Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 33

I luif ki ItoiultatiWtl II) (Ilia itliiti CBS 1:30 p.m. Basketball: Wake Forest vs. Houston ABC 2:30 p.m. Football: Chicago at New Orleans CBS 4:00 p.m. Basketball: Georgetown vs.

Dayton NBC 4:00 p.m. Golf: LPGA Kemper Open Former Red Wings star Gordie Howe was unhurt in a Saturday morning auto accident. Page 2D. Sports Phone, 1-976-1313 NCAA BASKETBALL 3 HORSE RACING 5,6 OUTDOORS 11 LJ DETROIT FREE PRESS Call with sports news: 222-6660 Oilio iOaunoy Playing for a state title Could it be, the Pistons actually rate with Lakers? LOS ANGELES Not having seen the Pistons play basketball for a while, I got here just in time to see them beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Fabulous Forum, Oak Park senior guard Fred Marshall brings the ball upcourt against Archie Tullos of Saginaw Buena Vista during Saturday's Class state championship game at Crisler Arena. Oak Park won, 63-54.

9 i which is sort of like beating Godzilla in Tokyo. And they didn't just beat them. For one thing, they beat them all night long. Start to finish. After the first five minutes, the Pistons never trailed.

For another thing, they didn't do el foldo in the final few minutes. Oh, they blew their big lead all right. Visiting teams at the Forum always do that. But at the point where old Detroit teams collapsed before the Great God Kareem, these guys hung tough and won, 121-118. They even did it in front of a sellout crowd that Laker radio announcer Chick Hearn called "the loudest of the season." 10 Frre Press Photo bv DAVID C.

TUHNLEY Oak 54 ark goes all the way, 63 Remaining footloose If you think that's easy, go try beating Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and that bunch sometime when the Forum is rocking and rolling. This crowd tried everything to get its team excited. Dancing Barry even came down from the stands in his white tuxedo and danced to "Footloose" wearing shoes on his hands. Even this sort of terrible intimidation didn't faze the Pistons. It just wasn't the same team they've brought here in other years.

Detroit might have to settle this year for a playoff spot which it wrapped up Friday instead of a championship, but a message has been sent that this team is to be taken seriously from now on. Hearn, for itn'iiwi'MnwiHiwwum one, raved about the Pistons. Lakers coach Pat Riley called them "a team that can beat anybody when they play like this." For those in the Forum who would get no other Isiall TllOmaS! chance to see them this sea-un son, the Pistons must have beating gOOd been beyond recognition. tMmc flftpcn't Wno was this bullmoose teams aoesnt Bill Laimbeer who was Surprise US anV outrebounding Kareem, 19- Prep basketball scoreboard CLASS A Flint Northwestern 64, Detroit Southwestern 43 CLASS Oak Park 63, Saginaw Buena Vista 54 CLASS Hamilton Kalamazoo Christian, night. CLASS Powers North Central vs.

Detroit East Catholic, night. For the details, see Page 7D. By MICK McCABE Free Press Sports Writer ANN ARBOR A year of frustration is finally over for the Oak Park basketball team. Oak Park on Saturday won the Class state championship which eluded it a year ago. The Redskins beat Saginaw Buena Vista, 63-54, before 13,042 in Crisler Arena.

A year ago Oak Park was heavily favored against Corunna but lost. "It seems like people always remember the losses," said Oak Park coach Richard Griest. "In the last two years we've only lost five games. This is kind of like the monkey is off our back. Naturally, I feel a little relieved.

I don't have to make excuses why we lost. "This is something we've been after since a year ago. It was a long bus ride home last year and we dedicated ourselves winning it." Tony Holifield, Oak Park's 6-foot-7 center who has signed with Illinois State, is the reason Oak Park won the title. He hit eight of 11 shots, finishing with 18 points and nine rebounds. "When we came in this locker room today, you could hear a pin drop," Holifield said.

"We couldn't lose today. Last year Corunna came out in the second half and blew us off. I was real disappointed in myself after that. I felt I should have played better. We had to win today." Buena Vista (21-6) could not match Oak Park (26-2 and No.

