News Scrapbook 1986

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 127,454)

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1986

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San Diego, Wednesday, January 8, 1986 D-9 USD, USIU will help decide the city championship u ual two thin s ha pened· A lot of that we're getting some respect from • • .• where to be. When he's double- By Ed Zi r t ints were sco~ed ! a sch~l record local people. We know we're in over . NOTES - USO brings a 9-4 r~ord teamed, he passes to the open man." Tribune 'Jl(Jrtsvmter f° th W _ and Yezbak the na- our heads as far as talent in a lot of mto the game, but 1t may be without • How do USO and USIU differ? xt y ar' city champ1onsh1p for tf!n•s ethi~~:ading scorer, 'got his games, but we're doing an awful lot starti~g guard Pete Murphy. H~ was "(Zarecky) wants to run all the time," coll g ba k tball will be settled at . t 27 0 this night 'I'm excited about on emotion." hobbling around yesterday with a Egan said. "We want to run once in a th b gmmng of th eason if new po~~ sm-;rkednthe second time this sprained ankle, and Egan said ~e while." Said Zarecky: "They like to n Diego Stat athletic director , th t the Gulls allowed anoth- the fact that we're Zarccky sees th e Gulls being in may rest him tomo'.row. Murp~y 1s control the tempo. We like to set the Fred 111 rand Azt coach Smok- seast at et a scoring mark tt· contention for the city championship second on the te~m in scoring with a tempo." ey Gain have th ir way. er e~mth o s ew Mexico scored a ge 1ng some soon. In fact, he feels his team has an 12.l average. Big Scott Thompson • USIU is similar to SDSU in that ....--.--o.... 1ready ha ~on the Mayor'· a~:C:.rec~~- 132 ~ints against the respect from local outside chance of upsetting USO to- le~ds the team in scoring with 1~.2 it doesn't have a big man to contend rop y and the city mythical col- Gull in The Pit but Zarecky found a people' ~ir~o:iaynifh~t Aaz~~c:P:~e:r~~~/he pomts a game and rebounding with ,with Thompson, the Toreros' 7- 1 ge ba ketball champ1onsh!P by consolation in 'being congratulated 6.8 a game. . footer. Forward Dwayne Cross is thumping SOSU 81-64 earlier m the afterward for his team's 95 points, "In order to be considered for the • Egan said y_esterdaf that the leading the Gulls in ~ebounding wi~h on IU can only c]atm the the most ever managed against a - Gary Zarecky Mayor's Trophy, we'll have to be a Toreros have no!~mg special planned 8.6 a game, but he's Just 6-7. Cross IS unofhc1al city champion hip 1f the Ga Colson-coached Lobo team. serious threat," he said. "That way, to stop Yez?ak,-, We have our ~Empie averaging 18 points a game. USIU is Gui (7-6) ,som how defy the odds '~e're g1vin up a lot of points, we'll be able to draw interest from alert to him, Egan said. ~hat being outrebounded by an average of and beat U D (9 4) tomorrow mght at but we're also ~oring a lot, too," said the fans and the media. We would make~ Yezbak great scorer 1s he five a game. The Gulls were outre- 7 5 l th USO Spo~ts Center and Zarecky of hi Gulls, who are averag- -----~·-- -~~-- -·----- love to be one of the teams consid- doesn t force his shots. He moves bounded by 15 last night at Pepper- th n beat SD U later in the sea n . 94 5 d rendering 96 points a '----··""-·~--·-·-- -•--=-"" ered." around and has a great awareness of dine. Bul next y ar, Miller and G rn _a_n__ ur--------------------------- - - ~-- ---~------~- --------- ------..--'--- plan to gath r DSU, SO, U JU and UC (or a a on tipoff to rn m to d 1d the tru city ch mp on ' I thmk It will be a great way to kick the on off," Miller said ye terday We'd h he tourna TIIE~TRIBUNE

