The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 11

f)? gaily pantagrapb TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1982 SECTION Doyroin) EnDdl ft? MlimxDDS SPORTS SCENE More NIT on B-3. By WILL GRIMSLEY Associated Press Chandler's election surprises everyone ALTHOUGH THERE HAD been a strong grass roots campaign, nudged by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, to get Happy Chandler into baseball's Hall of Fame, the election of the vibrant, innovative former commissioner caught everyone completely by surprise. His name was conspicuously missing from the long list of prospects posed by newsmen and baseball personalitieall personalities for consideration by the Veterans Committee. Of the non-players, the most talk centered on the late Walter O'Malley of the Dodgers and his longtime manager, Walter Alston. The old players' rollcall ran the gamut: Charlie Grimm, Jimmy Dykes, Johnny Sain and, the latest school's history.

What helped keep Illinois in the game was a 15-6 turnover margin for Dayton, including 8-3 in the second half along with 38 percent shooting from the field. That left Flyers head coach Don Donoher muttering about needed improvements in the team's ball-handling. "We said before the game that we had to dominate in the offensive statistics because there was only so much we can do on defense," he said. "We had a sub-par second half. We're fortunate Illinois didn't play well in the second half.

We have to polish our offense. We didn't have two good halves." Donoher agreed the outcome was an upset. "It was a big win," he remarked. "Everyone knows we haven't done too well versus Big Ten schools. Thinking of New York sure helped.

To get there, we have to continue to polish up our offense. It wasn't a pretty win, but it was gutsy." Dayton got 12 points from Conrad, whose recovery from mononucleosis has sparked the Flyers. DAYTON (61) Gorney 2 0-1 4, Chapman 2 6-8 10, Kanieski 10 4-5 24, Conrad 4 4-7 12, McNally 1 0-0 2, Morrison 2 1-2 5, Schellenberg 1 2-2 4, Byrd 0 0-0 0, Reichert 0 0-0 0, Hawkins 0 0-0 0 Totals 22 17-25 61. ILLINOIS (SS) Range 5 0-0 10, Griffin 10 3-5 23, Tucker 5 2-2 12, Harper 5 0-1 10. Montgomery 0 t-2 1, Daniels 1 00 2, Leonard 0 0-0 0, Welch 0 0-0 0.

Totals 26 6 10 58 Halftime Dayton 35, Illinois 30. Fouled out none. Total Fouls Dayton 17, Illinois 18. Technical fouls none. A 16,275.

By CLIFF SCHROCK Pantograph staff CHAMPAIGN There needs to be a slight clarification of the "De-Paul jinx." It's defined as what happens when a ball-control team is able to control the tempo over an up-tempo squad. With that in mind, it can be told that the up-tempo University of Illinois' basketball team was smitten by the ball-controlling Dayton Flyers here last night in the Assembly Hall with a 61-58 defeat in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. The Illini, finishing at 18-11, must have used up all their running game in trouncing Long Island in the first round. Illinois was never able to get its fast break in gear, and when it did, hurried or missed shots or threw the ball away. "We weren't hitting our 15-18 foot shots," Illinois head coach Lou Hen-son said.

"We didn't want a game from 20 feet in on both sides of the court. We knew we'd be in trouble if we did." Twenty feet was the range Dayton's 6-10 senior center Mike Kanieski was shooting from; Kanieski knocked in 10 of 16 field goals and led all scorers with 24 points. Yet, Dayton's ball control offense wouldn't have been a success had Illinois not helped out. The Illini The Illini missed the front ends on two out of four one-and-ones in the final minutes. The Flyers, moving to 21-8, worked the ball around and got a layup from Kanieski at 1:40 for a 55-50 score.

Griffin answered with a jumper in the lane at 1:26, but Kanieski came back with a three-point play with 1:04 left for a 58-52 margin. "The guard drove down and Griffin came out to help," Kanieski, who got a layup on the play, said. "The guard got me down low and I was lucky enough to make the shot. It stretched our lead to a comfortable margin." Comfortable became close; Dayton guard Kevin Conrad made one of two free throws with 55 seconds left for a 59-54 score, but on the ensuing possessions Illinois' Craig Tucker missed two shots and Dayton's Mike Gorney and Conrad both missed front ends of one-and-ones. Perry Range hit a shot from the wing to bring Illinis within three at 59-56 with 26 seconds left, and on the in-bounds play the Illini 's Jay Daniels ripped the ball from Conrad and made a layup with 20 seconds left.

