Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 31

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL Saturday, April 27, 1985 C3 Good Ball Handling From Staff and Wire Reports Harlan Enjoys Debut By Ed Johnson JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER Dante Harlan played his first game of the 1984-85 high school basketball season in an all-star game Friday night. "In a way I felt out of place," said Harlan, who helped the New Mexico East All-Stars defeat the RASKETBALL KJ jtjr -i Absent in By Kevin Buey JOURNAL SPORTS WRITER It wasn't quite as spectacular as you'd expect an all-star game to be. But with limited practice time and with the smaller ball that'll be used by New Mexico high schools next year in play, it wasn't surprising that Friday's East-West girls' all-star basketball game looked sloppy at times. As victorious East coach Eddie McCall said, the passing was great; it was the catching that often left something to be desired. Turnovers and loose balls dominated Friday's game at Valley, won, 48-38, by the East.

It was part of the Rocky Mountain Basketball Classic, which included an East-West boys' game and tonight features two boys' New Mexico-Colorado games. The girls' game, organizers hope, was the prelude to an annual series and, perhaps, a New Mexico-Colorado girls' game. Manzano's Christine Hall, Albuquerque's leading girls' scorer the past two years, gained a 21-21 tie for the East as the second half opened, spurring the team to leads as big as 44-30 with 3:05 to play. Hall, bound for Texas-El Paso, led the East with 13 points. The West, behind the play of Kirtland Central's Candace Dan and Los Alamos' Tori Sargent, led early but couldn't keep pace.

Sargent, headed for Northern JOURNAL PHOTO GREG SORBER Cibola's Amy Engle, right, draws a blocking foul from Manzano's Christine Hall in Friday's East-West all-star game. Matadors Smash Bulldogs, 24-10, With 17 Hits By James Yodice JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT This baseball game was supposed to be a pitcher's duel Friday between Sandia's Mark Massis and Albuquerque High's Willie Sanchez. What it turned out to be, however, was something completely out of the ordinary. The free-swinging Matadors, leading District 2AAAA with a 5-1 record, pounded out 17 hits, including three home runs, as they rolled to a 24-10 smashing of the Bulldogs Friday at AHS. The game was called after five innings because of the 10-run rule.

The 'Dogs committed nine errors, most of which led to Sandia runs. Clark Keeps Pulling Away In Golf First-round leader Judy Clark pulled away from the field in the $175,000 Classic Friday, firing a 7-under-par 65 that gave her a seven-stroke advantage and a LPGA 36-hole record of 15-under-par 129. Her two-day total shattered the LPGA's 36-hole record of 131 established by Kathy Martin in the 1976 Birmingham Classic. Silvia Bertolaccini duplicated the score in the 1977 Lady Keystone Open. Hockey Hannu Jarvenpaa scored three power play goals as Finland upset the United States, 8-3, in the world championships in Czechoslovakia.

The Americans had already qualified for the medal round starting Sunday with the unbeaten Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Canada. Baseball The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament will resume today in Silver City after inclement weather forced the postponement of Friday's second round. Today at Mustang Field, Southern Colorado plays Colorado Mines at 10:30 a.m., while Western New Mexico faces Highlands at 1:30. At Yucca Field, Southern Utah State plays Mesa at 10:30, while the winner of the USC-Mines game takes on the SUSC-Mesa winner at 1:30. In first-round action, WNMU beat Mesa, 16-14; Mesa stopped Mines, 16-4; and Highlands defeated SUSC, 7-6, as well as USC, 11-6.

The finals are Sunday. Auto Racing A new miniseries for newcomers to Indy-car racing will be called the PPG Challenge Series and will kick off with a race at Milwaukee, on June 1. The four-race series for drivers who have competed in no more than one previous Indy-car race excluding the Indianapolis 500 also will be limited to cars from one to three years old. Events will be 70 miles or less in length and will be run in connection with the June 2 Miller American 200 at Milwaukee, the Sept. 1 Escort Radar Warning 200 at Mid-Ohio, the Sept.

