Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 168, Greencastle, Putnam County, 20 March 1980 — Page 9
Sears and Lezotte most outstanding senior players
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South Putnam guard Chuck Sears (left) was named the Outstanding Senior Boy basketball player for 1980 and was
Carroll key for Boilermakers and UCLA
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Purdue’s ability to get the ball to 7-foot-l Joe Barry Carroll, or UCLA’s ability to prevent it, will be a major factor in the outcome of Saturday’s NCAA semifinal matchup, both coaches agree. The UCLA Bruins, a smaller team than the Boilermakers, count on speed and a pressure man-to-man defense. Purdue also plays some outstanding defense, notably applied by forward Amette Hallman, but the Boilermakers’ primary asset is Carroll. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the key to the game is keeping him from getting the ball,” UCLA Coach Larry Brown said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Once he gets the ball, it’s impossible to stop him.” Carroll, an All-American center, averaged 22 points during the regular season. In the tourney so far, he’s firing 62 percent from the field, scoring 26.5 points and hauling in 9.8 rebounds a game. BUt he’s getting help, and tha-t’s why the Boilermakers have reached the Final Four for the first time since 1969, when—that’s right—UCLA beat them in the championship game. Sophomore guard Keith Edmonson and junior forward Drake Morris are averaging nearly 18 points a game in the tournament, well above their season norms, and the Boilermakers as a team are shooting better than 50 percent from the field. “We’re just playing better basketball and we’ve been able to hit our perimeter shots,” says Purdue’s Lee Rose, who joined Brown, lowa’s Lute Olson and Louisville’s Denny Crum in the telephone news conference Wednesday. “We got bogged down a little in league play, but now we’re playing with more confidence.”
Ft. Wayne semi-state
Valparaiso must nip Flower(s)in bud, while Marion meets Miller's Warsaw squad
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - Valparaiso was able to handle Michigan City Rogers’ Dan Palombizio, but the lOth-ranked Vikings will have to contain another big man in Fort Wayne South’s John Flowers if they hope to win their first semistate tourney championship. "Something like that is going tagive us a lot of trouble,” says Valpo Coach Skip Collins, whose Vikings earned a spot against South’s 15th-ranked Ar-
presented the award by his coach Bill Merkel during the county senior banquet.
NCAA Tournament At A Glance Bv The Associated Press SEMIFINAUS Saturday's Games At Indianapolis. Ind lowa (23-8) vs. Louisville (31-3) UCLA (21-9) vs. Purdue (22-9) NCAA Finals Monday. March 24 At Indianapolis. Ind Consolation Losers of semifinal games Championship Winners of semifinal games The 20th-ranked Boilermakers finished behind champion Indiana and runnerup Ohio State in the hectic Big Ten Conference race. lowa was fourth. In the tournament, though, the rejuvenated Boilermakers whipped Indiana and the steadily improving Bruins dropped Ohio State. “The thing that impresses me is the outstanding team’s they’ve beaten in the tournament,” Rose said of UCLA, which lost six of its first 14 games this season but proved itself with tourney victories over Ohio State and top-ranked DePaul. “I’m sure we’ve been counted out more than once, but the NCAA expansion to 48 teams has helped all of us. We’re in there because of the expansion, and whether we’ve been counted out doesn’t matter. We’re in it.” Going against Carroll at center will be Mike Sanders, a 6-6 sophomore, joined on the front line by 6-7 James Wilkes and 6-8 Kiki Vandeweghe. But Brown isn’t too worried about rebounding. “One main reason is the type of defense we’re playing. We had changed defenses earlier, but that seemed to be a little much for us to handle, so we went to one simple defense, a pressure man-to-man. When you don’t change defenses, you’re able to block out a little better. And we have tremendous quickness and jumping ability inside.”