2) in size, and Oak Park had a 20-7 rebounding edge in the first half. If Buena Vista's first shot didn't go in, it usually didn't get a second chance. OAK PARK led, 31-23, at the half, but Archie Tullos got Buena Vista back in the game. I le scored 1 2 of his game-high 24 points in the third quarter as Burna Vista cut the lead to two points. But the Redskins put the game away quickly in the fourth quarter, scoring the first 10 points as Buena Vista failed to score on its first six possessions.

"I wasn't concerned at that point," said Griest, "Buena Vista wasn't taking the game away from us, we were doing it on our own mental mistakes. We had to get back in the game mentally." Another key was Oak Park point guard Fred Marshall, who had 19 points and committed only five turnovers. In some games this season, Marshall did as much to disrupt Oak Park's offense as any player on the opposing team. "He's got to be our leader," Griest said. "As long as he's not playing out of control, he's tough to stop.

I remember only one time today he was out of control." Oak Park also got 15 points from Mike Thornton and outrebounded Buena Vista, 33-18. TULLOS PLAYED well for Buena Vista but had little help from his teammates. "When he was hitting those 18- to 20-foot jumpers, we had a hand in his face," Griest said of Tullos, a 6-2 guard who has signed with the University of Detroit. "But he didn't nave the supporting cast. With Tullos in the starting linetiD were two 6-2 freshmen Mark Macon and Shawn Randolph.

It was perhaps the first time two freshman have started in a Class championship game. "They (Oak Park) have been down this road before," said 1 Who was this lined Kent Benson who pulled down a startling Buena Vista coach Norwaine Reed. "I knew they had a nine offensive rebounds? Who was this long, lean mission, some of our interior people didn do the job inside out tfiey did the job to get us here." John Long who stayed in Magic's face, limiting him Wilson, Wockenfuss traded; Leach cut IT 17' rT A to 11 points and four boards in 36 minutes? Isiah Thomas, everybody knew. His 13 assists surprised no one. Kelly Tripucka, same thing.

His 24 points included an amazing move at the beginning of the game, a Julius Erving-like reverse lay-up, that kept the hecklers off his case the rest of the night. The Pistons looked so good, they were left with only one problem. That was letting this game carry them away. They took pains to be sensible. Thomas said: "It's nice to win, but at this point in the season, a win is a win.

Doesn't matter if you beat Los Angeles or Cleveland." Tigers gel Phils9 Hernandez, Bergman in 2hr-2 swap a -V' Xf Vr Former U-M star 'shocked9 By BILL McGRAW Free Press Sports Writer LAKELAND, Fla. The Tigers gave Rick Leach his unconditional release Saturday in the middle of the team's exhibiton game with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Leach, a former star quarterback at the University of Michigan, said he was "shocked." "Right now, things are going 100 miles per hour. I'm not sure what's happening," he said. Leach is a left-handed hitting first baseman with a three-year major-league average of .236 and seven home runs.

His status with the Tigers has been uncertain this spring, but he expected to be traded or demoted to the minors if he wasn't needed in Detroit. By BILL McGRAW Free Press Sports Writer LAKELAND, Fla. The Tigers ended their long search for a top left-handed relief pitcher by trading John Wockenfuss and Glenn Wilson Saturday to the Philadelphia Phillies for Willie Hernandez and first baseman-pinch hitter Dave Bergman. The Phillies acquired Bergman from San Francisco earlier Saturday for outfielder Al Sanchez. Wockenfuss and Wilson had been mentioned in numerous trade rumors this spring.

And Wockenfuss had said he hoped for a trade to Philadelphia, 50 miles from his Delaware home. Manager Sparky Anderson summoned Wockenfuss and Wilson into a meeting in his office with general manager Bill Lajoie after the Tigers lost to the Dodgers, 3-2, in an exhibition game Saturday. "I'm done here," Wockenfuss told his eight-year-old son, Jeremy, upon leaving the meeting. "I don't play for Detroit anymore." See TIGERS, Page 2D "This is really a surprise," a teammate said. I asked him if he wasn't just going out of his way to be practical.

"I don't think so," Isiah said. "I suppose as far as the franchise is concerned, it's a big occasion beating the Lakers in LA. But you've got to understand that the people on this team don't think there's anbody they can't beat. Beating good teams doesn't surprise us any more. We're trying to reach the point where we're surprised whenever somebody beats us" Around him, teammates Benson and Terry Tyler said much the same thing that a big victory is something the New Detroit Pistons practically take in stride.