22 Detroit News Grand Prix at Michigan International Speedway and a fourth site and date to be announced. Holbert broke the course qualifying record at Riverside International Raceway in California to take the pole position for Sunday's TimesNissan Grand Prix of Endurance sports car race. Holbert is paired with Indy-car driver Al Unser, Jr. of Albuquerque. Football The Green Bay Packers acquired Scott Brunner from the Denver Broncos, saying the 28-year-old quarterback is "exactly what we needed" to back up veteran Lynn Dickey.

Brunner, 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, was the New York Giants' starting quarterback in 1982 and '83. Ex-Denver running back Harry Sydney ripped 12 yards up the middle for a tie-breaking fourth-quarter touchdown and quarterback Mike Kelley ran 18 yards for another score, lifting the Memphis Showboats to a 33-17 United States Football League triumph over the Gold Friday night. Memphis squared its record at 5-5 while Denver dropped out of a share of the Western Conference lead at 6-4. Other Golf Abilene Christian, shooting 306 for a 54-hole total of 906, breezed past Eastern New Mexico to take the Lone Star Conference tournament title. The 'Wildcats won by 15 strokes over Eastern New Mexico.

The foundation that ran the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am said Friday it would stand by its "solid commitment" to despite Kathryn Crosby's offer to reconsider cutting the family's ties to the golf tournament if it turned down phone company sponsorship. Roberto De Vicenzo and Ken Still fired a 6-under par 64 Friday to tie defending champions Billy Casper and Gay Brewer at the 36-hole mark of the $500,000 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Tournament. Both teams are 13-under par 127 over the Par 35-3570 Onion Creek Golf Club course. East Win Arizona, converted a steal for an 8-5 edge, then hit from the right baseline for a 12-8 lead with nine seconds left in the first period. Dan, who scored four in the first period and led the West with 13, hit a turnaround at 5:05 of the second period for a 16-11 lead.

The East stayed close on free throws it made 16 of 30 for the game and took control as the second half opened. Del Norte's Ginger Jackson gave the East its first lead, 24-21, with a three-point play at 7:09 of the third period. Hall's leaner over Sargent made it 26-21. The West was blanked in the third until Albuquerque's Bertha Coy scored at 3:45. A late run, led by AHS' Michaelann Apodaca, was too little.

Apodaca signed Thursday with New Mexico Junior College. "They hadn't played with each other," West coach Charles Gibbs said of the poor ball handling. Sargent had not practiced. Dan had only one session. "We didn't give her the ball as much the second half," Gibbs' said of Dan's four-point second half.

"I'm sort of amazed that no junior college or small college has picked her up. She's only 5-foot-8, but she plays like 5-10." "You get a group, of seniors and tell them to do something and they're all from good programs and they go out and do it," McCall said. "They played good defense. They passed the ball well. They were ready." pASEBALL" "The kids are swinging the bats well, and that's a plus," said Sandia coach Hank Paskiewicz.

"I didn't think we'd hit the ball this well. The hitting has helped us in quite a few district games." The hitting came from everyone. Lawrence Borrego, Danny Burton and Larry Cordova were the long-ball stars. Dennis Kidd and Mark Pruessman each collected three hits. Sandia, 8-9, didn't have one big inning.

The offense was consistent throughout. There were five runs in the first, two in the second, nine in the third and four each in the fourth and fifth innings. Only six of the 24 runs came from home runs. GYMNASTICS' sweep in the making. After three events in the boys' meet, EHS is at 66.10, with the Mustangs at 64.90.

Cibola is lurking in third with a 63.25 total. "I had to leave one girl home with mononucleosis," Woodard said. "We can only go with three, and one of them (Rhonda Burnett) is an eighth-grader." Woodard's trio, however, have managed rave reviews from the judges. Amy Maddox and Christy West have thrown solid routines and sit in the Nos. 3 and 4 spots in the all-around competition.

Maddox won the uneven bars with an 8.75 performance, while West took second on the vault, scoring 8.6. Burke To Rick Wright unbeaten Camacho. "He tends to be strongest in the early rounds, and I tend to be strongest in the late rounds. "But I got excited, and I just came right at him. I wasn't very methodical about it." As a result, Camacho caught the onrushing Burke with some lightning combinations.