Yet reserve guard Larry Schellen-berg sank two free throws with three seconds remaining on an intentional foul to end Illinois' hopes for its all-time victory in the eligible, Phil Rizzuto. Bill Guilfoyle, the terprising publicity director of the Hall of Fame, found he had neglected to include a Chandler sketch in his preparedness portfolio. There was a quick scramble among newsmen for Chandler biographical material, although many oldsters could draw much from memory. It was learned later that Gabe Paul, president of the Cleveland Indians, and Joe Cronin, the Hall of Famer who once served as president of the American League, had led the successful fight in the Bradley powers over Syracuse Joe Cronin shot 40 percent on 26 of 65 field goals, but they had averaged 48 percent during the season. They also were on the short side a 40-32 rebound edge, including team rebounds.

"This ball club played hard all season," Henson said. "We spent two or three days working (on the game). But we didn't do a good job on Kanieski. We knew he could shoot. Bryan (Leonard) and George (Montgomery) didn't come out tight enough on him.

"We knew what to do, but we didn't get the job done. We didn't play well enough to win it." With Illinois in an offense as foreign to them as Bulgaria, it's surprising they had opportunities to pull out the victory that may have set-up a date with Bradley. Yet, not even Gov. James Thompson joining the sell-out 16,275 crowd was enough to get the Illini over the hump. Dayton had expanded a 35-30 half-time lead to 10-point margins of 42-32 and 49-39 (at the 12:05 mark) before Illinois slowly pulled back to a 52-50 deficit on James Griffin's two free throws with 3:34 left.

Kanieski sank a free throw for a 53-50 lead, followed by Illinois' Derek Harper missing the front end of a one-and-bonus situation at 2:49. erased Syracuse's last lead, a meaningless 6-4 advantage, after less than three minutes of play. The 6-foot-7 senior's second three-pointer also wiped out the last tie of the game at 17-17. The Braves built their lead to 13 points seconds before halftime when 5-10 guard Willie Scott drove across the lane for a layup. The first half ended with Bradley on top 47-34.

Scott sank two quick baskets after halftime, and five points by Anderson in the first five minutes after intermission blew the lead to 62-38 and took most of the doubt out of the game. Syracuse, which shot poorly over Bradley's zone, never was closer than the final score thereafter. The Orangemen had five players in double figures none with more than Ron Payton's 14 points. Gene Waldron and Erich Santifer scored 12 apiece, Leo Rautins had 11 and Tony Bruin 10. Bruin, Rautins and Waldron fouled out.

Voise Winters canned 14 points for the victors, while Barney Mines and Donald Reese each contributed 11. Bradley, 23-10, won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title. Syracuse, which finished fifth in the Big East, ended its season at 16-13. BRADLEY (5 Anderson 6 8-9 20, Mines 3 5-6 11, Reese 3 5-10 11, Scott 4 1-2-9, Thirdkill 6 11-13 23, Winters 6 2-3 14. Harris 1 2-2 4, Mathews 1 1-2 3, Webster 0 0 0 0, Cootc 0 0-0 0 Totals 30 35-47 95.

SYRACUSE (81) Rautins 5 1-3 11, Bruin 3 4-4 10. Hawkins 3 0-1 6, Waldron 6 0-2 12, Santifer 6 0-0 12, Payton 7 0-1 14, Kerins 2 2-2 6, Lewis 2 0-0 4, Spera 2 0-0 4, Perry 1 0-0 2, Wynne 0 0-0 0, Watson 0 0-0 0. Totals 37 7-15 81. Halftime-Bradley 47, Syracuse 34. Fouled out Bruin, Rautins, Waldron.

Total fouls Bradley 19, Syracuse 27. A 16,039. r.J I I 9 1 committee. Afterward, Kuhn received a telephone call from Chandler in Versailles, home of the former Kentucky governor and U.S. senator.

