The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 34

THIRD EDITION Ashworth stars in meet C3 IWU takes pair C4 Saturday. March 21, 1987 The Pantagraph La tote in NIT 3rd royimdl Sa SU Morris. "You'll enjoy watching a game there. It is one of the finest places to watch a game. It was built in the 1930s, so the architect was ahead of his time." NIT NOTES: When Illinois State takes the floor tonight, it will be a school-record 32nd game in one season.

The 1982-83 and 1983-84 teams, both NCAA qualifiers, played 31 games Illinois State is the first Missouri Valley Conference team to win an NIT game since Bradley beat Purdue for the 1982 championship This is Illinois State's fourth NIT, but this is the first year the Redbirds have won two games. The 1977 team, coached by Gene Smith-son, and the 1980 team, coached by Donewald, each won a first-round game Bradley leads Valley schools with 15 NIT appearances; the Braves won four titles and have a 20-12 record in NIT games Wichita State has been in the NIT six times, but has yet to win a game Tulsa won the 1981 NIT and Southern Illinois claimed the 1967 title. nois State film. "Their defense is as good as we've played," said Morris. "They're well-coached and they do a lot of things that Indiana does.

You know what they're going to do, but the problem is trying to stop them. "The Missouri Valley Conference is a tough basketball league." La Salle, which was second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and second in the Philadelphia Big 5, is playing better now, according to Morris. "We hope we have it going now," said Morris. "We didn't play well when we lost to Fairfield in our conference tournament. But, we did play well in beating Villanova and Niagara in the NIT." The Palestra, which seats 9,028, is considered to be La Salle's home court although the arena is on the University of Pennsylvania campus.

"We played 11 games there," said Simmons averages 19.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. Donewald was particularly impressed with 64 guard Tim Legler and 6-7 forward Larry Koretz. Legler averaged 18.7 points and Koretz 11.8 points per game. "They shoot from NBA. range," said Donewald.

"They just keep backing up and shooting them in. The major concern with Cleveland State was how we handled their press. The major concern with La Salle is trying to defense their players and the various ways they can score." La Salle, which has an 18-12 record, also starts 6-foot Rich Tarr at guard and 6-6 Craig Conlin at center. "They remind me a lot of our '83 team with Rick Lamb, Hank Cornley and Mark Zwart," said Donewald. "They're very strong.

They're kind of like us in that they'll go with the break if they have it. And they'll also dump it inside." Morris said he was impressed with Illi By JIM BARNHART Pantagraph sports editor PHILADELPHIA Comedian W.C. Fields was not overly enamored of his home town. The epitaph on his tombstone reads, "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." Illinois State University basketball coach Bob Donewald doesn't think there's anything funny about Philadelphia, especially because the Redbirds must meet La Salle University tonight at 6:30 in a third-round National Invitation Tournament game at the Palestra. Radio station WJBC (1230, Bloomington) will broadcast the game.

There will be no television by area stations. Channel 25 (Peoria) wanted to carry the game, but the NIT was asking $17,000 for rights to the contest, an exhorbitant price in this market. "Unfortunately, you'll like this team (La Salle)," said Donewald. "I've been very impressed with their intensity and effort Washington is glad now to be in the NIT. Story on C3.

on both ends. It's an extremely good perimeter shooting team. "They start four kids who can shoot with Jeff Harris, and they're bigger and stronger. Then they have one of the five best freshmen in the country in Lionel Simmons. He's very creative within 17 feet of the basket.

"They lost to North Carolina by five points; they led DePaul for 39 minutes and lost by four points; and they led Notre Dame most of the game but had to go into overtime when their coach (Speedy Morris) got a technical. Notre Dame won in overtime." Simmons, who is 6-foot-6, had his nose fractured in the Tuesday victory at Niagara but will be able to play, according to Morris. "He hasn't practiced, but he will play," said Morris. CLASS A A STATE LSU slips past DePaul; Indiana turns back Duke Quincy shocks Manual in OT i Quincy-Manual Quincy didn't even receive votes in the final Class AA regular-season poll. "I couldn't be more happy.

They've put themselves together into a winning team," Leggett said of his players. "They deserve all the glory and happiness they can David Booth got a 22-footer off at the overtime buzzer, but the Rams' season ended at 31-1. "Those things happen," Manual coach Dick Van Scyoc said. "Maybe that's a good shot for him (Bailey), but I didn't think it was a good shot." Leggett hampered the Blue Devil cause with a technical with 4:20 left in regulation. Please see CLASS AA, C3 CINCINNATI (AP) Anthony Wilson said he didn't have a good night shooting until the game was on the line.

