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
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ite Aon
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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.”
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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!
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