"I could tell," Kuhn said, "near the end of the conversation Happy was so choked up he was crying. I must admit there were tears running down my cheek when I hung up." It was Kuhn who rescued Chandler from the baseball dungeon after the 83-year-old Kentuckian had been completely cut off by the baseball establishment. KUHN RECTIFIED the gross injustice by inviting Chandler to World Series and All-Star Games. The commissioner recalled the frigid Sunday night second game of the 1976 World Series beween Cincinnati and the Yankees (swept by the Reds), when Chandler was his guest in the open box at fieldside. "I was bare-headed, wearing only a business suit," said Kuhn, often chided because of his disdain for icy temperatures in a warm weather sport, "and there was Happy all wrapped up in a fur coat with a full fur collar, thick scarves and wearing Kentucky Wildcat hat.

He was shivering. "I turned to motion toward the press box and Happy said, 'Here, commissioner, take my coat. You'll catch your death of Stories of Happy Chandler abound. Even his critics acknowledge that he was strong administrator too strong, perhaps, for the owners who wanted a commissioner they could control. Bob Broeg, veteran baseball writer of the St.

Louis Post-Dispatch, recalls a speech made by Chandler two years before he had forced the majors to accept Jackie Robinson. "HE TOLD an audience that he didn't think anybody, black or white, should be denied a chance to play this game," Broeg said. People who know him marvel at Happy's amazing photographic memory. "I have total recall," Chandler says. "I can remember every incident to the smallest detail that has happened in my life." An Associated Press assistant sports editor, Harold "Spike" Claassen, recalled that he was introduced to Chandler twice at a cocktail party once as "Spike" while standing," another time as "Harold" while "Every time I ran into him afterward," Claassen said, Happy called me 'Spike' if we were standing, 'Harold' if sitting down." Chandler himself delights in relating stories about his suspension of Brooklyn Dodgers Manager Leo Durocher in 1947 for an accumlation of actions deemed "detrimental to the game." "LEO'S WIFE came up and asked me to lift the suspension," he said.

"I told her how Leo was going around playing cards with the ballplayers and influencing people to take money from them, that he was a bad man. "She got mad at me. But shortly afterward Leo left her for Laraine Day, the actress, and the wife sought me out later and said 'You were Chandler recalled that actor George Raft, a friend of Leo's, also tried to intervene. "I asked Raft, 'Have you got a baseball He said, 'No, I told him, 'I am commissioner of baseball take your business somewhere SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) Bradley Coach Dick Versace felt vindicated, if nothing else, by his basketball team's 95-81 dismantling of Syracuse last night in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.

At the time his team accepted an NIT bid, Versace railed bitterly at the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament selection committee and the methods of committee member Dave Gavitt, the commissioner of the Big East Conference. Four Big East teams were admitted to the NCAA field and only one Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference. "We deserve a home site," Versace said after the game. "We're Missouri Valley (regular-season) champions, and it's a difficult league. We should have been eluded in the (NCAA) tournament, although I'm glad to be in the NIT." David Thirdkill scored 23 points and Mitchell Anderson added 20 as the Braves romped over the Orangemen.

Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, who had no comment on the in-terconference squabble, said, "We didn't play well enough offensively to stay within reach. When they got ahead, all we could do was make an effort. They were excellent." In advancing to the quarterfinals, Bradley utilized uncanny free-throw shooting, connecting on 35 of 47 trips to the line. Syracuse scored 37 field goals to Bradley's 30, but made only seven free throws. Thirdkill's first of two three-point plays in the first eight minutes Lincoln GAME WEDNESDAY 7:00 p.m.

Lincoln vs. Danville (championship) By RANDY KINDRED Pantograph staff Her team's performance may not have been a typical one in the eyes of Lincoln High School girls basketball coach Jan Smock, but the Lady Railers' effort last night at Neuman Gymnasium ended in familiar fashion a Lincoln victory. The Lady Railers' 61-50 triumph over Champaign Centennial in the opening game of the Normal Community Class AA Sectional Tournament was their 25th in 27 games and moved them into Wednesday night's title game opposite Danville. Danville reserved its spot in the championship contest with a 68-57 verdict over Morton in the second game. Lincoln-Centennial Lincoln scored the victory despite being outrebounded, 29-20, and bitting 24 of 55 shots from the field, a pair of statistics which left Smock less than jubilant about her team Lincoln High School's Teresa May (42) went up for a shot last night at Neuman Gymnasium over four Champaign Centennial defenders, including Kelli Nimmo (34) and Kelly Hagan (24).

