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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1987)
Tuesday, February 3, 1987/The Battalion/Page 9 "Stars & Stripes grabs 3-0 lead in Cup 7 One more victory over Aussies brings America's Cup home 1 FREMANTLE, Australia (AP) — Kars & Stripes moved to within once I |ce of bringing the America’s Cup home, pulling away to a 3-0 lead P'o-iniftpvei Kookaburra III Monday by n 0t ftl 1 * 11 # t ^ ie Australian boat easily in the moderate winds the Aussies had wanted. as cenid (Is Aqua; They k ite Aon iry’s fnii on. to conce : >re point rnment. Iiat rank he end of the best-of-seven se ries could come Wednesday. U.S. skipper Dennis Conner, expecting stronger winds than today, called a !ay day, which also gave Aussie skip per Iain Murray a chance to fme- une his golden-hulled boat and his :rew’s gray spirits. It was a move that only seemed to jelav the inevitable — a return of I ■silver trophy to its homeland of righi-i 132 years. >ut-didl|Ktars & Stripes’ one-minute, 46- s and second victory was so easy that the be “nffi.-lKf American boat’s crew members, acted as if they were on a pleasure cruise rather than on a chapter in yachting history. They joked and took snapshots of each other and at one point, Conner gave tactician Tom Whidden a chance to steer the boat. But nothing they did kept them from controlling the race for the third straight day. Not even moder ate winds of 12 to 18 knots — the speed Murray sought — stood in their way. “We do seem to be peaking now,” Whidden said. Few obstacles remained in Con ner’s path toward vindication for his 1983 loss to Australia II, the only time America didn’t win the Ameri ca’s Cup. On the last leg, the beaten Aussies got another jolt. A Kookaburra chase boat sped alongside the 12- meter yacht to tell the crew a bomb threat had been received by Sydney police. Syndicate chief Kevin Parry said the crew was given the option of evacuating the boat, even though he was told the call almost certainly was a hoax. The members decided to continue and Murray kept his sense of humor. He said he decided to continue the race, “since we were well behind and we didn’t think if a bomb went up it was going to affect the result.” The boats hit the starting line at the same time Monday and, in a rare development, Kookaburra III went in front. It was ahead when they crossed four minutes into the race and when they crossed again 11 min utes later. The next meeting was an unplea sant one for the seemingly de fenseless defenders of the Cup. It came about six minutes later as the boats sailed toward each other, Stars & Stripes coming from the right and Kookaburra III from the left. The Americans were in front by about two boat lengths and the Aus sies tacked to the left rather than try ing to pass under Stars & Stripes’ stern. They had a good view of that stern the rest of the day as they never led again. As it had in each of the First two races, Stars & Stripes led at every mark Monday. In the series, it has won 10 of the 12 upwind legs, four of the six downwind legs and four of the six reaches. Kookaburra III has sailed a total of nine hours, 45 minutes and 49 seconds. Hoyas fall to Redmen Miller proves he can still compete , with PGA Touhs younger players ■EBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Johnny Miller proved himself wrong. thought the Johnny Miller years were over,” said the 39-year- , old veteran who once was known as I goll’s Golden Boy. ^K)espite what he calls “a terminal. P 1 *! 1 * 11 ? stroke,” Miller rolled back 'Ul the years last weekend and scored ■ 23rd victory of his PGA Tour ca- reer in the Pebble Beach National -Thts Pro-Am. ! to ra I And it was the success of some of g Febt goli’s older players in recent major of the championships — Jack Nicklaus in the Masters, Raymond Floyd in the gns o U.S. Open and Lee Trevino in the my heldl98l PGA — that kept alive his high t hopes that “the Johnny Miller years” me up had not ended, ites. erageoi’i Miller, a former U.S. and British 9 poin Open winner and the best player in ter 2E‘the game in the mid-’70s, was Player >i, broaipf the Year in 1974 when he won so finisliffight American tournaments and set a single-season money-winning re cord. But he’d gone through four sea sons without a victory before he came from six shots off the pace with a last-round 66 at Pebble Beach, 1 stroke better than runner-up Payne Stewart. “My career was kind of mellowing out. That’s okay. I was kind of enjoy ing smelling the roses along the way, checking out the scenery,” Miller said. “You know, I’ve been playing competitive golf since I was 8 years old. I’m 39 but my nerves are like 46 or 47. “The last few years, I’ve played as good tee to green as I ever have. But my putting stroke is terminal. “The kids out here now are so good, and there are so many of them, and they do nothing but eat, drink and sleep golf. It’s hard to compete with them, just to make the cut. “I kind of thought maybe the Johnny Miller years were over,” he said. But there was another thought, too. “I look at Jack winning the Mas ters and Floyd winning the (U.S.) Open, and Trevino (in the 1984 PGA). “Trevino winning was great, very special. And there’s only one Jack. And there aren’t many Ray Floyds around. “And I look at Hubert Green win ning the PP (in 1985) and I say, ‘good going, Hubert. ‘Then I think, ‘Hey, I can play better than Hubert and he just won a major’.” Johnny didn’t win a major. But it was