The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 9

hi eljc tics Ifloines flcgistcr DAVID WITKE, Executive Sports Editor, 515-284-8130 Home-court Advantage? Iowa women hope home court will help them this time in NCAA basketball tournament Page2S Section Saturday, March 21, 1992 Iowa Under No Pressure Tte kmi taps Hawks like underdog status vs. No. 1 Duke Marc Hansen I his A I 1 High anxiety has sure cure orcester, Mass. Judging lf tne Pecu'iar behavior of ff three student-athletes on the Iowa State bench, you knew it had to be NCAA tournament time. The first-round game between Iowa State and North Carolina-Charlotte had come down to free throws.

Namely, Iowa State's. The Cyclones make them, they sock away their first NCAA tournament victory in six years. They miss them well, the thought of their teammates' drawing a chamber full of blanks was too much for Skip McCoy, Brad Pippett and Lor-en Meyer to handle solo. This was The Tournament, after all. How often are the Cyclones perched on 4 sh )- in A little-used play helps Iowa State knock off North Carolina-Charlotte, 76-74, in the East Regional.

By RON MALY Register Staff Writer Worcester, Mass. Justus Thigpen has the ball out of bounds. Fred Hoiberg is sprinting the length of the court toward the basket. Thigpen, looking like a football quarterback, throws a perfect pass. Hoiberg, looking like a receiver, catches the ball.

He races uncontested to the basket, leaps and slams it home with 14 seconds to play against North Carolina-Charlotte. The points gave Iowa State a five-point lead and secured a 76-74 first-round victory against North Carolina-Charlotte in the NCAA East Regional. The victory set up a confrontation Sunday at 1:30 p.m. CST against No. 6 Kentucky.

The Thigpen-to-Hoiberg play is called "the box" by Cyclone players and coaches. It put the 49ers into a box from which they couldn't escape. At the time the play was used, it gave the Cyclones a 76-71 lead. Its importance was stressed when North Carolina-Charlotte's Henry Williams sank a three-point basket with 3 seconds to go. Aplincton, Iowa Mennqnite E0B Seeded teams had a tough time in Tempe.

Oklahoma and DePaul were upset in the NCAA West Regional. Page 5S "We call the play 'the box' because the players line up in a box," Coach Johnny Orr said after his team won a first-round game for the first time since 1986. Orr credited Jim Hallihan, his No. 1 assistant coach, with calling the play. "Hallihan said, 'Let's use the so I said, 'Let's do Orr said.

Coincidentally, Hoiberg was a football quarterback at Ames High School, and Orr said he could have done just as well as the passer on the box play. "But Justus threw a perfect pass," Orr said. "I didn't think we'd get it that easy. We caught North Carolina-Charlotte by surprise." Thigpen said Iowa State has used the play at other times this season, but not recently. "Another option was to throw the ball to Brian Pearson, who also was breaking for the basket," Thigpen said.

Orr said yet another option was for Thigpen to throw the ball to Ron Bayless so he could be fouled. "Bayless is a great free-throw shooter," Orr said of the 84 percent shooter. Hoiberg said center Julius Mich- Rule By RICK BROWN Reoister Staff Writer Greensboro, N.C. Put up your dukes, Duke. That's the attitude underdog Iowa will take into today's second-round NCAA East Regional game against the top-ranked and defending national champion Blue Devils at Greensboro Coliseum.

"There's not that much pressure on us," Iowa's Troy Skinner said. "We're going into the game with a can't-lose attitude. We're really looking forward to the challenge. This is what everyone dreams of, the chance to play Duke and knock them off." The Blue Devils have a 29-2 record, have been to the Final Four in five of the past six seasons and are favored to return. Iowa has a 19-10 record after two-stepping Texas Thursday night, 98-92.

"We got through one obstacle," Iowa Coach Tom Davis said. "Now we face another one, maybe the biggest one. We've just got to have some fun with it, otherwise we have no chance. You've got to go into it with a positive frame of mind." Duke Victim Last season, Duke defeated Iowa, 85-70, in the second round of the Midwest Regional. "Last year, we were disappointed in ourselves," Iowa's Kevin Smith said.

"We felt we could have dug down deeper and done better. Now we've just got to come out and play against one of the best teams ever." Six of the top eight players from Duke's 1991 championship team lOW Please turn to Page 1 IOWA vs. DUKE If we believe seedings, No. 10 over No. 7 constitutes a mild upset.

I'm not so sure I agree. I Associated I'ress Iowa State's Julius Mkhalik and Justus Thigpen close in on North Carolina-Charlotte's Rodney Odora during the Cyclones' 76-74 victory Friday in the NCAA East Regional at Worcester, Mass. alik set a perfect pick that freed him on the key play. "It enabled me to get ahead of ev- erybody," Hoiberg said. Thigpen scored 20 points, Hoi- berg 17, Michalik 13 and Howard Top-ranked teams claim titles 3 1.