He knocked Burke down with a left in the second round, and by that time one of eyes was badly swollen. But, says Burke, Camacho was breathing heavily by the end of the second. Burke, still aggressive but showing more lateral movement, did well in the third and fourth rounds. The eye continued to swell, however, and a fifth-round Camacho barrage virtually closed Lost in this mess of a baseball game were Massis and Sanchez. Sanchez lasted only 2M) innings, giving up half of the two dozen runs.

His record dropped to 5-3. Massis, having control difficulties in the fourth inning by walking five batters, still got the win. He's 2-1. Chris Maestas finished the game in relief, allowing only a freak inside-the-park home run to Leon Lucero. "That's our main goal this year win district," said Kidd.

"We came up one game short last year. "We're playing together as a team now. That was our main problem at the beginning of the year. After this game, we're in good shape (in district). We're getting a couple of breaks." Kidd, one of the hottest hitters in the state, suffered through a Leading the girls' all-around is Los Alamos freshman Diane Fritz with a 17.50 total.

Fritz won the vault (9.0) and was runner-up on the unevens (8.5). "It all hinges on the beam," Hilltopper coach Floyd Nelson said. "If we have a beam series like we did in district we'll be in trouble. "But we've been consistent throughout the season, outside of that (district) meet. We're in a good spot and Cibola's not out of it, either." The defending champion Cougars seemed to be tossing good routines, but their score didn't mirror those efforts.

Valarie Plave scored 8.5 on the vault and 8.35 on bars to lead the Cougars. She sits in second place in the all-around at 16.85. Carlsbad, Eldorado Lead State Championships West, 114-89, in the Valley High School gym. "Everybody was probably asking, 'Who is this Dante?" This Dante was the announcer at Manzano High School basketball games this season, but before that he was a promising young star during his junior year in 1983-84. But he was academically ineligible his senior year and had to settle for sitting on the sidelines working a microphone.

"That way I could still be at the games and still get in free," Harlan joked. When Manzano's Joe Encinas couldn't make the game at the last moment, Manzano and East coach Mike Bachicha gave Harlan a call. "Coach asked me if I wanted to play," Harlan said, "and I said 'Sure, why Harlan, who hopes to play at the College of Idaho next season, said he was a little scared going into the game, but he seemed to pick it up well as he completed some fancy passes and finished with 14 points. The game, played in two 20-minute halves, was close for the first 17 minutes. The West had a 32-31 lead when Valley's Mark Gallegos scored on a layup.

But the East took the lead for good on a short jumper by Sandia's Mark Piscotty. Manzano's Joe Mascarenaz, who had 12 first-half points, scored on a layin at the buzzer and the East led, 44-39, at the half. In the first 10 minutes of the second half, the East blew it open. Hope's Terry Heisey scored a field goal off the glass with a little more than 10 minutes left, and the East had a 77-60 lead. Heisey also had the honor of scoring the East's 100th point with a field goal with 2:34 left.

Seven of the East players hit double figures. Mark Piscotty, who was originally scheduled to play in tonight's New Mexico-Colorado all-star game, led the East with 18. Mascarenaz had 16, Heisey had 14, Eldorado's Pat Harrington had 13, Sandia's Mark Hermann had 11 and Albuquerque Academy's Rick Saucrman had 10. The game's top scorers, however, belonged to the West. John Oetzel of West Mesa had 23 points, while Cibola's Matt McKinstry finished with 20.

The only other West player in double figures was Escalante's Dennis Elwess. "We had one out-of-bounds play," Hermann said, "and one sideline play. We ran a simple passing game and had a little full-court stuff. We worked a lot on our shooting." Tonight at Valley, beginning at 6, New Mexico underclassmen all-stars play Colorado underclassmen all-stars. At 7:30, New Mexico seniors play Colorado seniors.

Alonso Bout "It's been hard, and I've been busting my tail. I feel ready and confident." Tickets for the Burke-Alonso bout with New Mexicans Ronnie Rentz, Tony Foster, Sam Huston, Cliff Thomas, Lorenzo Saiz and Joel Craig to perform on the undercard are available at the Pan American Center, Burke Outdoor Advertising and Pic Quick stores in Las Cruces, and at Ticket Master locations in El Paso. In Albuquerque, a limited number of tickets is available through Rentz or his grandfather, Louie Abeyta, at 344-3287. Lester Ellis has done his part; now it's up to Tommy Cordova. Australia's Ellis, the International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion, retained his title Friday with a 13th-round knockout of the Phillipines' Rod Sequenan.

