Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem, North Carolina • 7

Winston Salem Journal 7i SECTION sorts Sunday December 3 1978 a Columns Scores Standings Big our Consolation Game Wolfpack Nudges Wake orest 77 70 GREENSBORO Unable to shake off Wake orest with its fast paced long range offense North Carolina State slowed it down and glided to a 77 70 vic tory over the Deacons last night in the consolation game of the Big our basketball tournament Shortly after the 65 63 loss to Duke in the tour opening round State coach Norm Sloan reminded the press that the Wolfpack would be playing the real pressure game Saturday night the one that sent one team home from Greensboro without a victory And for the second night in a row Sloan yanked back the reins on NC offense when no team had a real ad vantage entering the final minutes Duke utilized that stratagem to beat the Wolfpack but State took advantage of Wake inexperience against tbe spread offense to score ten of the final points The Deacons held a 41 40 St 1 ft JHIB 'A ams vk 5 ik yft4 jf wUvw ATm ggt I WyAl' sH I '3? 1 4 4 7ft" II aw Bio feOr RB ftzft7 ftA IBM k4kW 8M 5 xz AP Wirephoto Sparky Anderson was not upset before his call lead at halftime thanks to 27 points by freshman Alvis Rogers Mike Helms Jim Johnstone and Guy Morgan in the first 20 minutes of play But Hawkeye Whitney dominated the game in the ear ly minutes of the second half directing NC State into a lead it would never lose After Clyde 20 footer gave the Wolfpack a 46 45 advan tage Whitney scored four straight baskets most of them on outside jumpers to stretch the lead to three Two buckets by Larry Har rison offset a technical on Deacon coach Carl Tacy and tied the score at 55 55 Austin then found a crease in the Wake orest 2 3 zone defense and popped in three 20 footers to shove State back in front 65 59 Whitney was still controlling play at that point but the 6 6 junior picked up his fourth and fifth fouls within the next 20 se conds Justin two free throws and a three point play by Rodgers who led all Wake orest scorers with 20 points narrowed the gap to 65 64 The Deacons momentarily stymied the Wolfpack with a triangle and two defense and another bucket by Rodgers answered a field goal by Tiny Pinder to leave State ahead by one But Wake orest could score only four more points the rest of the game In the meantime NC rotating offense wheeled the ball inside and took advantage of Wake foul trouble The Wolfpack hit eight straight free throws four of them by Pindar in the closing minutes to put the game on ice Whitney led all State scorers with 20 points followed by 19 and 14 Helms backed up Rogers who played what TV commentator Bones McKinney called best game by a freshman ever seen in this with 16 points No other Deacon reached double figures The two Big our losses dropped Wake record to 8 10 in the nine years of the tournament while State raised its record to 11 7 with the vic tory The next game is against East Tennessee Wednesday night while State meets Davidson in Raleigh the same evening The lead changed hands nine times in the first 20 minutes before Rogers and some hot shooting at the foul line com bined to give Wake orest a 41 40 lead at the intermission Rogers led all scorers in the first half with 13 points as the four freshmen scored 27 of their points Seven of the 6 6 points came on the free throw line where Wake orest outscored State 17 4 before the halftime buzzer As in its opening round game against Duke the Wolfpack started the game with Hawkeye Whitney at the point and the slimmed down swingman hit three early See Wolfpack Page D5 A riend Consoles Anderson ORLANDO la (UPI) Sparky voice broke and he keep the tears from rolling down his face He was sobbing unashamed ly and that was easy to tell even over the phone Speaking from his home Thousand Oaks Calif the former Cincinnati manager crying so much over his firing by the Reds five days ago as he was over a deeply emotional experience he had only a few hours before The experience involved another manager Shigeo Nakashima of the Tokyo Giants whom Anderson grew exceptionally close to during the 28 game tour of Japan last month daughter in law Ann took the call on one of the two phones in the house and she put down the receiver to in form the ex manager who was answering a call on the other phone Tokyo daughter in law told him He hurried over to the other phone in the next room and wife Akiko was on the line Akiko Nakashima went to high school Kokomo Ind four years and then to col lege in Minnesota and speaks perfect English is telling me of the sadness she and her husband feel over what happened to Anderson said relating the conversation between them will go very he went on continuing to reproduce their conversation is finemy family is let Shigeo then tells me Shigeo wants to talk to me He speaks English very slow I know trying to tell me how he feels He says me no talk English I say to him talking I can see his eyes and his face and they tell me It was at this point in the conversation that Sparky Anderson lost his control and started to cry It became dif ficult for him to speak hard for him to recount his conver sation with Nakashima but he continued said to him a great ocean and a lot of land between us but not just my friend from Japan my Anderson went on UPI Telephoto SL foliar lAgfebLf wSr 4Mf tMmpmMmSmSik JnsL flHHL iWWMiML wsk Carlton Watson loses his grip on pass from Kermit Blount Delaware Derails Rams 41 0 By Dan Collins Staff Reporter NEWARK Dei or the Winston Salem State football team Longview will remain just another dot on a Texas state road map But for the Delaware Blue Hens who destroyed tbe previously indestructible Rams 41 0 yesterday in the NCAA Division II semifinals the panhandle town represents the end of the rain bow or Tubby steamrolling force knows a pot of gold the Division II championship waiting for the win ner of next week's Delaware Eastern Illinois game came early for us this observed a Blue Hen fan midway through the first period with the tide already 17 0 and rising On this day the Rams were indeed