• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1984-02-23_Vol48_No22_04

4 Sports Western Carolinian/February 23, 1984 Cats Host Top-Ranked Marshall Tonight In Reid Gym Finale Western Carolina University's basketball team, ■Marshall has probablv the strongest team we've injury riddled and emotionally drained, faces the sternest seen in the Southern Conference since we've been in the challenge this season to its home court win streak this league." says Cottrell of I hursday's opponent. "I hey tlo Ihursduv evening when top ranked Marshall University everything well with no apparent weaknesses. I hey area visits Reid Gymnasium. very physical team that gets alter you all over the floor." I he Catamounts, down to eight healthy players, are AV e will have lo play a near perfect game lo have a coming oil a thrilling double overtime 88-85 victory over chance to win this one." states Cottrell. " the key will be furman Monday evening that ran then home court win how we handle then defensive pressure. We'll run and streak to 13. they'll run and that should make for a very appealing Coach Steve Cottrell's Cats will eloseout the home game lor the fans." portion ot their 1983-84 schedule I hursday against Marshall, the Southern Coherence's lust place team and Cottrell savs he leels good about what happened in winners ol eight in a row. Ihe thundering Herd, on the Rcid Civmnasiuni Mondav evening. "Our backs were to verge ol top 20 rankings, will bring a 12-2 conlerence lnc wu|j Und our Ircshmcn (Chris fipton. Brian Branson record and 21-4 overall mark into Reid Gymnasium. aru] Richard Rogers) faced the pressure and responded." I hursday's game boils down to be the biggest ol the |K. s;Mj season in Cullowhee as both teams have a lot on the line. ()nK cigh| p|.|UTS wcrc available lor action in the Marshall can clinch the , available lo, action in tin- No. I seed loi the upcoming Conference Overall furman game as reserve Southern Conference Marshall 12-2 21-4 ;„, ,d Vincent I our,lament and a, leas, a ^?h°"™<>X, 11 -3 20 - 4 ^ ,; hfcr Wa|k ^.^ tie lor the regular season Western Carolina 7-6 13-11 ,!hinnV..| hl)ML. .„, ,,ls ..,„,., ehamnionshin with , Appalachian State 8-7 11-14 ^ <-i pped bone on his nght cnampionsnip witn a j^ Citadel 7-8 12-13 lli"ul a,ul >olned Cedric victory. Ihe I hundei ing Furman 6.9 9 . 16 Cokelv (knee ligaments) and Herd wants to extend its Davidson 5-9 9-16 Bruce Hawkins (knee winning streak to impress East Tennessee State 5-10 8-18 cartilage) on the bench. both the NCAA committee VMI 4-11 7-18 'We're scrambling and and the Nil selection struneling." savs Cottrell ol committee. Should the Herd stumble m the conlerence ms Cats. "We have a real depth problcm'and are very tournament and not gain the automatic berth in the limited as to what we can do. but vou have to be proud ol NCAA Tournament that goes with winning the the way this team is hanging in there and not giving up." tournament championship, a late season winning streak hc emphasized. and 20-plus win season would enhance its chances for ' following the home finale I hursday evening, the post-season play. Catamounts will depart on a two-game road nip that w ill end regular season play. They will face Ihe Citadel in Charleson Saturday evening and will be at Davidson Western Carolina can virtually clinch third place in Mondav the regular season standings with an upset of Marshall | hc t-.|ls- opptMjcn, m ,|K. |,lst ,ou,ul 0, thc and at the same time assure Cottrell ol a sixth straight Southern Conference Tournament will be determined bv non-losing season and the lourth perfect season in the 28 thc fjna| rL.guiar season standings. The Tournament". year history ol Reid Gymnasium. I he Catamounts enter which will he plaved in Asheville s Civic Center March 2- the game with a I3-II overall mark. 7-6 in conlerence 4_ wj|| f,avc the regular season's first place team meeting P'a>- the No. 8 team in the opening game of the tourney at Marshall came from behind in the second hall for a |2:()() Noon. Friday. March 2. No. 4 will plav No.5 at 2:00 82-78 win over the Catamounts in Huntington. West pm the same day followed by No. 2 and No. 7 playing at Virginia. January 28. 