuevas in August, 1980. Hearns fought four times in the next 21 months, highlighted by an awe-inspiring, second- round knockout of Roberto Du ran. Then, on April 15, 1985, Hearns' quest for the undisput ed world middleweight title was thwarted by Hagler, who regis tered a third-round knockout. The year 1987 was a most pro ductive one for Heams, as he nailed down his third and fourth world titles in different weight categories. In March, he scored a lOth-round knockout over champion Dennis Andries for his WBC light heavyweight crown and, tn October, won the vacant WBC middleweight belt by putting away Juan Domingo Roldan in the fourth round. Last June, in the first defense of his WBC middleweight crown, Heams was upset by a bloody Iran Barkley, who handed him a third-round TKO. Undaunted, the "Hit Man" bounced back-- and moved up in welght-to "take the fifth" in his tussle with Kln chen. Las Vegas lays its claim as the fight capital of the world, with Leonard and Heams featured in many of its most exciting matches. While Leonard (9-0, 7 KOs) has been invincible in Las Vegas, beating such notables as Benitez, Heams, Hagler and La- londe in world title bouts, Heams (9-3, 8 KOs) has had his ups and downs in the desert oa sis, where he has suffered all three career losses to Leonard, Hagler and Barkley in title fights by knockout. Tickets for fight are priced at $800, $600, $500, $400, $300, $200 and $100. They may be purchased at the Caesars Pal ace Box Office. Phone 702/731- 7865 or 800/634-6698. By HERB WHITE Post Sports Editor Going into tonight's Game 2 of the NBA finals between Detroit and the L. A. Lakers, it's appar ent that the Lakers are in des perate need of some consisten cy on offense. The Pistons, who took Game 1 109-97 Tuesday, used its trade mark stifling defense to shut down the Lakers' potent offense. Although one game doesn't make a championship series, Detroit's domination was un mistakable. The Pistons, who had the NBA's best regular-season record, looked poised on of fense, with guards Vlnnle John son, Isiah Thomas and Joe Du- mars shooting from all angles and hitting most of them. You can tell what the Pistons are up to by looking at two cate- gorles--guard scoring and bench production. Detroit had all the answers Tuesday, and they smoked the Lakers in the process. Thomas led all scorers with 24 points, followed by Dumars with 22 and Johnson's 19. The Lak ers' guards. Magic Johnson Tony Campbell and Michael Cooper, who started in place of the in jured Bjo’on Scott, combined for only 32. Subs John Salley and Dennis Rodman did a good Job on de fense, and James Edwards came off the bench to give the cham pions fits, with 15 points in 25 minutes. The Lakers' bench, not as deep as Detroit's just couldn't match with its starters, much less the replacements. For Los Angeles to steal Game 2 and move the home-court ad vantage to the West Coast, the Lakers will have to find a way to compete without Scott, whose 19.9 playoff scoring average was sorely missed. Cooper and Campbell were adequate in relief, but Los An geles sure didn't look like the crew that wrecked the Western Conference in sweeping three series in a row. Look for Magic to tiy taking on more of the offen sive burden while Gastonia's James Worthy looks to recover from a 6 for 18 shooting p>erfor- mance that produced 17 points, but they really need a good game from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was limited to eight points in 14 minutes due to foul trou ble. The Pistons' strategy will be the same-kept the tempo brisk while limiting Los Angeles to one shot. With a deep bench, De troit can afford to run and still keep fresh people on the floor. Even with the Pistons' early success, the Lakers aren't going to fold the tents and leave early. There's still the little matter of going to the Forum for three straight games in an arena where Los Angeles has yet to lose a playoff game this season. Hornets Draft Party June 27 The Charlotte Hornets will hold an NBA draft party at 6p.m. June 27 at the Charlotte Coli seum, the team has announced. The draft, to be televised for the first time in prime time, will be aired by WIBS starting at 7:30 p.m. The draft will last only two rounds as opposed to three last year and seven in 1987. The Hornets, who finished with a 20-62 recond last season, have the fifth pick in the first round. Sacramento has the first overall.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 8, 1989, edition 1
18
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