The Hanford Sentinel from Hanford, California • 14

Sports Sunday, The Hanford December 20, Sentinel 1992 p.14 Stars deal Pups 1st loss, Tigers in semis, JON EARNEST Sentinel Sports Editor VISALIA The dream of a Polly Wilhelmsen tournament championship as well as their unbeaten record slipped right through the hands of the Hanford Bullpups Saturday night at Mt. Whitney's Charles Marshall Court. Hanford blew a five-point lead in the final quarter, and watched helplessly as North High's Curtis Skaggs swished a 16-foot jumper from the right baseline to beat the buzzer and the Runnin' Pups, 57-55. The quarterfinal stunner dropped ford's record 7-1, and vaulted the (7-2) into Monday's tournament North will face fellow South League member West, after the champion Vikings outlasted Tulare 85-71. Lemoore, which lost to West in last finals, gained a return trip to the with a 57-49 victory over Monache night at Redwood High.

The Tigers will play in Monday's 9 p.m. Tiger girls beat Clovis for title RICK HURD Sentinel Sports Writer PORTERVILLE As early season triumphs go, they don't get much sweeter than the one that the Lemoore High girl's basketball team achieved Saturday. In a game that resembled a blood bath, the Tigers outlasted Clovis High 54-50 to win the championship of the Monache Holiday Invitational. Janee Young scored 28 points and took home tournament Most Valuable Player honors for the Tigers. "I couln't have asked for a better senior gift," she said when it was all over.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. There isn't anything much sweeter than beating Clovis." These two teams have a history, and it might be safe to say they don't exchange Christmas cards. Clovis had come in with a six-game winning streak over the Tigers, and it was a fact that the Cougars gladly rubbed in Lemoore's faces. "They're obsessed with winning, and they were talking about the streak," head coach Karen Wood said. "And you see how they play out there.

They don't mind hurting people." What Wood was talking about were circumstances that also added to the afterglow of this win. The Tigers had hold on without two of their starters for the final six minutes, and with another one nursing a nose that might be broken. Tish Leap went out with her fifth foul at the 6:30 mark of the final quarter and little over a minute later, Missy Gavia aggravated a groin pull and had to come out. Brooke Groefsema crushed her nose diving for a loose ball early in the first half. "If you want to know what Clovis is like, just look at that play," Wood said.

"The coach could have gotten out of the way, but instead he stands up and Brooke slides right into him." Undetered however, Groefsema gave Lemoore a big lift with tremendous defense down the stretch, as she held the Cougars' most dangerous threat, Angela Sumlin to just four points in the final five minutes.2 Sumlin finished with 17 points and Kathy Stover had 10 for the Cougars, who were undone by poor free throw shooting down the stretch. Clovis missed the front end on four one-on-one opportunities. That enabled Lemoore to make a 9-1 run early in the final quarter, turning a one-point deficit into a 45-38 lead. The Cougars twice closed to two, but Lemoore used big plays to hold them off. Shanna Cole hit a key jumper from the corner of the key with just over two minutes left.

Later Young pulled down the last of her 15 rebounds and converted a put-back to ice the contest. "I told myself to get hyper before the game, because this is something that we all wanted," Young said. LEMOORE HIGH 11 16 9 54 CLOVIS HIGH 13 6 18 50 LEMOORE (50) Young 28, Leap 9, Clark 5, Gavia 1, Groefsema 5, Cole 4, Sedwick 2. CLOVIS (50) Sumlin 17, Andrews 8, Nowell 5, Stover 10, Asher 4, Chargin 6. Tiger wrestlers fourth in meet SPORTS STAFF SANTA CRUZ The Lemoore Tigers rode the strength of six placewinners to place fourth out of 42 teams, while the Hanford Bullpups finished seventh with four medalists at Saturday's Coast Classic Tournament at Santa Cruz High School.

North Yosemite League school Madera won the meet with 177 points, followed by Miramonte (158.5), Calvary Chapel (155.5) and Lemoore with 153.5. Mission-San Jose (138.5) and Hollister (119.5) also beat out Hanford in the team standings. The Tigers had six wrestlers with top six finishes, led by John Navarro who went 5-0 to win the 125-pound weight class. Navarro (15-0) capped his title run with a 12-5 decision over Madera's Ronnie Aguilar. against Porterville, a 54-48 victor over teammates.

NORTH HIGH 11 23 11 12 57 Han- Delano. Mario Aguirre led Hanford with 20 points, HANFORD HIGH 18 16 13 8 55 Stars Hanford committed three costly turnovers but the Bullpups were lulled into a halfcourt NORTH (57) Elkins 15, Abiccunas 5, Skaggs 12, down the North's deliberate defense and Stout 8, Melton 6, Nunez 8, Henry Yosemite semifinals. after North tied stretch, the the score final on one Skaggs' coming 3-point right game patience by against the Berrett HANFORD 6, Aguirre (55) 20, Hoffman Martins 9, 2, Galloway 1, Colclough Cabrera 2 press. Patrick Ir- Halon 4. defending bomb from the right wing with 1:02 remain- Lemoore rode the strength of Western ing.

That enabled the Stars to play for the ving into the semifinals, as the junior center At Redwood High final shot of regulation. scored 23 points and pulled down 11 year's Skaggs received a swing pass at the rebounds. Jason Strong and Chris Gordon LEMOORE MONACHE HIGH 15 15 10 17 57 decisive 7 8 11 23 49 semifinals baseline, and launched his jumper added eight and six points, respectively. LEMOORE (57) Jones 3, Gordon 6, Rossiter 2,0 Saturday with three seconds left. The ball found noth- The Tigers took only 37 shots from the Groca 2, Porter 2, Hightower 5, Proulx 2, Irving 23, JohnMarauders with 23 of son 4, Ja.

MONACHE Strong (49) 8. (5-5) ing but net as the buzzer sounded, and the field, but put away the Walline 1, todd 9, Tinnel 2, Brown semifinal senior guard was mobbed by celebrating 31 free throws. 13, Shimer 4, Davis 2, Alvarado 8, Nicholson 4, Focke 6. a AP LaserPhoto Jerry Rice hauls in the game-winning touchdown, above, as Ricky Reynolds defends. Then Rice celebrates the 103rd I scoring catch of his career, below.

49ers wrap DENNIS GEORGATOS AP Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO The blowout never materialized, and neither did Joe Montana. Coming in as 20-point favorites, the San Francisco 49ers struggled to a 21-14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday. Though the win wasn't pretty, it was just what the 49ers (13-2) needed to clinch their sixth NFC West title in seven years and the home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs. "If we'd have gone out there and beat 'em 40-0, we'd have thought we were world champions before we even got to the Super Bowl. Now, we know we have work to do.

But we have to feel good about still getting the win out of it," 49ers tackle Steve Wallace said. Steve Young, Montana's stand-in for the past two seasons, threw for all three of San Francisco's touchdowns. He had two scoring passes to Jerry Rice and one to John Taylor as the 49ers, after missing the playoffs last season, return as the top seed in the NFC this year. "To have won the game says something about our club," fullback Tom Rathman said. "Clinching the division and the home field advantage, that's a plus but we need to get better no question about it." Montana, activated on Friday after spending nearly all of the past two seasons on injured Jesse Kuntz (13-2) placed second at 135 1 pounds, losing a 5-3 decision in the finals against Joell Macias of San Jose's Independence High.

Toby Messer (9-2) had a strong third place finish at 145, pinning Santa Theresa's Mike Corrales to avenge a loss by pin Friday. Also placing third for LHS was heavyweight Alex Holdren (14-3), whose only loss came to the eventual tournament champion. Holdren clinched third place with a 7-3 decision over Hanford's Vance Ferguson. Other Lemoore medalists were Jason Perig (13-3), who finished fourth at 119 pounds, and Freddie Douthat (12-4) with a sixth place finish at 160 pounds. "I'm very happy with how we wrestled, I think we really came back strong from last week," Tiger coach Kent Olson said.

Lucas fills Spurs' coaching vacancy SAN ANTONIO John Lucas, a former NBA player and drug addict turned counselor, has returned to the basketball court. This time it's to coach the San Antonio Spurs. Spurs owner Red McCombs announced Friday the hiring of Lucas, 39, only five hours after firing coach Jerry Tarkanian 20 garnes into his first pro season. It's Lucas' first shot at coaching an NBA team, although he played for six teams, including San Antonio, from 1976-1989, after being the first overall pick by Houston in the 1976 draft. "I'm excited about the opportunity," said Lucas, the Spurs' first black coach.

"I just want to win and get us back to where we need to be." The Spurs were 10-11 after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 122-101 Friday. Lucas hopes to benefit from his experience as a player and in dealing with players through his John Lucas Aftercare Programs and his U.S. 1 Basketball League franchise, 1 the Miami Tropics. "I think one thing that makes basketball an easy game for me to coach is it's a people game," he said. "I hope the guys want to play because they up NFC West, reserve with elbow problems, watched from the sidelines as the club's third, or "emergency" quarterback.

There had been a chance he could see his first action in nearly two years if the 49ers had taken a big lead, but the game was tight all the way and Young played throughout. With Tampa trailing by seven, the Bucs were in position to tie it up again after a 12-yard run by Reggie Cobb gave them a first-and-goal at the San Francisco 3 with five minutes remaining. But Cobb then lost four yards on a sweep and Testaverde threw three incompletions, giving the 49ers the ball on downs. Tampa Bay (4-11) got the ball back at its 37 with just under a minute left and moved to the San Francisco 35 on three completions. But Testaverde's desperation pass on the final play was batted down in the end zone by Dana Hall.

"We played them right down to the wire. That was a whale of a football game and it took everything they had to win the game," said Tampa coach Sam Wyche. The Bucs used a 15-play, 80-yard drive ending in Cobb's 1-yard touchdown run on fourth down with 14:07 remaining to tie the game at 14-14. But the 49ers quickly went back in front as Young threw his third TD pass of the day and second to Rice, who again beat single coverage home field See 49ERS; Page 17 AP LaserPhoto ended up in treatment. He says he is now off drugs.

Last year, Lucas purchased the Tropics of the USBL so he could use the franchise as a tool to help players overcome drug problems. At coach of the Spurs, he will try to help players overcome -the-court problems. Lucas wants to see center David Robinson get the ball more often early in the game. "We've got the best center in basketball," Lucas said. "We've got to make it trouble coming into David Robinson's neighborhood." He also wants the Spurs to play a more uptempo game.

While praising the efforts of Tarkanian, he disagreed with Tarkanian's contention that the Spurs can't win without a stronger point guard. "We have enough here to win," Lucas said. "We have the talent." He plans to rely on Vinny Del Negro and Avery Johnson at point guard. Lucas also said Daniels and Sean Elliott were capable of playing the position. "There's a number of ways to get the ball up the floor," Lucas said.

Robinson was sorry to see Tarkanian go, but he has heard good things about Lucas. AP LaserPhoto KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer want to play. It won't get done overnight. It'll get done collectively." McCombs praised Lucas' work in helping drug abusers. "John was a great player," McCombs said.

"John is a great person. I've always felt that he would be a great leader on the floor." During his NBA career, which was interrupted by cocaine addiction and rehabilitation programs, Lucas also played for Golden State, Washington, Milwaukee and Seattle. At the University of Maryland, he was a standout in tennis and basketball. The last several years, Lucas has devoted himself to fighting drug abuse. One basketball player who went through his treatment program is guard Lloyd Daniels, now with the Spurs.

"I was in the John Lucas treatment program last year and now he's the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs," Daniels said. "John was like an older brother to me in the program." Daniels joined the Spurs this season even though he never played college basketball. He was recruited by Tarkanian to play for UNLV, but never got the chance after getting arrested in a crack cocaine house in Las Vegas. After other drug-related incidents, Daniels Giants beaten by KRCC in Pepsi tourney finals SPORTS STAFF en route to all-tournament honors for the Giants (9-6), but COS VISALIA Just when it had couldn't score after closing to its second consecutive tourney title within 52-48. Eric Simone added within striking distance, the lids 12 points for COS, whose offense went on the rims for the College of struggled without Tommy Cunninthe Sequoias men's basketball gham available.

team. The Giants went scoreless over Daniel Crosby was also named the final three minutes Saturday to the ament team for the and lost to Kings River Com- Giants, while Harry Arrison of munity College 61-48 in the finals Utah Valley was named the Most of the Invitational. Valuable Player. It's the first championship in this tournament the Tigers, while the In other action on Saturday, Giants had a five-game winning Riverside earned third-place with streak snapped. an 89-88 overtime victory over Derek Parmer scored 17 points Utah Valley..