the next best thing. “It’ll do a lot for me,” he said, and ticked off things like exemptions to the Masters and Tournament of Champions. “But the most important thing is that the other players out here won’t look at me like I’m a dead horse,” he said. NEW YORK (AP) — Guard Mark Jackson scored a career-high 34 points Monday night, including four in overtime, to lead No. 19 St.John’s to a 67-65 Big East Conference bas ketball victory over lOth-ranked Georgetown. In avenging a 60-46 loss to the Hoyas at the Capital Centre in Land- over, Md., on Jan. 7, the Redmen outscored Georgetown 4-2 in the ex tra period with Jackson, a 6-foot-3 senior, hitting two baskets, including the winner with 52 seconds left. Jackson also knocked the ball out of Reggie Williams’ hands and out of bounds with two seconds to go in overtime. Williams, who paced Georgetown with 26 points, had tied it with 1:22 left. Williams had missed seven straight shots over the last Five min utes of regulation play. The victory moved St. John’s to 6- 4 in Big East play, 15-4 overall. Georgetown is 15-4, 5-4. SFA finds 3-point rule blessing in disguise NACOGDOCHES (AP) — When the 3-point basket became a reality for college basketball last March, Stephen F. Austin Coach Harry Miller didn’t care for the idea. Then he discovered Eric Rhodes and Scott Dimak. “My reaction was that we’ve got a good game the way it is but we keep trying to fix something that’s not broken,” Miller said. But Rhodes, a 6-foot-3 guard, warmed to the idea quickly. He leads the nation, hitting 61 per cent of his tries and has had six perfect games from outside the 19-feet-9-inch 3-point line this season. Dimak is hitting 56 percent and as a team, the Lumberjacks are second in the nation to In diana in 3-point baskets. Despite having no starter taller than 6-6, they are 13-7 after Saturday’s 70- 55 victory over Southeast Loui siana. Students call Rhodes “the bomber.” Crowds at SFA Col iseum rise to their feet when Rho des gets the ball in the 3-point zone, and Miller is a little easier on the 3-point goal. “A guy’s got a right to change his mind doesn’t he?” he said laughing. “I hope they leave it where it is now for a few years so we can play with it some.” Rhodes and Dimak liked the idea from the beginning. “I thought it would be good for me personally and for the game in general,” Rhodes said. “I thought it would add excitement to the game.” But Rhodes never thought about being thrust into the na tional spotlight. “It’s really a mystery to me all the success I’ve had with the 3- pointer,” said Rhodes, a junior who has made 42 of his 69 3- point tries and averages 13.8 points per game. “I couldn’t have dreamed that it would get so much attention. At the start of the season, I didn’t even think about the 3-point cir cle. Then Coach (assistant Tim) Harris told me if I’m going to be shooting from out there, take an other step back and get three points out of it.” Dimak, a sophomore, came off the bench against Louisiana Tech in the fourth game of the season and hit four of four 3-pointers to earn a starting position. He has made 27 of 48 and would rank among the top five in the nation, but he has not take enough shots to qualify. The pair has presented a po tent problem for opposing de fenses but has been a boon for a guard-oriented team whose tall est starter is 6-6 sophomore for ward Clarance King. “It’s really not a very long shot,” Dimak said. “It’s just a nor mal shot. We didn’t know we’d be shooting this well, but since we’re not a very big team, it has helped take pressure off our inside peo ple.” “I didn’t do anything to take advantage of the 3-point shot,” Miller said. “We were taking the same shots last year but only get ting two points for them.” Miller’s original objection was that it could cause a coaching problem. “I thought it would cause a lot of kids to be taking bad shots out side their range,” Miller said. “We had a little of that at the begin ning of the year but we worked it out.” But his team has resisted the urge to force 3-pointers. “We really don’t even em phasize it,” Miller said. “We tell them to work for the good shot. If it’s a 3-pointer, then all the bet ter.” A strategic 3-pointer can be an intimidating factor. “Eric made one from way out, probably 2 Vis feet behind the line against Sam Houston State,” Miller said. “It put us up by 15 and I think it might have taken a little out of them. “We teased Eric about it. We told him to be sure he’s in bounds before he takes the shot.” New Vifl hed \Ti$ rom IF* e mariti' lan. dasatreK- stirred £ also app i signs it ht at Iasi* tional Ass ig Mana? ey founds e in ordf i/ei is >ers, co ■ehand. the Na^ iy OUtlool 1 iperaturei ; ; Plains' - normal' lornul pj 1 land a 11 " es. The ^ e normal :atiorr 5:00 ■ 19 jarita 9- 50 ETl Feh' udde .6295 ASME / AIAA Presents: Col. Leonard Vernamonti Deputy Program Director for the NASP Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) To speak on: The National Aero-space Plane (NASP) uesday, February 3 7:00 pm Rm 108 Harrington Free Admission Everyone Welcome! AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS More Than Pizza ^Bcrni es 'jZla ce Call in Orders: Phone 845-1641 Its the New Food Place on Campus Fajitas, Meatball Sandwich, Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce, French Bread Pizza, and Much More. Come and see what all the talk is about. Located on West side of Sbisa and up the stairs. 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