7:00 pm and No. .1 playing No. 6 at 9:00 pm. Clifford Waddy drives one home against Furman in Reid Gym. WCU will defend home winning steak tonight against top-ranked Marshall. Photo by Mark Haskett their undefeated at Sports Briefs Lady Cats To Host 1 he 1 ady Cats will host Appalachian State in a first round game in the second annual Southern Conference Women's Basketball Championship Tournament this Saturday. February 25. Western Carolina (4th in the conference) and Appalachian State (5th) will meet at 3:00 pm in Reid Gymnasium, while furman University (6th) travels to Marshall University (3rd) for the other Saturday first round game. U I -Chattanooga and Last lennessee State, the top two teams in the regular season standings, have- drawn byes for the first round competition. fhe winner of the Marshall furman match-up will meet Last Tennessee State. February 28 (1 uesday). at 6:00 pm. The other semi-final game will pit the WCU ASU winner against league leader. UT- Chaltanooga. at 8:00 pm. I he finals will be Wednesday night (February 29) at 8:00 pm. Both the semi-finals and championship game will be played at U I -Chattanooga's Maelellan Gymnasium. fhe Lady Cats will close out their regular season this I hursday. February 23. when they travel to Johnson City to take on second ranked East lennessee State at 7:30 pm. The Lady Cals will be handicapped by the loss ol Judy Cireen, an all-around performer and team leader. Green was injured in last Wednesday's loss (50-75) to UNC-Charlotte. and will be unavailable for further play this season. UNC-Charlotte was able to place four players in double figures, while Serena Surratt was the only lady Cat to reach that distinction. In the Lady Cats other game this week, the conference leader. Ul- Chattanooga. handed them a 76-55 loss. The Lady Moes' tenacious defense and 56.4', shooting from the floor was the downfall for the lady Cats. Western Carolina now stands 9-14 (2-5 in the conference) with three players waging an intense battle- tor individual scoring honors. Surratt currently leads with 249 points (10.8 pg). Teresa Bras well is only three behind with 246(10.7 pg). and Emily Holliday is within striking distance with 232 points (10. I pg) I hat order is reversed lor rebounding honors as Holliday averages 7.2. Bras well averages 6.5. and Surratt pulls down 5.7 rebounds per game. Gymnastics Outstanding Western Carolina University's gymnastics team won one dual meet and lost another by less than a point on a road trip this past weekend which Coach Sue Persons labeled. "Very Successful!" Al I ongwood College on I hursday night the lady Cats came in second by a score of 155.8 to 155.3, Joy Fra/icr placed second in the meet with a score ol 32.5. Reenie McDonald placed first in the vault, and freshman kathv Mcleod and veteran Becky Stevenson finished lirst and second, respectively, on the beam. Saturday at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Western took lirst place in the meet with a score of 157.05 to 154.80. In that meet fra/icr and McDonald tied for thud all-around. In the individual events McDonald was first in the vault and Mcleod finished second on the beam. Holly Watkins turned in an 8.3 in the vault (4th place), but was the tirst competitor, so she- set a high standard for those who followed. Coach Persons commented highly on all her perlormcrs. "Kathv Crotty and Jodi Seliult/ contributed greatly to our team depth. UM-BC won three of the four individual event totals, so. for us to win the meet all our freshmen had to score well enough lor us to come out on top in the all-around score. I am very proud of the way the team performed this weekend." last weekend's split gives Western Carolina a 4-7 record on the season In their next event. Western will face Georgia. College. February 25 (Saturday), in Milledgevillc. Georgia. Anne Wike is heavily guarded by two of the Lady the score of 76-55. Baseball Team Roundup Alter an I l-dav break. Western Carolina University's baseball team resumes its 65-game schedule this weekend with live games in three days. Coach Jack Leggett's team opened its season on February 9ai Florida International Universitv in Miami and split the lour game series with good pitching and defense. It was the earliest opening ever for a WCU baseball t ea m. The Cats will plav a single game at Wake forest this Friday and double-headers at North Carolina State- Saturday and Sunday. I he road games will continue next week at Georgia ( I uesday) and Georgia lech (Wednesday). The first home game is scheduled for March 3 when the Cats will host Slippery Rock State College. I Freshman Alfred Turner is the early leading in hitting with a 400 average (2 for 5) while sophomore Photo by Mark Haskett Moes. The Lady Cats lost to the 19th ranked Mocsby Brian I ebo is hittingat a .368 clip w ith four hits in I I trips to the plate. Charlie fonville.. 