m nt, and y w 'd be very mtere t- d m having all thr c schools in to mak It a city-wide champion htp. We'll be m ting with the officials from th chools to get it going." D '• U IU and USO all play each oth r dunn the season. o the co ch feel 1t wouldn't be any prob- lem a far a ch duhng. The lmport- nt thmg, the coach feel, is that su h a tournament may bring some of th city's lelh rgic ba ketball fan out ln the pres nt format, with the chool playing lngl games at dif- fer nt places, the games are fa1lmg mt rably at the gate "I've been trying to get all the teams together for a tournament like that for years," Games said. "Fred and I talked about 1t the other day, and knowing btm, he'll clo e the deal They do 1t back East and in other c1t1 Why nol do it h re? With the Mayor's Trophy at stake, we might draw 6,000 people each mght." Gam pointed to USIU's sudden competitiveness under first-year coach Gary Zarecky, the former Sweetwat r High coach. Still, Gaines said h looks for Hank Egan's Torcros to handle Zarecky's Gulls ea Jly tomorrow mght. "They're (Gulls) really coming on strong," Gaines said. "They have one of the leading scorers in the country in Joe Yezbak, and they're out there on the recruiting trail getting some good players for next year." Although Egan and the Toreros have the Mayor's Trophy, the USO coach 1s quick to point out that he doe n't consider the Toreros the offi- cial city champs. "1 said that when we beat San Diego State," Egan said "We won the trophy, but I said we only had a leg up on the championship We have to beat USIU to be the city champion." The bard-driving Zarecky beams when the thought of playing for the city champ10nship is mentioned. USili being mentioned for a basket- ball championship is something new for the folks at Scripps Ranch. Followmg their 129-94 loss to Pep- perdme last night at Malibu, the Gull are 7-6 overall, 5-6 agamst Di- vi 10n I teams That's already four wm more than last year's team, and it's iust one shy of the amount of wm the Gulls managed in the last thr e years under former coach Freddie Goss "Everyone is telling me I should be very happy with what we've done," Zarecky said, ''but to be hon- e t, we hould have three more wins. My kids are young and needed to learn how to win. We let three games get away from us that we should have won. We should have 10 wins right now'' Zarecky took a team that had won five straight up to Malibu last night, only to get drilled by the highly re- garded Waves, now 12-2 But the

San Diego, CA lSan Diego co.) Evening Tribune lCir. D. 127,454)

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,.....lt. "" s / USD controls both tempo and USIU

said. "That's our game. At the begin- mng, we tried to run with them, and that's not us. We settled down and controlled the tempo. "I was surprised they put a guard on me, and I don't think our guards realized it at first. It took them awhile to get the ball into me, but we got it going in time." USO senior guard Pete Murphy had 19 points, and acrobatic reserve guard Mark Bostic, the greyhound in Egan's controlled running game, chipped in 15 points, including two crowd-pleasing dunks. Reserve cen- ter Steve Krallman, a 6-8, 210-pound junior, had a season-high 13 points and seven rebounds, playing a lot of minutes side-by-side with Thompson to form a huge line that troubled the smaller Gulls. USIU's Redding had 16 points, and Ken Bradford had 12 points and seven assists. Zarecky had to consider USD's 49- 44 halftime lead a moral victory. The Gulls' crowd stayed with them, and with 3:19 to play, USIU made one final run to draw to 85-76, but that was as close as the Gulls would get down the stretch. Murphy said he'll remember the n01se they made. ''They have a real vocal crowd," Murphy said. "We need to get people in here like that, but school is out right now, and we haven't had a game with school in session yet. "USIU came after us because they knew if they beat us, they'd go against San Diego State later for the championship of the city. It's a good feeling because we've beaten them and San Diego State this year." • • • NOTES - Egan said after the game that USO has its schedule made for next year, so it might be difficult for the Toreros to partici- pate in the season tipoff city champi- onship tournament being proposed by new SDSU athletic director Fred Miller and basketball coach Smokey Gaines. Egan said he will meet with SDSU officials about it. • USIU officials met with contrac- tors and investors yesterday about an on-campus special events·center, and word is that an announcement is imminent concerning the construc- tion of a facility that will house both the hockey and basketball teams and serve as a cultural events center for the campus. • The 2,275 at USO last night al- most equaled the crowd of 2,941 that saw the USD-SDSU game at the Sports Arena on Dec. 14. The Aztecs have drawn just 1,830 (Colorado State) and 1,486 (Air Force) for their last two games at the Sports Arena.