in a charitable mood With quarterback Kermit Blount suffering a terribly shaky afternoon the Rams fumbled 10 times lost four and threw four interceptions The first two fumbles were lost in the shadow of the WSSU goal and the first interception led to a Delaware field goal The poise and confidence the Rams had brandished all season on the way to 11 consecutive victories was suddenly nowhere to be found The Rams entered the game having blanked their last three op ponents including Cai Poly 17 0 last week in the first round of the playoffs The Blue Hens however took only 55 seconds to snap that proud skein As it turned out the game winning streak was soon to follow Randy Bolton fumbled the opening kickoff after an open field hit by Rick Cowen and Robert Lundquist recovered on the WSSU 21 Two sweeps by Gary Gumbs later Delaware led 6 0 and placekicker Brandt Kennedy quickly made it 7 0 with his first of five successful extra point conversions Safety Sam Dolente then intercepted a Blount pass at midfield on the next Ram possession and eight plays later Kennedy kicked a 33 yard field goal to push Delaware ahead 10 0 The delirium in Delaware Stadium had barely subsided before Blount rolled right on the first play of the next possession took a stutter step and heaved the pitchout well over trailing back Ar rington head The ever present Dolente pounced on one fumble at the Ram six and this time it took the Blue Hens three plays to cash in See Delaware Page D8 Elon Advances in NAIA Playoffs 21 6 By Mary Garber Staff Reporter BURLINGTON Quarterback Mike Currin threw touchdown passes of 73 and 63 yards as Elon beat Concord College 21 6 here yesterday in the opening round of the NAIA football playoffs Elon will meet Grand Valley of Allandale Mich here at 1 pm Saturday Grand Valley beat Wisconsin LaCrosse 24 14 yesterday The NAIA finals will be at the City of Palms Bowl McAllen Tex Dec 16 game proved that statistics mean lit tle the score everything Concord won the battle of statistics but Elon won the war defense gave up 392 yards in total offense and the secondary had problems with Concord's passing quarterback Dave Renner who completed 21 of 45 passes for 369 yards But that same Elon defense reacted well under pressure allowing Concord only six points out of all that yardage defense thwarted Concord scoring threats three times within the 30 yard line halted another drive on 34 yard line and two other times in tercepted passes to stop marches Elon sacked Renner nine times intercepted three passes and recovered two fumbles A pass intercep tion by Bryan Burney set up last touchdown a 10 yard run by Bobby Hedrick Neither of touchdown passes went to the his primary receiver as the little Elon quarterback scrambled looked and spotted open receivers wherever they were The first touchdown was an example was forced out of the pocket and I got hit" Cur rin said Scrambling for his life Currin heaved the ball downfield Two Concord defenders leaped after it at the sideline and got their finger tips on it enough to tap it into the air Joey Hackett gathered in the ball on the Concord 30 and went for the score untouched That play came on first possession Mitch Rippy missed the extra point but Elon led 6 0 after four plays On second touchdown in the second quarter See Elon Page D3 Chose to Be Aggressor IPagner Took a Gamble CINCINNATI (UPI) The biggest question in baseball last week: How could a manager who delivered two world cham pionships and a pair of second place finishes the last four years be fired? what happened to a shocked Sparky Anderson when the Cincinnati Reds replaced him with John McNamara And to some bewildered fans the answer to the question supplied publicly by President Dick Wagner seem to fit Wagner said he fired Anderson in order to us in a new To which sports columnist Red Smith replied has to ask what direction Wagner has in Smith recalling the brilliant seasons the Reds have had under Anderson added only direction new to the Reds is But of course it 1970 76 reign when he won the World Series twice the National League cham pionship four times and the NL West title five times that prompted Wagner to fire Anderson ft It was a pair of second place finishes the past two years and speculation on part that the club might well finish even lower next season He feared he was seeing the beginning of the In what appeared to be a better answer than the one he publicly supplied Wagner privately told one reporter would rather be the aggressor in a situation like this than sit back and find our club in fifth place and say I had done nothing about Everybody of course can see good record of the past but job to prepare for the future andj gambling that he has read the signs correctly He has obviously set himself up to look bad if the Reds finish first next year After all he pot rid of a guy who proved he could bring tne team in second and sometimes first What are the bad signs that Wagner saw? Well Wagner said he noticed a lack of aggressiveness in the team this past season Without telling McNamara what he thought Anderson did wrong Wagner in formed his new field boss that he wanted to see a hustling club Plus Johnny Bench noted last season that Anderson was becoming from the players and Mc Namara made it a point to mention several times this week that municating with was one of his strong suits Still Anderson was regarded as a win ner by fans who known a world championship for 35 years until the popular white haired skipper delivered it in 1975 And McNamara help but get that impression everywhere he went in town during his initial two day stay Just before he left town carrying to the airport a big packet of player profiles the Reds had given him to study Mc Namara said in a speech know the peo ple here can look back on some very fineyears but I also hope they will look forward tosome fine To add to the woes of depar ture superstar Pete Rose Cincin all time favorite was going go ing virtually gone to another team via free agentry AP Wireohclo ft' Sr I 4 ft ft ft i Cincinnati fan Mary Helwig is not particularly fond of President Dick Wagner.