Tuesday, April 10,1979
THFrr.ARTON
..page four
Tornados Finish
Sixth In Nation
by Tim McGuire
The Brevard Tornado cagers
finished sixth in the National
Junior College Athletic
Association tournament. The
tournament was held during
spring break at Hutchinson,
Kansas.
Before advancing to the
tournament Brevard had to
defeat the Region XX champions,
Alleghany Community College of
Cumberland, Maryland. The
score was a convincing 81-68.
Brevard was led by Benton
Wade, who had a game high 29
points and 12 rebounds. The
Trojans were paced by Keith
Creighton, who tallied 18.
The Tornados first round op
ponent in Hutchinson was last
year’s runnerup. Region HI
champions, the Frontiersman
from Niagara Community
College, Sanborn, N. Y. The
result was a heartstopping 77-75
triumph in two overtimes for
Brevard.
The Tornados were led by
Brian “Chico” Horton, who put in
26 points. 5’9” guard Kevin
Herron put up a 30 foot jumper at
the end of the first overtime to
keep Brevard’s hopes alive.
The game was nip and tuck
throughout as Brevard notched
its 25th victory, surpassing the
record for any previous BC team.
That win had its effect on the
team when they played Dixie
College of St. George, Utah.
When the buzzer sounded
Brevard had lost by a score of 84-
74. The Dixie Rebels eventually
finished in third place.
The Tornados were never in the
contest as the Rebels jumped out
to a 7-0 lead and lengthened that
lead to a 59-43. A late Brevard
rally did not pull off the victory
for Brevard. Larry Jewell paced
the team with 16 points.
That loss put Brevard in the
consolation bracket. The Tor
nados then proceeded to pound
Nebraska Western 75-63. Jewell,
the 6’9” pivotman from Franklin,
Indiana, was high scorer with 16
points. Brian “Chico” Horton and
Benton Wade responded with 14
and 13 points respectively.
This victory guaranteed
Brevard sixth place tournament
finish. An 83-79 loss to Brevard of
Florida ruined the Tornados
hopes of a higher finish. The
Florida Titans trailed 38-37 at the
half but then outscored the
Tornados 21-6 seal the verdict.
The Tornados were paced by
Larry Jewell with 21 and Benton
Wade who put up 20.
>
Sports line: NCAA Tourney Recap
by Booby Hayes
I’m afraid its now time for me
to recap the predictions I made
as to which teams would make
the NCAA Final Four in my last
column. Of my four predicted
winners, only one (Michigan
State) came through, which puts
my prediction average squarely
at a lowly .250. But my one
correct prognostication packed a
powerful punch, with the Spar
tans of Michigan State going on to
win the NCAA Basketball
Championship 75-64 over
previously unbeaten Indiana
State.
The Spartans won the title with
a less than spotless 26-6
worksheet, but it was quite
evident that they were the best
team in the country when it
counted, in the NCAA Tour
nament. In winning five games
during the tournament, they
encountered little trouble with
their opponents making it close,
for their smallest winning
margin in their path to glory was
ten points.
Michigan State’s title is well
deserved and caused much
jubilation for the Big Ten Con
ference. The Big Ten has the rare
distinction of having represen
tatives of their conference
winning both the NCAA and NIT
(Indiana) Basketball Cham
pionships. Sorry ACC fans,
maybe next year.
Indiana State, runner-up to the
Spartans, certainly surprised
many people (including me) in
advancing as far as they did in
the tournament. I still stubbornly
believe that Indiana State did not
have an outstanding team. The
ace in the hole was the
m-
comparable Larry Bird, who
could probably win with four
midgets as teammates. Their 32-1
record is certainly nothing to
scoff at.
As for the other two members
of the Final Four, I don’t think too
many mortals could have
predicted the DePaul and Penn
sylvania would complete the
field. DePaul had to defeat
perennial power house UCLA and
Pennsylvania won a region in
which they were seeded ninth out
of ten teams to reach the Final
Four. Big accomplishments
indeed.
So college basketball has ended
for another season. Now we
basketball fans have the NBA
playoffs to watch. Yawn.
Now for a few sports shorts.
Coach Ray Meyer of DePaul,
who was voted College Basket
ball Coach of the Year, was very
gracious after narrowly losing to
Indiana State in the National
Semifinals. He had this to say
about Larry Bird’s performance
against his team, “He had a bad
first half. He only hit 11 of 12
shots. I don’t know how he missed
that one shot. It must have been
poor coaching.”
Speaking of Larry Bird, he
deserved to have his feathers
tarred after the way he treated
the press following his team’s
loss to Michigan State. Bird was
absent when it was time to meet
the press and answer questions
after the game. He later had a
person pass out a mimeographed
sheet with a few comments on it
that he made about the game.
his team won to talk to reporters,
but the minute adversity struck,
he vanished. Members of 38 other
NCAA Tournament teams had to
cope with defeat and handle it
with class, why should Larry
Bird be different?