Ao lime to be getting cocky LEACH, 26, was in uniform for the 1:30 p.m. game when general manager Bill Lajoie called him into manager Sparky Anderson office. Afterward, Leach showered and dressed, then chatted I briefly with teammates in the Detroit bullpen next to the clubhouse. He searched for his wife, Angie, in the stands, and told her the news. See RICK LEACH, Page 2D Free Press File Photo Rick Leach: "Right now, things are going 100 miles per hour.

I'm not sure what's happening." Virginia knocks off Indiana Li 11 i si 1 i In the hallway stood Chuck Daly, who has done nothing but improve the team in his first season as coach. He seems to be greatly admired by the players, especially Thomas. Daly was smart enough to know that success is fleeting that his team hardly could get cocky after beating the Lakers, seeing as how they'd just lost four in a row. He was more concerned about coming back with a strong effort Saturday night in Phoenix than celebrating Friday's good time in LA. Even so, he knew what I was talking about.

Isn't the important thing, I asked him, that the Pistons proved they couldn't be counted on any longer to let the big teams off the hook when the game was on the line? "That's exactly it," Daly said. "Any team in the NBA can play with the Lakers or 76ers or Celtics. It's beating them when the pressure's on that separates the decent teams from the great teams." Could it be? Could it be that the Detroit Pistons at last have become a great team? Probably not. But they sure are getting closer. "Do you know when the last time I won a game here was?" Terry Tyler asked me in the Forum clubhouse.

"When I was a rookie. We had Bob Lanier and M.L. Carr and Kevin Porter then." Not a bad team, I said. "Not a bad team at all," Tyler said. "But this team is better.

We're up there in the Lakers' league now. We're going to come out here and give them trouble all the time from novi jon." excellent full-court dribbler. Although he did mishandle it, there was no question in his mind he was going to get it in the basket. Anything inside three inches, that's his shot." Edelin, 10-for-10 from the field in three previous tournament games, had missed an attempted stuff on an alley-oop pass earlier in the second half before hitting his only other attempt, the go-ahead basket with 1:27 left. After Edelin's free throws put Virginia up, 48-44, the teams swapped a basket by Dakich and two free throws by Rick Carlisle before Indiana freshman Steve Alford cut the margin to 50-48 with 26 seconds remaining.

Carlisle then missed the first shot on a one-and-one opportunity with 19 seconds left, but the Hoosiers failed to force overtime when Stew Robinson's 18-footer bounced off the rim and Virginia retrieved the rebound and ran out the clock. The Cavs, who finished sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference, entered the tournament with the second-worst record of 53 teams, 17-1 1. Only Nevada-Reno, 17-13, had a poorer mark. Jim Miller led the Cavaliers with 19 points, ATLANTA (AP) The University of Virginia, which reached the NCAA Final Four only once during Ralph Sampson's four-year career, gained a return trip in the first year of his absence Saturday by upsetting Indiana, 50-48, in the East Regional title game. Virginia (21-11) plays the winner of Sunday's Midwest Regional final between No.

5 Houston and 19th-ranked Wake Forest in Seattle next Saturday. Saturday's hero was an unlikely one 6-foot-8 senior center Kenton Edelin, Sampson's "replacement." With the Cavs trailing, 44-43, and Indiana attempting to run out the clock with its delay game, Edelin slipped behind the Hoosiers' Dan Dakich, stripped the ball away, and ambled three-fourths of the floor to hit a lay-up that gave Virginia the lead for good with 1:27 remaining. Edelin, a 50 percent free throw shooter, hit one of two with 63 seconds left and added two more with 47 seconds remaining, giving the Cavs a 48-44 lead. When the final horn sounded, Edelin sprawled on the floor as his teammates surrounded him. CAVALIERS COACH Terry Holland said Edelin told him before the game he never wanted anything more in his life than to win this game.

"It was a great play," Holland said. "Kenton is an 2221: .....1 UPI Photo including 13 in the first half, and freshman Olden Polynice added 12, eight in the second half. 1 Virginia's Ricky Stokes, trying for the ball, falls on lU's Stew Robinson. Ifci mm fci a 1. A- a k.

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