8 Z\)G P€Nt)UlUM
Christians improve record
(40) Elon’s Brian Branson shoots over Wingate opponent. The Christians defeated the Bulldogs last Satur
day night in a 53-50 come from behind win.
Photo by Denese Dejerf
Baseball team ranks 5th in national pre-season poll
By Doug Gorman
Sports Writer
Last week the Fightin’ Chris
tians’ basketball team found out
exactly what it was made of.
On Wednesday, Coach Bob
Burton’s squad traveled up the
road to play Carolina Conference
rival. High Point College. For
Elon, the game offered a chance
at gaining a little revenge.
Last season, the two teams
played three times. Each game
was a war that went right down
to the wire, and each time the
Panthers came away with the
hard-fought victory. This includ
ed the final game of the season for
Elon, a tough loss in the finals of
the Conference tournament.
In Wednesday’s game, the
Christians sent a message to the
High Point team that this was a
brand new season.
By the time the buzzer had
sounded, the Christians had made
its point loud and clear. The
91-76 victory was a sign that in
deed Elon was a team to be
reckoned with.
On Saturday, the Christians
returned home to play the
Wingate Bulldogs in a Con
ference battle. Even before the
game started, the large crowd that
had gathered inside Alumni Gym
was shown that this was not go
ing to be an ordinary basketball
game. In an unusual occurrence,
Elon was assessed a technical foul
before action even got started.
The foul was called on the
Christians because no
Early last fall I was talking with
Dwayne Clark about what he
wanted to try and accomplish in
the '87 football season after being
named NAIA All-American in his
sophomore year at Elon. Clark
simply said he wanted to get bet
ter as a player and he wanted the
team to do well and contend for
the national title.
Clark exceeded his previous
standards by rushing for 1,500
yards and scoring 22 touchdowns.
Along the way, he set a school
record for most yards in a game
with 309 against Mars Hill in the
season finale.
scorekeeper or lineups were at the
scorers table by the start of the
ball game.
Even though the Bulldogs fail
ed to convert on the foul shots,
the weird call sort of set the ac
tion for the entire ball game.
It was not until Hary Burrus hit
a jumper with 12:59 of the first
half that Elon even managed to
score its first points from the
floor.
Late in the half, Elon seemed
to gain some momentum. With
time running out, Burrus fed a
pass to Chris Calton, Calton hit
the shot and was fouled.
After completing the three-
point, play time expired and Elon
had cut the half-time lead to
23-18.
Little changed in the second
half. A stunned crowd watched
the possibility of a major upset in
the making. It was not until
almost 6 minutes to go in the ball
game that Harry Burrus took
over.
Scoring 7 points down the
stretch, Burrus helped the Chris
tians gain the lead for the first
time.
Clutch baskets by Eric Blair,
who finished the night with 12
points, and Brian Branson, who
lead Elon scorers for the second
straight contest with 16 points,
helped Elon avoid the major
upset.
The 53-50 victory improves
Elon’s record to 10-2 overall, and
6-1 in the Conference.
But on December 22, when the
NAIA released its All-American
teams, the best Clark could do
was an honorable mention selec
tion. That is crazy.
Nationally, Clark had finished
as the 2nd best scorer. But he
scored more touchdowns than
anyone else. He was the 4th best
rusher based on per game
average, but was second in total
y;rds gained rushing.
Over the last two seasons,
Clark has rushed for 2,025 yards
and scored 41 touchdowns. Yet ac
cording to NAIA, who selects
three running backs per team on
the A-A squads, only considers
Clark the 8th best running back
in the land. You see, he wasn’t
even the first pick for the
By Norman Perduk
Sports writer
In the 1988 pre-season baseball
poll conducted by Walt McAlex-
ander of Lubbock Christian, TX.,
Elon College is ranked fifth na
tionally with a total of 334 points,
behind a strong showing Lewis
& Clark State, Id. which reciev-
ed 31 of a possible 32 first place
votes and 638 pts. to finish atop
th poll. Grand Canyon, Az.,
which picked up the other number
one vote, placed second with
Point Park, Pa. and Southern
Arkansas rounding out the top
five.
Atlantic Christian was the only
other SAC-8 team to make it into
the Top Twenty and should pro
vide Elon with the competition for
hono able mention tram, instead
he was the second.
For Clark, he will have to let
this pass and keep an ^e on con
tinuing to exceed his previous
standards. Then just hope that ig-
onrance won’t prevail on those
who select the All-American
teams.
Dwayne Clark, a 5-9 rising
senior from Laurinburg, NC,
Elon’s second all-time scorer and
rusher, has to now prove the
critics wrong in his senior season
next fall.
If Clark and the Fightin’ Chris
tians have another outstanding
year, then it will be the All-
American committee who will
wish they had seen the light a year
earlier, and seleted him where he
belongs.
the top spot in the conference this
year. Elon finished last season
with a 37-13 record and earned a
birth into the NAIA World Series
before bowing out in the double
elimination tournament with
losses to Emporia St., Ka. and
Lewis & Clark St., this year’s
pre-season No. 1 team.
Not returning to play at Elon
this year is thfe fwwerful 1-2 punch
of Jimmy Caldwell and Randy
Warren who combined for 31 of
Elon’s 66 homers and over 100
R.B.I’s last season. However, Tom
Alessi and Bill Nemenz should
take up the slack and provide
some power for the Fighting
Christians. Alessi, a senior from
Dunkirk, N.Y batted .406 in 1987
with 5 H.R’s and 42 R.B.I’s,
while Nemenz a junior from Erie,
Plans, cont. from pg. 1
visions apartment type housing
for upperclassmen. Each unit will
contain kitchen facilities so a stu
dent may have the option of
eating in if desired.
Minor renovations existing and
planned are also included in the
use of the fiinds. Renovations
such as the new computer center
on second floor Mooney and ad
ditional office space are included
in the college’s current
expansion.
An addition to come is the in
stallation of air conditioning on
second and third floor Alamance.
Not ready to be built, but in the
planning stages, is a new student
center.
Pa. added 4 homers and 35 rib-
bies averaging .343 from the
plate. These two men also spark
ed the running game by stealing
48 bases, half of last season’s en
tire output.
Pitching should also not be a
problem for the Christians with
the return of Chris Cole, a junior
from South Boston,
compiled an 11-2 record and 3.91
E.R.A in ‘87. He will be backed
in the starting rotation by Doug
Zachary and Scott Lesmes.
So again it looks like Elon and
Atlantic Christian will be vying®
capture top honors in both Iht
conference and district in 1988
and try to regain the form thai
made them successful just one
short y;ar ago.
¥)u’re
smart enough
to calculate
iht size of a
Hydrogen
atom.
And you’re^
still smoking.'"
U.S. DeparlmenI of Health & Human Scni^
Sports Beat
Clark denied first class
By Wes Durham
Sports Writer