It was Wilson's 15-foot shot with 25 seconds left which supplied lOth-seeded Louisiana State with the jolt it needed to upset No.3-seeded DePaul 63-58 in the Midwest Regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament at Riverfront Coliseum last night. The victory moved LSU, 24-14, into Sunday's regional final against Indiana, which downed Duke, 88-82, in the second game. 7 if By RANDY REINHARDT Pantagraph staff CHAMPAIGN The television series "That's Incredible" was canceled years ago, but the Quincy High School basketball team provided a rerun last night. Blue Devil guard James Bailey may get a show of his own after he tossed in a 25-foot shot with two seconds left in overtime to lift Quincy to a stunning 61-59 upset of top-ranked Peoria Manual last night in the quarterfinal round of the Class AA State Tournament. "Bailey shot it that was the whole play," Quincy coach Jerry Leggett joked.

"He's been on the varsity team three years and he knew how much time was on the clock. He usually makes one out of four of those in practice." In last night's other quarterfinal game, East St. Louis Lincoln defeated stubborn Oak Forest, 64-58, before a crowd of 10,216 at the Assembly Hall. The Tigers, 26-1, and the Blue Devils, 26-5, meet in today's second semifinal game at 12:45 p.m. 2M 4r li v-p.

MIDWEST j. rr re 1 I 7t 'Wf LW L7A' Ft -assart9" LSU-DePaul Wilson hit just seven of 20 shots from the field, but the last of those successful attempts gave his team a 60-57 lead. Nikita Wilson, no relation to Anthony, scored 24 points to lead LSU, while Anthony contributed 17 points. "You're not going to go out and shoot extremely well every night," said Anthony Wilson, a 6-foot4 senior. "That was the case for me.

Nikita had the hot hand. If one guy doesn't do it, somebody else has to take up the slack." "In the last six minutes, only two people were allowed to shoot the ball unless it was a layup," said LSU's Dale Brown. "Anthony was the only one allowed to shoot from the outside and Nikita was the only one who could go inside." As proof, the Wilsons scored all six of the Tigers' points over the last six minutes, until Bernard Woodside put the game out of reach with a breakaway layup and free throw with four seconds left. LSU, which started only one player taller than 6-6 the 6-8 Nikita Wilson outrebounded the Blue Demons 33-27. "Their physicalness was the difference," DePaul Coach Joey Meyer said.

"Their physicalness took us out of our game offensively. We could not run our offense." DePaul, ranked No. 5 in the final AP poll, dropped out at 28-3. The Tigers took the last of 13 lead changes in the game for a 58-57 advantage on Nikita Wilson's short turnaround shot with 2:48 remaining. LSU's Oliver Brown then stole a pass from DePaul's Andy Laux with 1:01 remaining.

LSU went into its delay game, with Anthony Wilson driving and hitting the jump shot from the left side with ML- KJs. AP LSU's Oliver Brown (31) could do nothing but watch DePaul's Dallas Comegys fly in for a dunk in last night's game at Cincinnati. King's Marcus Liberty (30) looked to drive around Elgin's Tim Moritz during yesterday's Class AA quarterfinal game at the Assembly Hall. Cox upset, but champion King not caught the ball in bounds that they didn't foul," said DePaul's Meyer. DePaul was led by the 14 points of Dallas Comegys, with Kevin Edwards scoring 12 and Green 10.

DePaul hit 24 of 47 shots from the field for 51 percent to become only the third team in 38 games to shoot better than 50 percent against LSU. The Tigers hit 29 of 64 shots from the field for 45 percent. LSU led 38-34 at the half and stretched that to 42-34 at the outset of the second half before DePaul Please see MIDWEST, C3 25 seconds left for a 60-57 lead. DePaul's Terence Greene was fouled by Woodside on a 3-point field goal attempt with 13 seconds remaining. He hit the second of two free throws to make it 60-58.

The Tigers nearly threw the ball away on the ensuing inbounds play, but Darryl Joe made a scrambling catch in the corner. He flipped a pass upcourt to Anthony Wilson, who hit Woodside behind the DePaul defense. He scored on the breakaway dunk and was fouled, completing a three-point play to end the scoring. "Our guys were so surprised (Joe) Gamble lifts Iowa past Oklahoma SEATTLE (AP) Kevin Gamble TTTSTS? sank a 22-foot 3-point shot with WEST three seconds left in overtime last By BRYAN BLOODWORTH Pantagraph staff CHAMPAIGN It may not have gained a stamp of approval from Coach Sonny Cox, but Chicago King High School's basketball team did sport the mark of a champion yesterday at the Assembly Hall. "We played lousy and we were fortunate to win, but the mark of a champion is to win a game even you don't play well," said Cox after his defending Class AA btate champion Jaguars defeated Elgin, 70-58, in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament before 9,263 people.

