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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1987)
Thursday, March 26, 1987/The Battalion/Page 11 omen’s Final Four is hot ticket AUSTIN (AP) — Texas Coach Conradt says the sixth annual omen’s NCAA basketball hampionship isn’t a sure thing for he Lady Longhorns even if they are he defending national champions laying on their home court “This isn’t the same team that won he national title last year,” Conradt aid Wednesday at a press confer- nce with the Final Four head caches. “I lost six seniors off the |team a year ago. “Rignt now this team is being led [jy two freshmen. This team has played to the best of its ability, I will lay that but we are no way as close to sing as mature as the team we had |ast year. ” The top-seeded Lady Longhorns lire 31-1 with their only loss coming Jec. 14 in Austin to Tenneseee 85- 78. Texas avenged the defeat 88-74 |wo weeks later. Since then, they We won their last 25 games. Texas meets the Louisiana Tech ady Techsters (29-2) at 9 p.m. Fri- iay while the Tennessee Lady Vol- inteers, who are 26-6, play the Long leach State Lady 49ers (33-2) at 6 p.m. i The winners collide at noon on Sunday for the national title in the Special Events Center. ESPN is tele vising all of the games nationally. Only a few tickets remain with re cord sellout crowds of almost 16,000 fans assured for each session. “I was shocked when I heard it’s almost a sellout,” Louisiana Tech Athletic Director Paul Miller said. “We may make some money this year. The women’s Final Four teams only got about $5,000 each last year. I think this is great for the Women’s Final Four. It could be a big stepping stone for the future.” “We’re excited about the ticket sales,” Conradt said. “Ten years ago this was something you could only dream about. It’s a very tough ticket now.” The tournament began in 1982 when Louisiana Tech won the title at Ruston, La. “I’d like to have the same luck Louisiana Tech had when it hosted the Final Four on its home court,” Conradt said. “Remember, we had it here two years ago, but we weren’t in it. That was a big disappointment.” The Tennessee-Long Beach State game will feature the rookie versus the veteran. Long Beach State Coach Joan Bonvicini is the only first-time coach in the Final Four. Tennessee Head Coach Pat Summit is in the Final Four for a record fourth time. Louisiana Tech Coach Leon Bar- more has extensive Final Four expe rience. He was twice co-head coach with Sonja Hogg and an assistant on another occasion. “It’s going to be tough to try to handle Texas at home,” Barmore said. “But I still believe every team here has the chance to win the na tional title.” Summit, the coach of the United States’ 1984 gold medal Olympic team, said “defense has been the key to our team. We benched three start ers and the team has responded well. Long Beach will be hard to handle.” Bonvicini said she likes the Lady 49ers to be referred to as a “tran sition team. Some people like to call us run-and-gun, but all we do is just run on makes and misses. We don’t try to score a lot of points.” The teams arrived late Wednes day and began workouts at the “Su per Drum” which is the nickname for the Lady Longhorn’s home court. Zone defense won't work against La Salle bombers NEW YORK (AP) — La Salle, which faces Southern Mississippi for the title in the 50th National Invitation Tournament tonight, can forget about facing another zone defense that will let the Ex plorers again make eight 3-point shots in the first half. “They’ve convinced me they can shoot,” Southern Mississippi Coach M.K. Turk said Wednes day. “I can assure you that we won’t open with a zone against La Salle.” “They know they have to play us man-to-man to win,” La Salle Coach Bill “Speedy” Morris said. “But we feel we can handle a man-to-man and get the ball in side. Not many teams have tried to play a zone against us. We’ve had games where we’ve only shot five or six 3-pointers.” La Salle guards Tim Teller and Rich Tarr hit three 3-point- ers each in the first half against Arkansas-Little Rock in Tuesday night’s semifinals. The Explorers made eight of their first 12 long-range attempts while taking a 43-25 lead Ifi'/a minutes into the game, then freshman star Lionel Simmons scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half as La Salle went on to a 92-73 victory. Legler had 26 points and Tarr 23. Southern Miss defeated Ne braska 82-75 in the other semifi nal. Randolph Keys had 24 points and John White 19, and they scored all of the Golden Eagles’ points during a 15-2 second-half spurt that turned a 60-58 deficit into a 73-62 lead. ,«*<*. A S t ros g e t by pirates 8-4 ; the Polar fc nd. BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Jim Pankovits picked up two hits, includ ing a home run, drove in two runs nd scored two runs as the Houston stros defeated the Pittsburgh Pi rates 8-4 in exhibition baseball ednesday. The game was played at Braden- [ton’s McKechnie Field, where the ind was blowing strongly toward )eft field, helping in giving both earns five homers for the day. The Astros scored three runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Terry Puhl and Pankovits, and a lub and to® fielder’s choice grounder from Craig n RudderTotf Reynolds. ill think vert ml organizai a team mei t the recop; ski teams® A&M get;bu ird ana tale ;ly.” ■ team encourii ;erested in' Pankovits scored in the fourth on a single by Glenn