chers in Saturday’s Fort Wayne semistate. The winner of that game will play either N 0.4 Marion or up-set-minded Warsaw in Saturday night’s semistate title game for a trip to the Final Four in Indianapolis the following week. With the 6-foot-8 Paiombizio held to 13 points—far below his 25-point season average- Valpo downed Rogers 64-56, then edged No. 12 South Bend LaSalle 64-60 to give Collins his first
DePauw University basketball coach Page Cotton (left) made the final presentation of awards to guards Jeff Bibbs (center) and Matt Holliday Wednesday. Bibbs, DePauw's all-time leading scorer with 1,632 points, was named MVP and Most Outstanding player by the Indianapolis DePauw
Virginia defeats Minnesota
Cavaliers jelled in tournament
NEW YORK (AP) - The Virginia Cavaliers believe their victory in the National Invitation Tournament qualifies them as one of the best college basketball teams in the country despite their 10 losses and fif-th-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But with three of the NCAA championship tournament’s final four were also-rans in their own conferences, who’s to say Coach Terry Holland and his team are wrong? “I believe we’re as good as any team in the country when we play well,” said Holland after Virginia defeated Minnesota 58-55 in the championship game of the NIT Wednesday night.
regional title in 15 years as a head coach. “I don’t think there’s a single word or two to describe my feelings,” said Collins. "I’m just happy for the kids. They’ve worked awfully hard.” Valpo stands 23-2, having lost only at Chesterton and Crown Point. As far as containing Flowers, a 6-9 junior, Collins promises, “We’ll think of something by Saturday.”
By STEVE FIELDS Banner-Graphic Sports Editor South Putnam’s Chuck Sears and Greencastle’s Susan Lezotte were named Putnam County’s Outstanding Senior Boy and Girl Basketball players Wednesday night during the county senior dinner at Torr’s Restaurant. The awards were voted upon by the county basketball coaches, and are based upon leadership, sportsmanship and basketball skills displayed by the individuals. This was the first year the girls were included in the banquet or the award was made to a girl. CHUCK SEARS led the South Putnam Eagles, Putnam County and the West Central Conference scoring with a 27.6 average this season. Along with scoring. Sears also was South Putnam’s leading rebounder and scorer Coach Bill Merkel announced earlier, during the South Putnam Winter Sports Banquet, that officially Sears led South Putnam in every statistical category. Already an All-WCC selection, Sears received an honorable mention on the Indiana Basketball Coach’s All-State Academic Team. SUSAN LEZOTTE led the Greencastle girls to the Putnam County title and their second straight West Central Conference title this season, along with the first Cub sectional and regional titles. The 5-8 forward averaged 13.3 for the 19-2 Tiger Cubs, along with pulling down 8.1 rebounds per game. She also had 49 steals and 29 assists in her fourth season as a starter. Lezotte was named to the all-WCC team for the third straight year and is still a candidate for the Indiana High School Girls Basketball All-Star team. She was one of 35 girls from around Indiana who participated in the tryout for the all-star team.
“We didn’t get enough time to jell together during the season, but we played well in the tournament,” said Jeff Lamp, whose four free throws in the last 19 seconds secured the victory. “We had our ups and downs all season and the adversity pulled us together.” Lamp, who scored 30 points in Monday nights semifinal victory over Nevada-Las Vegas but was held to nine in the championship, was referring to Virginia’s season-long struggle to adjust to highly recruited freshman center Ralph Sampson. The 7-foot-4 Sampson, amazingly mobile and agile for his size, was named the NlT’s
Unlike Valparaiso, South’s Archers have won four semistates and two state titles. South’s last appearance in the semistate was in 1977, when it beat Marion by seven points before losing to eventual state champ Carmel by only four. “We’ve had tough com petition all along the way so far,” says South Coach Murray Mendenhall, who expects more of the same this Saturday. The Archers advanced by beating
Alumni for his 23 point per game average and 82 assists in " the 16-9 Tiger season. Holliday, Bibbs' backcourt mate for three seasons, averaged 10.2 points per game with 71 assists and 28 steals to earn the most competitive player award. (Banner-Graphic photo by Steve Fields).