"We're still the state champions until somebody beats us." The lOth-rated Jaguars meet fourth-rated Westchester St. Joseph today at 11:15 a.m. in the semifinals. St. Joseph, behind the combined 60-point effort of Clifford Scales and Brian Molis, whipped Rockford Boylan, 85-67, in yesterday's first quarterfinal game.

Scales scored a career-high 34 points and Molis added 26 as St. Joseph moved its record to 27-2. King-Elgin King rode the 23-point effort of All-American Marcus Liberty to its 27th victory in 31 games. Liberty, who is headed for the University of Illinois, scored 15 points in the first half as King struggled to a 33-27 lead. Elgin used a very pa tient attack to gain a 4645 lead after three quarters.

The Maroons, who found out just before game time that they would be without 6-foot-9, 200-pound starting center Mike Adkins because of the chicken pox, took advantage of the inside play of all-state forward Mark Baugh to gain the short-lived lead. The 6-5 Baugh scored 17 of his game-high 34 points in third quarter. However, King managed to shut Baugh down in the fourth quarter, holding him to four points. As a result, the Maroons' offense sputtered. Elgin, which finished 28-3 and rated 11th, nursed its lead to 50-47 with six minutes remaining before King outscored the Maroons, 164, over the next five minutes to put the game away.

"We missed some big one-and-ones (free throws) and had a couple of turnovers in the fourth quarter that took their toll," said Elgin coach James Harrington. "There are no excuses on our part. It would have been great to have Adkins, but we played with the cards that were dealt to us." St. Joseph-Boylan St. Joseph shot 75 percent from the field in the first half and finished at 67 percent to defeat Boylan.

The Chargers, behind Scales' 22 first-half points, led by 17 midway through the second quarter before Boylan cut the deficit to 10 at half-time. St. Joseph extended the lead to 15 points with three minutes left in the third quarter, but again Boylan came back. The Titans closed the gap to 69-59 with 5:57 remaining before St. Joseph ripped off eight straight points to preserve the victory.

"I felt we had to get good shots the ones from the 5 to 10 foot range and layups and we did" said St. Joseph coach Gene Pingatore. "I was surprised Boylan didn't try to slow the tempo down and pack things inside. The (quicker) tempo was definitely to our advantage." "We just took a good ole' country licking," said Boylan coach Steve Goers, whose team finished 284. "They were just quicker than us and ran their transition game well.

They just ran by us early. "When you're slower than the other team, it's very tough to come back against them." Chad Gallagher paced Boylan with 21 points while teammate Ken Linsky added 19. Scales, who is headed for the University of Nebraska, was 13 of 15 from the field. Molis, who will play college ball at Colorado, was 11 for 18. "If they weren't all-staters before, we certainly made them all-staters today," said Goers.

night to give sixth-ranked Iowa a 93-91 victory over Oklahoma in the West i Regional semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament. to play. The Hawkeyes missed two late shots but got the ball back both times, once on an offensive rebound by Gamble and once when Oklahoma knocked the ball out of bounds. That set up Gamble's winning shot. Armstrong added 16 points for the Hawkeyes, who had five players in double figures.

McCalister scored 26, including seven 3-pointers, for Oklahoma. David Johnson added 20. Kennedy scored 15 and a grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for the Sooners and Harvey Grant added 14 points, all in the first half. Oklahoma went on an early 13-3 run to build a 37-21 lead with 7:30 left in the first half. But then the Sooners went stone cold.

points at 78-72 with 6:54 to play in regulation. But the underdog Sooners built an 85-80 lead on Darryl Kennedy's stuff shot with 2:17 to play. Then Iowa scored the final five points of regulation, the last on a 3-point bomb by B.J. Armstrong with 51 seconds remaining. Oklahoma had a chance for the winning basket, but Gamble blocked Tim McCalister's 15-footer and Kennedy's desparation 10-footer failed to connect at the buzzer.

Iowa scored the first five points of the overtime, but the Sooners, plagued by foul trouble all night, managed one more comeback. They grabbed a 91-90 advantage on Kennedy's inside basket with 1:02 Gamble, a 6-foot-6 senior from Springfield and a former Lincoln College player, led the Hawkeyes with 26 points and blocked a late Oklahoma shot to force the overtime. The Hawkeyes, 304, play the winner of last night's late contest between No. 1 ranked Nevada-Las Vegas and Wyoming In Sunday's regional finals. Oklahoma, 24-10, led by as many as 16 points in the first half but led only by one at intermission.

The game was close the rest of the way. Iowa's biggest lead was six.