By Ed Zieralsk.i Tribune Sportswriter

Millionaire boosters in the stands, an enthusiastic bunch of fans, lots of points on the scoreboard, an up- tempo, unorthodox style of basket- ball - all of it is the Gary Zarecky show. Last night it played before a near- capacity crowd of 2,275 in USD's Sports Center at Alcala Park. Dan Fouts was even there. They saw USO coach Hank Egan's Toreros work bard for a 96-82 win over Zarecky's overmatcbed crew. The Toreros improved their pre-con- ference record to 10-4 and now bead for West Coast Athletic Conference play with a five-game winning streak. The Gulls slipped to 7-7. The Toreros found wrestling the tempo away from the runnin' Gulls a tad more difficult last night than they had expected. "I don't give a crap about tempo," Egan said. "Wins are the important thing. I don't care how fast or how slow you play. You gotta get more good shots. "At the beginning when they didn't go down easily, our kids were surprised. But they dug in. That game went exactly as I thought it would go - a dogfight right to the end." No one expected USIU to win, but Zarecky was upset with his team's play. He felt a near-perfect game would have been enough to upset the favored Toreros. Unfortunately, his team didn't come close to that. The Gulls made 42 percent of their floor shots, compared to USD's 56.5 per- cent. USIU forced 17 turnovers and committed just six, but the Gulls lost on the boards, getting outrebounded 45-39. 'Tm very disappointed," Zarecky said. "I think we should've played better. The difference in this game is those kids over there know what to do to win ballgames. They have the mental attitude and the toughness to win. My kids aren't there yet." Zarecky also was disappointed in the officiating, pointing out an injus- tice that showed his men shot and made just two free throws in the sec- ond half to USD's 17 of 20. USO bit 26 of 32 free throws to the Gulls' 12 of 19 on the night. The 14-point differential also was the difference in the final score. "And to think we forced the action by taking the ball to the basket," he said. After the game, Zarecky kept his team sequestered in the locker room for 45 minutes of "positive reinforce- ment," as USIU star Joe Yezbak called the session afterward. Yezbak was the nation's No. 2

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Tribune photo by Humberto Ramirez

USD'S PETE MURPHY (30) FOULS JOE YEZBAK OF USIU

It was Bambi vs. Godzilla, and whether it was disbelief or poor eye- sight, the Toreros didn't jump to take advantage of it. "He's one of our quicker players, and I told him to get in there and wave his hands in front of Thomp- son's face to throw his shot off," Zarecky said. "I did that because I wanted USO to go inside. I feel that their strength is their outside shoot- ing, and I thought we did a good job of taking USD out of its game." Turned out Thompson didn't mind. Thompson led everyone with 24 points and 16 rebounds. The points are a season high, and the rebounds are a career high. Considering Thompson didn't take a shot in the game's last eight minutes of play, his point total is more impressive. "We had the lead and we wanted to pass the ball around and use the clock there at the end," Thompson

leading scorer in Division I going into the game, and after he hit 17 points in the first half, he was well on his way to topping his season aver- age of 27 points a game. But USO switched from its man- to-man defense to an extended 2-3 zone defense, and Yezbak couldn't shoot over or penetrate it. He scored just four points in the second half, finishing with 21. "The pressure starts getting to you when you constantly have to work around defenses like box-and-ones, double-teams and extended woes," Yezbak said. "I guess I better get used to it. Everybody who scores a lot of points probably has to go through it."' Zarecky called for an unorthodox defense on USD"s 7-foot center, jun- ior Scott Thompson. For much of the game, he matched up one of his smaller players, 6-2 Charles Redding, with Thompson.