PAGE 4 — THE DECREE — MARCH 20,1987
&
BISHOPS’ CHEERLEADER TAMES WITTENBURG TIGER (PHOTOS BY MARSHALL BROOKS)
Bishops win SE title...
The Battling Bishops captured
the Southwest Regional Cham
pionship of the NCAA Division III
Men's tournament by defeating the
Bears of Washington University
(21-6) in the finals and the Car
dinals of Centre College (20-6) in
the Semi-finals in St. Louis.
In the championship game the
Bishops' Lloyd Watts scored the
first five points before the Bears, of
Washington University, scored.
With 13:26 remaining in the first
half of the Bishops ran off eight
straight points to have their largest
lead of the game, 11 points, and
kept the Bears from scoring for
over a minute. A surge by the
Bears with 4:50 remaining in the
first half cut the Bishops lead to
one point and the Bishops called
time out to regroup. Watts came
out of the huddle and on the
Bishops possession dunked for two
points and the Bishops led at the
half by four points.
Chris Bratcher started the
second half with a three pointer to
increase the lead to seven points,
but a foul by Watts put Paul
Jackson on the free throw line and
he made both. A three-pointer by
Brent Rueter and a technical foul
on Coach Bill Chambers cut the
Bishops' lead to one point and gave
possession to the Bears. John Berg
man scored on a layup giving
Washington the lead by one point.
Another three-pointer by Brat
cher put the Bishops up by two
points, but the Bishops would go
ahead by five points after a three-
points by terry Battle and a 16 feet
jumper by Watts. The Bears scored
the next five points on a three-
pointer by Reiter and an eight feet
jumper by Kevin Suiter to tie the
score again 56-56 with 6:54 re
maining in the second half.
A 17 foot jumper by Fluguel
would give the Bears their largest
lead before the Bishops would
score seven straight points to put
their lead back up to four points
with 48 seconds remaining in the
game. Following a Bear time out,
Bergman made both ends and the
Bishops held a two point lead with
26 seconds. Bratcher was fouled,
made the two free throws, and
again the Bishops led by four, but a
12 feet jumper by Rueter cut it
back to two to make the final score
66-64.
The Bishops had Two All
Tournament players, Chris Brat
cher (20pts) and the Tournament’s
Most Valuable Player, Lloyd Watts
(17pts).
According to Watts, "The main
reason we won the regional cham
pionship was because of the way
we played our man to man
defense, it was possibly the best
we've played all year. We had set
our own goals and winning the
regional was one we wanted really
bad, plus we played together with
each other better than we had all
year long and really accepted our
particular goals."
Coach Bill Chambers said, "I
was really proud of the players
because they really rose to the
occasion by playing excellent de
fense in the second half and by
hitting the crucial shots. Terry
Battle played really well in the
second half, two-for-two from the
field and two-for-two from the
free throw line. John Brackett
blocked the shots, made the steals,
and hit a layup at crucial times in
the second half."
In the first game of the tourna
ment, the Bishops shot 44.6 per
cent from the field, 57.1 percent
from the three point range and
were 66.7 percent from the free
throw line to down the Cardinals
of Centre College 64-62. Lloyd
Watts led the Bishops with 19
points and Chris Bratcher added
16.
I
SOUTHEASTERN REGIONAL WAS TRIUMPH FOR WESLEYAN
„£ut fall to Tigers in quarter finals
By RHONDA SHARPE
The Tigers of Wittenburg Col
lege defeated the Bishops 77-64 in
the NCAA Division III men's bas
ketball tournament quarter finals
Saturday in Springfield, Ohio.
The Tigers won the tap and led
by two after a layup by Tom
Weller. On the Bishops first pos
session a layup by Chris Bratcher
tied the score at 2-2 with 18:45 to
go in the first half. The score was
tied again 6-6 with 16:28 left in
the first half. The Tigers then
scored seven unanswered points be
fore a three-pointer by Terry Bat
tle.
The Bishops scored five straight
to come within two points of the
Tigers. However, from 11:31-2:48
in the first half the Bishops scored
only six points while the Tigers
scored 20 points to gain their
largest lead of 22 points. The
Bishops went into the locker room
at half-time down by 16 points
after a late surge.
Chuck Hoffman started the
second half with a layup to cut the
Tigers' lead to 14 points. The
Tigers upped their lead to 19 points
with 17:38 left in the game, but
Wesleyan came back to trail by
only eight points midway through
the second half.
The Tigers increased their head
to 19 points with 3:39 remaining in
the game. Following a Bishop
timeout, four unanswered points by
the Bishops cut the lead to 14
points with 3:11 to play. The
Bishops would get within 11 points
of the Tigers before losing by 13
points, 77-64.
The leading scorers for NCWC
were Terry Battle with 21 points
and Steve Allision with 24 points
for the Tigers.
"What really hurt was we did
not match up good against them,"
Coach Bill Chamber said. "They
were taller and a lot stronger than
we were physically. The difference
in the game was they out re
bounded us. They had 46 total
rebounds, and we had 32, but what
really hurt us was offensive
rebounds. They had 19 and we had
eight. We shot better than they did
from the field, but from the free
throw line we had an off night,
shooting 23 percent"
Coach Chambers added, "Well,
it was a great season. It was the
best season Wesleyan's had and
the first time a Dixie Conference
team has won the regional." Cham
ber feels that, "We're causiously
optimistic about next yeaj because
we're losing Lloyd. He was our key
player and the most valuable
player in the conference and dif
ficult to replace. Also we will be
loosing David Gruver and Chuck
Hoffman who along with Lloyd
were the senior leaders. But we'll
have John Brackett and Terry
Battle as seniors along with Chris
Bratcher and Johnny Wright."