1983 All-Southern Conference lirst baseman, owns a .273 batting average with three runs batted in. Sophomore Scott Gay is on top ol the pitching stats wiih a 7-0 shutout ol Florida International in his onlv appearance. He gave up only lour hits and struckout 10 of his only appearance. Andy Griffin pitched the Catamounts to their otherw in as he went the distance in a 4-1 win over III. He scattered eight hits in his complete- game v ietorv. Football Tryouts Open tryouts for the 1984 Western Carolina University football team will he held next Wednesday. February 29. All interested W ( I students are asked to report to Whitmire Stadium al 3:00 pm dressed in shorts and appropriate shoes lor timed sprints and agility drills. Sports News And Views Russ Randolph Sports Editor It couldn't have worked out any better. Tonight's basketball gkrhe in Reid Gym. the last home game of the season, will pit the conference's hottest team against an injury-plagued Catamount squad that has not lost at home in 12 outings - what a way to end things! But a win tonight for Western would end a lot of things - mainly, it would put an end to the overconfident comments that have filled the media from Marshall head coach Rick Huckabay. who, by the way is in only his first season at thc Huntington. WV school. Huckabay. as this paper points out well in this issue, is starting to come across a little too cocky for those who take pride in WCU and Southern Conference athletics. While any coach that wins over 20 games in basketball today (Marshall is 21-4 overall coming in to tonight's game) has a right to boast about his team. Huckabay seems to be saying that because Marshall is doing all these great things, every team in the conference should do them, or get out. "Heck. I don't want to get out of this conlerence," Huckabay was quoted as saying recently in the Chattanooga Times. "I think we should ask some of the other teams to get out. Let's get somebody else in, like James Madison that wants in and wants to win and improve itself." The problem this writer has with thc above statement is just who is he talking about? Who in the Southern Conference doesn't want to be in it and who doesn't want to win? Who should get the axe? It's almost as if Huckabay is saying that if you can't win at least 20 games, the heck with you, you don't want to win and you don't belong on the schedule with Marshall. Another alarming statement from Huckabay was pointed directly at WCU. "Appalachian State and WCU do excellent jobs for where they're located but because of where they are located and the recruiting problems they therefore encounter, you can't expect them to do better than they've done in the past. To me, UTC, Marshall, East Tennessee and possibly Furman are the only Southern Conference members who have the"" potential of playing on a higher level in basketball," Call it opinion, a put-down, or just a general comment, but Huckabay consistently lets his views be known, and you have to wonder if he really is in the right place - especially since this is just his first year as a head coach in the league, and the season is not over yet. Sure, Marshall has all but wrapped up the regular season title, but that doesn't guarantee they'll win the conlerence tournament, or beat Western tonight in Reid Gym. Huckabay has inherited - not created - a winning program that has twice the financial backing than the average conference school. Yet. Marshall University has not won a conference basketball title in several years. Perhaps that says that you can talk all you want to. but some people listen, and will make it hard on you when you come- to play them. 1 hat too. means that championships will be hard to come by. because it's not always easy to back up talk about others. Sec SPORTS. Page 5

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1984-02-23
  • Date digitized: 2019-02-19
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.75" x 15"
  • Pages: 8 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1984-02-23_Vol48_No22
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library