Most Valuable Player after scoring 15 points and 15 rebounds Wednesday night following his 26 points and 15 rebounds Monday. “You can’t really call him a freshman anymore,” said Holland. “This was his 34th game (Virginia finished 24-10) and that’s a lot of basketball. He has developed into an exceptional player.” Virginia shot only 38.2 percent for the game to Minnesota’s 41.7 percent, leading Lamp to say, “We won the game on defense. Intensity throughout the game and the tournament was the reason jve won.” “We had lots of desire and
No. 16 Northrop by 10 points, then barely got by DeKalb by one point for the regional title. South stands 22-4 for the year, including a loss at Marion last December. Warsaw is the only unranked team in the Fort Wayne semistate, but that doesn’t matter much to Coach Jim Miller’s Tigers, who knocked off previously unbeaten, third-ranked Argos last week. It was a last-second, onepoint
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Greencastle Forward Susan Lezotte (left) became the first girl to receive the Outstanding Senior Girl Award from
hustle defensively, but didn’t have any offensive movement,” said Minnesota Coach Jim Dutcher. “We just didn’t move to the basket strong enough. Almost all of our turnovers were on intercepted passes.” The game was almost a freethrow shooting contest at the end. Sampson hit two with 1:31 remaining to give Virginia a 5453 lead before Lee Raker intercepted a pass with 1:08 left. Then Sampson pulled down a key rebound of a missed Virginia free throw, forcing Minnesota to foul again. But this time it was Lamp, who hit 84 percent of his free throws and once hit 48 foul shots in a row this year, who went to the line.
victory over Marion that put the Argos Dragons into the Final Four last year. “We’d like to change the script a little bit this year. We’d like to change the ending,” says Marion Coach Larry Liddle. The Giants, 23-2 this year, have won six semistate crowns. Warsaw, which has never won a semistate, earned the berth against Marion with a 52-
March 20,1980, The Putnam County Banner Graphic
coach Kathy Pieper at the county senior banquet.
Murphy brothers go for Hoosier Relays first places Friday
Gregg and Eric Murphy advanced to the finals in the pole vault and high jump at the Hoosier Relays Indoor Track meet, according to results received by Greencastle High School track coach Charlie Dobson. GREGG MURPHY cleared 12 feet, six inches in the pole vault and it was just the senior’s first time on the pole this spring. “This was good considering it was his first time up this year,” coach Dobson praised. “I expect him to go 13 or higher this Friday.” Murphy’s best vault last spring was 13 feet, five inches. Eric Murphy cleared six feet, six inches in the high jump, only an inch away from his best performance as a junior. According to Dobson it was his first full approach this spring. “It was really excellent for him to go that high,” Dobson said. “The highest was 6-8, so he could win it all,” the coach said optimistically of the competition Murphy will face in the finals Friday. THE GREENCASTLE 880
He hit both with 19 seconds left for a 56-53 lead, then Kevin McHale made it 56-55 with two free throws for the Gophers before Lamp iced it with two more free throws with two seconds remaining. “I’ve been in a lot of 1 and-ls this year,” Lamp said. “I admit I was a little nervous, but I was confident, too.” The NIT has been criticized as a “loser’s tournament” in some basketball circles, especially with 48 teams in the NCAA tournament this year. Lamp answered by saying, “There are only two happy teams in the nation when the season ends, and we’re one of them.”
51 victory over Argos on Mike Petro’s basket with 10 seconds left. The loss gave Argos a 25-1 record this year and a 53-2 mark over the past two seasons. "I’m proud of them,” Miller said of his 21-4 Tigers. “I’d have been proud of them had we lost.” Miller isn’t terrified about playing Marion, but he’s not exactly over-confident, either.
relay team turned in one of the best times in Class C (small school class) at the relay trials. The team of Steve Dean, Robert Breese, Mike Hanlon and Steve Neeley ran the event in 1:38.4. Dobson was exceptionallypleased with the relay performance. “That was their first time running on anything other than the concrete of McAnally And we’re thankful for McAnally because that is what has made this all possible,” Dobson said. Dobson pointed out that because of a change this year, this is one of the few times Greencastle will run an 880relay. High school track has switched to a 44C * is year. According to Dobson, the time at Bloomington is approximately three seconds off the school record and he added “we’re looking to cut a second off that time in the final.”
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DAVID JOHNSON Tiger Cub MVP Johnson was MVP Senior David Johnson was named MVP of the Greencastle High School wrestling team during Tuesday night’s Winter Sports Banquet. It was announced incorrectly Wednesday that David Dewsnap was MVP. Johnson posted an 18-4 record for the young Tiger Cub wrestling team this season and had the fastest fall of the season, setting a school record.
“I never feel comfortable (in* a game). I feel comfortable irr* August when I am out fishing Z and that bass is on the stri-I nger.” -* A RECORD GATE * ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) S Through the 1979 college foot* ball season, Michigan had £ string of 29 straight home gy is with attendance of 100 • 000 or more. The Wolverines attracted 730,315 paying customC ers to their seven home games in 1979, which was a record.
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