If Albuquerque's Cordova can defeat Kelvin Seabrooks in Atlantic City on May 2, he and Ellis are projected to meet for the title in Melbourne. hitting slump for half of the year but now is breaking out of it with authority. "I'm seeing the ball great," he added. "I was hitting off my front foot at the beginning of the year, but now I'm keeping my weight back." Albuquerque, 8-8 overall and 3-3 in district, is in the midst of a three-game losing streak, including a 14-13 setback to Manzano. In that game, the Bulldogs held a 13-5 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning, only to have the Matadors come up with nine runs for the win.

"Seven (district wins) will get you to state," Paskiewicz said. "Eight games will win it, six won't do it unless there's a logjam. I'm satisfied now. The kids have a winning feeling." West Mesa's Richard Sanchez is putting on a one-man show in the boys all-around. The Mustang junior is more than two points ahead of his nearest competitor, Cibola's Pat Daugherty.

Sanchez is at 24.40 at the mid-point, while Daugherty is next at 22.30. Sanchez won the floor exercise with a 9.0 score, the pommel horse with an 8.2 routine, and finished second on the rings (7.2). Only Clovis' Doug Clark stood between Sanchez and a sweep. Clark's ring set drew an 8.1 mark. "Didn't I say it was going to be close?" Eldorado coach Pete Egan asked.

"I just hope we respond in the morning (today)." The team session is scheduled to begin today at 10 a.m., while the individual-event round will start at 7 p.m. Louie Burke Cruces on Sunday, has had some quality sparring sessions in Miami. He has worked with Johnny de la Rosa, a world-ranked featherweight, and the talented young Bernard Gray. "I've been away from home for seven weeks now," Burke said. Stick to Fight Plan for By Jeffry Gardner JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT CLOVIS Carlsbad's girls gymnastics team produced its own version of the old "three against a thousand" vaudeville routine here Friday night.

Coach Ron Woodard could field only three healthy girls, but so far they've done the job, as Carlsbad holds a slim lead (48.90-48.75) over Los Alamos halfway through the state championships. Cibola is just back in third at 47.40. In the boys' competition, favored Eldorado heads into the final session with all it can handle. The Eagles had some problems, but still managed to hold back West Mesa and Cibola in what appears to be an Albuquerque Boxing. Las Cruces' Maybe it was the identity of his opponent, the famous Macho Man.

Maybe it was the network television cameras. Louie Burke still isn't sure why it happened. But he knows what happened. Burke didn't stick to his game plan in his bout with Hector "Macho" Camacho last January. The result was a loss by TKO in the fifth round, the first time in his career that the Las Cruces fighter had failed to go the distance.

And as Burke prepares for his May 5 Continental Boxing Association junior lightweight title bout in Las Cruces with Mexico's Rocky Alonso, he keeps the memory of the Camacho fight close at hand. He doesn't enjoy thinking about it, but it carries with it a lesson too valuable to forget: stick to the plan. "I don't have to think very hard about what I did wrong (against Camacho)," says Burke, who's training in Miami, with the famous Angelo Dundee. "I did everything wrong. "What I planned to do was put steady pressure on him, gradually increase it and wear him down," said Burke of his bout with the it.

On a doctor's advice, the bout was stopped. "I don't feel like Camacho stopped me," Burke says. "I feel like the doctor stopped me. I still feel that if it had gone seven rounds or more that I would have won it. I couldn't believe how tired Camacho was; I really think that last flurry was all he had But a loss is a loss.

The Camacho fight is over, and Burke, turns his attention to Alonso. "I don't know much about him," said Burke, "but I do know he's had about 40 fights (Alonso is 34-6-2), and I hear he's a hard puncher with a real good right hand. "I'm not going to worry about his right because when you do that, here comes the left before you know what happened. I'm just going to fight at my own pace and establish my style. I've got 12 rounds to work with, and I think I've learned enough from the Camacho fight to just settle down and use them." Future plans? "I'd love to fight Camacho again someday." Burke, who's due back iii Las.