0V- Eaton 10. Iowa State survived a sluggish start by hitting 60 percent of its shots in the second half. The Cy- Please turn to Page AS Clear Creek falls inl-A By DAN JOHNSON Register Staff Writer Iowa Mennonite of Kalona, the team without a nickname, made its made its name on the basketball court by defeating Clear Creek-Amana, 63-50, in the championship game of the Class 1-A state boys' touranment. After placing second to Aplington in the Class A tournament last year, Iowa Mennonite moved up to Class 1-A and rode the shooting of Jason Hershberger to its first state championship. Hershberger, named captain of the Class 1-A all-tournament team, scored 29 points and keyed a decisive second-quarter spurt that saw Iowa Mennonite take a 41-25 lead.

Its lead was chopped to six points in the third quarter, but a Hershberger drive ignited a string of six consecutive points that built the margin to 59-45 with 1 minute 50 seconds to play. Adam Reid, Clear Creek-Amana's 6-foot 8-inch center, blocked five shots in the first half, but Clear Creek-Amana was helpless against Hershberger's outside shooting. Hershberger was the third-leading leading scorer in Class 1-A through two rounds of play with 45 points, but had only made 13 of 44 field goal attempts. He made up CLASS X-kPlease turn toPage 3S lead THE LEADERS I A. 1 IOW (1910) No.

Starter Ht. Yr. Pt. Reb. 24 Moses 6-4 Sr.

14.0 3 5 40 Street 6-8 So. 10 8 8 55 Earl 6-10 Jr. 19.6 7.7 20 Barnes 6-2 Jr. 11 5 3.4 10 Smith 5-11 So. 5.7 2.1 DUKE (29-2) "') v-' I.

mi I I -w v', f-H on the precipice of an NCAA tournament victory? But there they were Friday, ready to tumble into the second round against Kentucky. All they needed was a little push. McCoy sat in the middle. On his right, Pippett leaned over and grabbed McCoy's hand. On McCoy's left, Meyer did the same, without adopting Pip-pett's see-no-evil, hands-over-the-eyes pose.

You never know when some coach is going to ask you to check into the game. When that happens you don't want to be sitting there with your eyes closed. With the game hanging there like a loose tooth, the three Cyclones flinched and fidgeted and held hands and tried to help their teammates pull it out. It was a funny picture, all those hands and arms resting atop one another on McCoy's knees. But whatever it takes, right? "It was completely out of the blue," Pippett said, "just a little something to help out the team.

We had to do something. They'd missed a couple of those free throws. We needed to give them a little something extra." Whatever they gave them, it didn't hurt. Ei6ht of Iowa State's last 10 points came from the foul line, and the Cyclones defeated North Carolina-Charlotte, 76-74. If they give it some thought, Iowa State fans probably can point to a few dozen Cyclones games in the last few years that were better played and more thrilling from start to finish.

But they'd have trouble coming up with more than one or two that meant as much in the context of Iowa State basketball. Such is the nature of early-round NCAA tournament play. At the Big Eight tournament last weekend, Johnny Orr called attention to the irony. Outside of the Final Four, he told reporters, the Big Eight tourney and not early round NCAA play is the pinnacle of basketball excitement. "We played at Tulsa one year," he said, referring to his first NCAA excursion with Iowa State.

"I took my family, and we were all alone." True. You could hear the sneakers squeaking on the hardwood. The atmosphere doesn't always match the magnitude of the situation. "At times, it did seem like we're playing at the agreed Brian Pearson, who came off the bench in the second half to get the Cyclones rolling. "It's like two teams playing a road game at the same time," said Henry Williams, the 49ers' talented" guard.

"At the end of the game, though, the fans came alive." As the 49ers' 31-29 halftime lead indicates, the first 20-minute chunk wasn't oodles of fun for anyone involved. Save for the small but enthusiastic slice of Cyclone and 49er fans on opposite sides of the floor, the arena lacked the passion of a Hilton Coliseum or an Allen Fieldhouse. The players on both teams were either tight or sluggish or both. The Cyclones shot 33 percent. The 49ers shot 40 percent.

"We started out slow," said Justus Thigpen, who led the Cyclones with 20 points. "But they started out slow, too." With 3fc minutes left in the half, the rough edges stuck out so much, Orr called Norman Brown off the bench and into the fray. Norman Brown? Having played in only three other games this season, HANSEN Please turn to Page 4S Winfield bows in Class A By SUSAN HARMAN Register Staff Writer The Class A card sharks played 52 pickup with boys' basketball this season, and the Aplington Panthers were there to sweep up. Top-rated Aplington added its second consecutive title, beating No. 2 Winfield-Mount Union, 82-70, Friday night to close its basketball program with a flourish.