Carpenter, who advanced to second on an error by Pirates’ right fielder Tommy Dun bar. Carpenter then scored on an other Pirates error, this one by shortstop Onix Concepcion. Pankovits hit a solo homer in the fifth inning and the Astros scored two more runs in the ninth. All of the Pirates’ scoring came on solo home runs off starter and win ner Nolan Ryan. Tony Pena hit his in the first inning, RJ. Reynolds fol lowed in the second, and Jim Morri son and pitcher Bob Paterson con nected in the fourth. Rangers blast competitive es. We are *i*i PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (AP) wanttoski — Pete Incaviglia returned to the | Texas lineup Wednesday night afer an eight-game absence and hit a two- ■ run homer and a two-run double in his first two at-bats of the Rangers II* 14-1 victory over Baltimore. Oddibe McDowell and Larry Par- even year if r ' s h a ^ so hit their first home runs of tine said Iff s P r ' n g> Parrish’s leading off the e jjg’H a c|| fourth against Bell and McDowell 1 V with one man on base against Rich ^ 0 ‘ Bordi in the sixth. Orioles 14-1 Darrell Porter hit his second, a two-run shot off lefty Brad Havens in the eighth. The Rangers also came up with five more runs on three hits, two walks and three Orioles errors in the seventh. Bobby Witt, making his second exhibition start of the year, struck out six in four innings and allowed an unearned run when he walked Ken Gerhart with the bases loaded in the second after third baseman Parrish dropped a foul pop up. is only go^l skills. Norman looks ahead to IRC golf tourney PONTE VEDRA, Fla. (AP) — Since Jan. 1, Greg Norman has won the Australia Masters and played in four PGA Tour events in the United States. Norman, however, said the $1 million Tournament Players Championship “is the real start of my American schedule. “The rest of it was just a lot of running around,” the current Brit ish Open champion said Wednesday before a practice session for the touring players own championship. “I had a nice little break last week. Now I’m ready to get back to it. I’ll play as much as I can between now and September, get my concentra tion back in focus, get my game back in tournament shape.” Norman, who led both the Ameri can and Australia tours in money- winnings and took 10 international titles last season, has a third and a fifth place finish as his best perfor mances in the United States this year. “The first time I played St. An drews, I didn’t like it,” Norman said. The more I played it, the better I liked it. This course is the same.” Norman, who acquired more than $1.2 million in world-wide earnings last year, is part of a 144-man field that ranks as the strongest of the sea son. The only figure of any conse quence who is missing is Mac O’Grady, winner of the Tournament of Champions earlier this season. Among the major challengers for the $180,000 first prize are U.S. Open winner Ray Floyd, PGA ti- tleholder Bob Tway, defending champion John Mahaffey and Jack Nicklaus, who made a last-minute decision to add this event to his re duced playing schedule. Other leading players include Payne Stewart, Ben Crenshaw, Fuzzy Zoeller, Tom Kite, Lanny Wadkins, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw and Corey Pavin, already the winner of two 1987 titles. Seve Ballesteros of Spain, who re ceived a special invitation as the leading player on the European tour, heads a foreign field that also includes Bernhard Langer of West Germany, Sandy Lyle of Scotland and Tommy Nakajima of Japan. t 100 h. yearandjuS- i my lOd 1 ) 6 know 1 canf im** 1 STUDENT AID DRAFT BEER 8:00-10:00 p.m. MONDAY THRU THURSDAY COLLEGE STATION HILTON and Conference Center 801 University Drive Save up to 50%! On a Select Group of Formals It’s the start of a new season and that's a perfect reason to celebrate and save at The Bridal Boutique.^ In honor of springtime we’re putting on a sale event like never before with 25% to 50% (yes, half) off our tea length dresses, long dresses, short dresses and of course prom dresses in taffeta, chiffon, satin and lace. Come as you are to our Formal Sale and take advantage of our drastically reduced prices. There was never a more perfect time to shop and save at The Bridal Boutique. utique Park Place Plaza Texas Ave. S. at Southwest Parkway College Station 693-9358 4r MSC Wiley Lecture Series Constitution and Foreign Policy: A Question of Control Speaker Seminar Applications Now Available Jeane Kirkpatrick Edmund Muskie Dean Rusk Howard K. Smith Seminars will be on April 1,1987 from 2:30 til 4:00 Pick up applications in MSC 216 or 1st Floor of Library Due to limited availability, please turn in applications as early as possible. Culpepper Plaza -6 happy hour friday 2 beer! movie rental over 2,000 titles $1.99 all $8.69 list cassettes or LPs 2 for $13 bestseller books 25% off Open: Mon. - Thurs., 10-10 Fri. & Sat., 10-11 Sun. 12-10 1631 Texas Ave., College Station 693-2619 ❖MSC Wiley Lecture Series Pre-Program Lecture "Relations Between Congress and the President: An Insider's View" Speaker: Frederick D. McClure (Former Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs) Date: March 26 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Rm 510 Rudder Pre-program lecture presented in conjunction with: "Constitution and Foreign Policy: A Question of Control" Date: April 1 Time: 8:00 p.m. Place: Rudder Auditorium Officially recognized by the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution