The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 9

$he Charlotte (Dbsctvcr SECTION Jarrett delivers art Daytona Pistons were sweet enough to leave win Flashing to the finish: Dale Jarrett beats Dale the the checkered flag in Sunday's Daytona 500 race Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 in 15 Earnhardt (second place) and Geoff Bodine (third) to Jarrett passed Earnhardt on the final lap to win the tries Late pass denies Earnhardt victory for 15th time More coveragepage 6B What could be more romantic than spending Day with the the Detroit Pistons7 What could be more romantic than taking a loved one to the Charlotte Coliseum to watch Detroit center Bill Laimbeer flop and whine and even sneak in a shove or two? Or six7 What could be more romantic than watching Mark Aguirre the unappreciated forward who once played defense (it was on Jan 17 1 989) and features a posterior so big it makes look petite7 And what could be more romantic than watching Isiah Thomas whom fans voted an all-star game starter but whose coach consider good enough to use in the fourth quarter of game7 The Pistons made Day special for Charlotte fans Sunday They lost to the Hornets for the third straight time this season Charlotte won 117-107 and could have won by 25 should have blown this team out" Kendall Gill said Gill did his part He finished with 27 points 10 rebounds and seven assists All the Hornets did their part They beat the Pistons down court beneath the basket and up like to put it to us if they Detroit coach Ron Rothstein said It was as if the Pistons there Muggsy Bogues and Larry Johnson wanted to celebrate a particularly nice basket by tapping fists but Olden Po-iymee was in the way So they simply reached around him The Pistons trigger these spontaneous expressions of affection not just between opponents but between fans Two of them Kathleen Webb and Tras Young decided to get married at halftime Webb and Young walked across a red carpet to midcourt and took their vows beneath a golden arch They were attended by the Honeybees who carried roses and held their heads up the entire ceremony despite their hair Finally Webb and Young were pronounced man and wife by an accredited minister Drew Tucker of Hickory Grove Baptist Church Somewhere a tear was shed But not in Section 2 1 9 where a fan yelled do And say this about Laimbeer he did not bust up the wedding He sure was in a bad mood though He had gone into the locker room kicking and how with six minutes left he left the game Laimbeer hacked Gill and when he was called for a foul he yelled and screamed until a referee kicked him right out of the game recall that the last time Laimbeer was in town he gave Alonzo Mourning a hard shove and tried to provoke a fight Sunday they did not line up against each other until the second half When Laimbeer walked on the court Mourning stared at him until he looked away When Laimbeer was kicked out the stare Mourning gave him was so cold the temperature in the Coliseum dropped 3 degrees The game was not without drama The drama concerned the triple-double a number so elu- sive no Hornet has ever attained it in a real game (although Larry Johnson did in an exhibition) To get a triple-double you need to hit double figures in three categories Gill missed by three assists Mourning missed by four blocks or 10 assists Muggsy Bogues missed by two rebounds Bogues had eight going into the fourth quarter Alas he finished with eight (He also had 13 points and 1 0 assists Told about the rebounds after the game he was crushed have got he yelled have found a Johnson said he would have boxed out so Bogues could rebound He said he would have tipped the ball into hands should have had yelled Dell Curry "But you quit write that" Bogues said Laimbeer couldn't do anything for Bogues but he did have one last chance to make Day special for a Charlotte fan As he left the Coliseum a fan asked him for an autograph thanks" Laimbeer said By LIZ CLARKE Staff Writer DAYTONA BEACH Fla With his mother praying in the infield and his father about to jump out of the CBS anchor booth Dale Jarrett blew past a seemingly cursed Dale Earnhardt Sunday to win the Daytona 500 in the final two laps Earnhardt gunning for his first win in 15 tries led more than half the race in a powerful Chevy that had drivers scared all week But with three laps left Earnhardt got wobbly and Jarrett took advantage He dove around rookie Jeff Plenty of other drivers had good cars too But precious few shared luck Rusty Wallace was running in the top 10 when he got snared in a horrific crash on Lap 168 that sent him flying through the air and flipping end over end Wallace managed to walk away needing only stitches for his chin Pole-sitter Kyle hopes were dashed by a collision with Bobby Hillin who had spun out on Lap 158 lost his brakes and drifted Please see Daytonapage 6B Gordon who had been hugging bumper for a good 20 laps to pull even with Earnhardt with about a lap and a half left His power fading all Earnhardt could do was bump him Jarrett hung on and with a push from Geoff Ford he found just enough to blow past for the win Earnhardt finished second Finishing third through fifth were Bodine Hut Stricklin Ford and Gordon Chevy Williams steps up helps UNC turn back Tech By LEONARD LA YE Sports Editor ATLANTA North Carolina coach Dean Smith had been wondering just when Donald shot might return Teammate Eric Montross swallowed up inside by defenses collapsing more than ever had been wondering the same thing Sunday they found out Williams a sophomore guard whose unerring jumper had made the Tar Heels near-unbeatable through the first half of the college basketball season came back to life at the best of times for No 3 Noith Carolina and the good play Detroit foul play key Hornets win By RICK BONNELL Staff Writer Ask Kendall Gill why playing so well and he talks about his Bill Laimbeer's conscience could still use some Windex Gill scored a season-high 27 points including a drive on Laimbeer that essentially secured the Charlotte 117-107 victory Sunday over the Detroit Pistons drive with six minutes left was also last play The surly Pistons center was assessed two technical fouls by NBA referee Luis Grillo an automatic ejection and the Hornets scored five points off the possession to restore an eight-point lead to 13 There were days when the Pistons (20-28) could afford to lose a player or two to ejection and still beat the Hornets No more Though Charlotte (26-21) got sloppy with a 23-point lead assembled in the first half there was little doubt who would win this one Please see Hornetspage 4B worst for Georgia Tech He scored 21 points 17 in the second half keeping the Tar Heels on top of the ACC race with a 77-66 victory over the Yellow Jackets in Alexander Memorial Coliseum The win was the third in a row for North Carolina (20 3 9-2 ACC) after back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Duke Georgia Tech which has lost seven of 10 since defeating formerly top-ranked Duke last month fell to 12-8 5-6 Donald got his shooting touch back just in Smith said kidded him at halftime I said time for you to come on young man At the time the Tar Heels were down 36-31 and Williams was two of six from the' field apparently headed for another in a series of sub par shooting Please see Heelspage 7B JEFF SINERStaff Gill for two: Kendall Gill drives for two of his season-high 27 points as teammate Larry Johnson (2) and Danny Young watch The Hornets won 117-107 mgm.