Lincoln won the first-round game of the NCHS Class AA Sectional Basketball Tournament, 61-50. 7 girls notch victory Pantagraph photoBRAD CLIFT The Potters finished with 20 turnovers compared to Danville's 13, and was outrebounded by a 40-31 count. Morton made 26 of 55 field goal attempts, while the Lady Vikings sank 28 of 63. Junior center Jaci Burhop led Morton with 20 points, while Cindy Bumgamer netted 13 and Pam Cod-dington 12. Chavala King topped Danville with 18.

Michelle Manage added 16. most of them from long range, while Lisa Dye had 13 for the Lady Vikings, who upped their record to 23-3. Lincoln Champaign Centennial 12 24 45 41 14 IS LINCOLN Meter 2-5-4, Boch 3-0-4 Ma, 7-3-17, Loetteinoll 4 2 14. Morgan 4-J 'S Kuril 0-0-0 Ross 0-0-0. Darlington 4-0-4 Burger 0-0-0.

On 0-04. Rahn 0-0-4 Toton 24 13-41 CHAMPAIGN CENTENNIAL Harmfl 5-2-12. Hagan 4-3 11, Lawrence 5111 Remshaw 4 08, Nimmo 3-0-4. Ogoon 6-c-e. Taylor O-O-O.

Golhher 0-0-O, Kencn 4-4-4 Overman 0-0-0 Totals 21-8 SO Morton DenviHe 14 2 43 34 VI 4 MODTON-Vinson 3 0 4 CoOOmgten 5-2 12. Burhop 10 0 20 Hauttr 144 Bumaamer 53 3 Lawranc. 1-0-2. Rro4 0-0-0 Totals 24-S-S7 DANVILLE L. Crotbv 4-1-4, Mro 8-0-14.

King U-ll Pearson l-l-l Dve J- 11 Crosby 3-0-4. Stntord 0-0-4. C4rtr 4 11 Pope Btt. Bon 0-0-4 Tota 24-1144 "That wasn't the way we usually play," said Smock, whose team had beaten Centennial by 20 points earlier in the season. "Maybe we got our bad game out of the way so we'll be ready for the championship match.

"We weren't shooting well and we weren't getting position for rebounds. They were beating us to the spot all night." The Lady Railers sank only five of 14 shots while Centennial was bagging its first seven and eight of 12 in the first quarter. Centennial raced to a 10-2 lead, but Lincoln trimmed the margin to 16-12 by the end of the quarter on a Lori Loeffelholz basket. Lincoln grabbed the lead for good with an outburst at the start of the second quarter, outscoring Centennial, 13-4, in the first four minutes to take a 25-19 lead. The Lady Railers led by as many as 11 points (45-34) in the third quarter before settling for a 45-38 advantage entering the final period.

Centennial cut the lead to four (52-48) on a Cathy Lawrence basket' with 3 minutes, 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but baskets by 6-foot-4 center Teresa May and forward Rhonda Morgan and two free throws by Loeffelholz gave Lincoln a 58-48 margin. May led Lincoln with 17 points, while Morgan had 15 and Loeffelholz 14. Lawrence had 13 for Centennial, which finished with a 23-5 record. Centennial had 20 turnovers, 10 more than Lincoln. Morton-Danville Morton, which ended its season with a 20-5 record, dug itself a hole with 15 first-half turnovers and could never recover.

Danville led 18-14 after one quarter before outscoring Morton, 8-2, at the start of the second period for a 26-16 lead. The Lady Vikings took a 36-29 lead into the halftime break, and grabbed a 48-33 advantage with a 12-4 spurt to start the third quarter. Danville led 54-43 going into the fourth period, and Morton could get no closer than the final 11-point margiiyhe rest of the way. i.