Next season, Aplington will be in a grade-sharing arrangement with Parkersburg. The victory was the 52nd in a row for Aplington and completed two unbeaten seasons. The loss was the first of the season for the Wolves, who won 28 games and return all their starters. "They were a little more seasoned at crunch time," Winfield-Mount Union Coach Mike Koelker said. "They've been here.

They have really good ball handlers, and obviously our youth showed tonight. We knew we had to play a perfect game and they had to play poorly for us to win. It was the closest tournament game for the Panthers, who won the first two by an average margin of 45 points. Aplington is the first Class A team to repeat as champion since Palmer, which won from 1986 to 1988. "We said last year we wanted to CLASS A Please turn to Page 3S No.

Starter 32 Laettner 23 Davis 21 Lang 12 T.Hill 11 Hurley Ht. 6-11 6-7 Yr. Ptt. Reb. Sr.

21 9 7.9 Sr. 11.2 4.5 6-8 So. 6.5 39 6-5 Jr. 14.7 32 6-0 Jr. 13.0 19 Time, piac.

11:10 a m. CST. Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro. N.C. Radio WHO, Des Moines; WMT, KHAK.

Cedar Rapids. Television CBS. Series Duke leads. 2-0. Last meeting Duke 85, Iowa 70, 1991 NCAA Midwest Regional.

Morning Report Scores NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT EAST REGIONAL Iowa State 76 74 Kentucky 88 Old Dominion 69 Massachusetts 85 Fordham 58 Syracuse 51 Princeton 43 SOUTHEAST REGIONAL Oklahoma St. 100 Ga. Southern 73 Tulane 61 St, John's 57 Michigan 73 Temple 66 Arizona vs. I Tennessee St. MIDWEST REGIONAL Cincinnati 85 Delaware 47 Kansas 100 Howard 67 Michigan State 61 S.W.Missouri 54 Evansville vs.

Texas-El Paso WEST REGIONAL New Mexico St. 81 DePaul 73 Louisville 81 Wake Forest 58 W. Louisiana 87 Oklahoma 83 UCLA vs. Robert Morris NTT Rutgers NBA 73 James Madison 69 Atlanta 112 Charlotte JJP Boston 104 Detroit 99 Cleveland 122 Golden State 1fi7 Indiana 102 Milwaukee 97 New Jersey 99 Washington Dallas 07 Sacramento 125 L.A. Clippers 114 Phoenix 101 Minnesota at L.A.

Lakers NHL NY. Rangers 4 Detroit Philadelphia 7 Washington Winnipeg at Vancouver T0DAY'STVBlsT Colteg. Basketball: CBS PAUL HISCOCKSTllE Reoister Aplington's Tim Janssen shoots Friday while being pressured by Winfield-Mount Union's Vic Parcell. Aplington won the Class A boys' basketball title for the second consecutive season, 82-70. Hawkeye wrestlers cling to points and four finalists.

But Oklahoma State's Big Eight champions were a dangerously close second with points and five finalists. The four Hawkeye title contenders are Chad Zaputil, Terry and Tom Brands and Troy Steiner. Iowa lost two others in the semifinals Tom Ryan and Travis Fiser. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State wrestled two perfect rounds, winning all five quarterfinal matches and then sweeping through the semifinals. Two of tonight's championship bouts will be head-to-head confrontations, Tom Brands facing an old rival at 134 pounds, Oklahoma State's Alan Fried, and Troy Steiner going against Chris Owens of the Cowboys at 142.

"We've got our work cut out for us now," Tom Brands said. "Fried and I should have a tough bout. By now, we pretty much know how the other guy wrestles." Brands, who is seeking his third WRESTLE Please turn to Page 2S By BUCK TURNBULL Register Staff Writer Oklahoma City, Okla. So much for all the talk that Iowa might have the best college wrestling team in history. After Friday night's semifinals of the NCAA tournament, the Hawkeyes were just hoping they would win a second straight team title.

It had become anything but a runaway. Iowa held the lead with 115 Ttim Potnti Final Cm. Iowa 115V4 4 5 Oklahoma State 96 5 1 Pann State 64 vt 4 4 Iowa State 37 3 5 Ohio State 29 3 2 Arizona State 27 Vt 3 1 N.Carolina State 19V. 2 1 Northern Iowa I6V4 1 3 Cornell 16 1 3 IOWANS' RESULTS: PAGE 2S IOWA VS. DUKE More listings: Page 2S.