As I earlier mentioned, the
NBA playoffs begin soon. The
NBA is losing lots of money due to
fan apathy and the league just
doesn’t understand why. I think I
do. The regular season in the
NBA is a long 82 games and
means relatively nothing, since
12 out of the 22 teams qualify for
the playoffs. Just recently, the
New Jersey Nets clinched a
playoff berth with a 36-40 record.
To reach the playoffs, a team
ought to show some sort of ac
complishment during the regular
season, but not in the NBA. The
Nets didn’t even win half of their
games, yet they are competing
for the world championship.
Maybe this striving for
mediorocracy will convince the
fans that every team in the
league should participate in the
playoffs, with the playoff
pairings being drawn out of the
hat and the regular season being
abolished. After all, who needs 82
exhibition games?
Women’s
Tennis .500
by John George
The women’s tennis team has a
record of 2-2. The women started
out the season slow losing to
UNC-A 6-3. Beth Arnest came
back from 0-5 to win the only
singles match. Teresa Gentry
teamed with Annette Miale to win
the number one doubles and
Leslie Brown and Kathy Kauff
man won the number three
doubles.
Brevard won their first match
against Montreat-Anderson 5-4.
Winners in this match include:
Lynn McManus-, Miale, Arnest
and Brown plus Arnest and
Brown teamed up to win the
doubles match.
On April 4, the team went up
against a strong Western
Carolina team. No one won a
match but Leslie Brown played a
close match.
Against Greensboro College,
the team won their second match
of the year. Gentry, Miale,
Phyllis Owen, Arnest, and Brown
all won singles while Gentry,
Miale, Arnest, and Brown won
their double matches. McManus
was winning her singles match
but had to forfeit because she
injured her foot.
The team is in action at home
on April 18 here against Mon-
treat-Anderson.
Neil Simon’s
The Cheap
|>etective”
Cotumbi*
Pictures ©'^'8 COlUMBi^ Per TyOf s IHOUSTRUS l»«c
Sunday
April, 22
8:00p.m.
Wentworth,
Track Team
Perform Well
by Alan Baker
While most students were
looking forward to the spring
holidays, Jeff Wentworth was
preparing himself for the
National Junior College Indoor
Track Championships held in
Columbia, Missouri, on March 16
and 17. Jeff competed in the three
mile run, finishing 8th with an
event time of 14:32.8, seconds
away from placing in the meet.
Jeff returned to Brevard on
Saturday the 17th and ran a
personal best, 4:18, placing him
8th in the mile.
Coach Norm Witek says, “Jeff
has been making great progress
since coming to Brevard. Jeff has
already proven to be one of the
toughest junior college distance
runners; on top of which he is an
All-American in cross country.”
The Brevard Track team
finished 3rd at the Catamount
Invitational on March 31st, losing
out to Carson Newman (1st
place) and to Western Carolina
(2nd place). Brevard was closely
followed by Davidson College;
other colleges were Emory and
Henry, High Point, Milligan,
Wingate & Furman’s “B” team.
The top point getters for
Brevard were Jeff Wentworth,
James Cray and Lamar Roberts
all with 6 points each. Lamar
Roberts placed 2nd in the 400
hurdles while teaming up with
James Cray for 2nd place in the
400 & mile relay; Cray also
placed 2nd in the 400 meters at
50.5. Wentworth placed 4th in 1500
and 2nd in 5000 meters. Todd
Murphy ran a personal best, 4:03,
in the 1500 meters, placing 3rd
and finishing 4th in the 800 meters
at 1:59.8. John Holt placed 3rd in
the pole vault, Mike Shell place
5th in the triple jump, John
Tragnor 5th in the 5000 meters,
.'SulaymanNjie placed 5th in 200
meters and he was a member of
the 2nd place relays while Tony
Miller ran on the mile relays.
Brevard was the only jr. college
to participate in this meet.
Golf News
Coach John Meyerhoff’s early
departure left the golf team
without a coach for a while.
Luckily, Lee Bratton was able to
step in and fill the bill.
The golf team has played two
matches this season. Both
matches have ended in losses for
the Tornadoes. The victorious
teams were Anderson March 29
and Spartanburg Methodisst
April 2. Chip Smith, medalist at
the Anderson College match, shot
a 74; Lew Ferguson shot an 82.
The match score was 315 An
derson, 350 Brevard. Lew
Ferguson shot an 82 against
Spartanburg Methodist. Brevard
had another 315 for the match,
while Methodist had a 346.
The team picked up three new
players after spring break; Rob
Zieger', Steven Gwaltney, and
Bob Stroup.