The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 13

The Missoulian, Thursday, February 27, 1975-13 The Usueii thing Not that Doerfler was ineffective before. He has a string of 11 straight games in double figures now and is scoring at an 18-point-per-game clip over the last six contests. According to Luoma, Doerfler is also netting a dozen rebounds each contest in that time. Narum is a consistent scorer with a 13.7 average. He is also ending a rigorous recruiting campaign for his football services last week by signing with Washington State, Doerfler responded with 26 points in a 72-71 loss at Kalispell, his biggest night of the year.

"Now that he's signed that letter, he's got his mind on the game," Luoma said. "He's bound to be a better player." Bustos, a 5-7 junior. When Luoma says, "What we want to do is shoot the ball better and make them take the ball out of the net a little more," he places a lot of that burden on his four guards. The Forwards Two to watch Thursday night are the Spartans' Mike Doerfler and Hellgate's Jim Narum. Upon the one who did the Spartans in last time with some pressure-filled free throws in the overtime period.

Alongside him lines up either Rick Martin, who hit 10 of 10 from the charity stripe against Sentinel in the earlier game, or BradGraeter. Although Graeter got the starting nod against Libby last weekend, he "does a better job coming off the bench and changing the tempo," according to Sheriff. Doerfler's front-line mate is a newcomer and another junior Brian Armstrong. Armstrong played junior varsity ball for the majority of the season but earned a starting varsity job with a 10-Doint, 14-rebound Money Crisis 1X1 fas Ford During Gloason Match 1 Ft 1 HoDe and a Great Neck. N.

Taking a look at the cast by positions'. The Backcourt Men Though basketball is still a one-platoon game, Sheriff has managed to develop specialists out of his little men. Brad Murray can be used coming off the bench to set a fire under the Knights with his dribbling skills and quickness as he did against the Spartans last time. Bill Schwenk's forte is outside shooting, as he demonstrated last Friday against Libby in a 72-69 win. Mike Wamsley complements his starting partner, Blaine Taylor, well.

But Taylor, the only junior of the four, is a bit out of place. He can do everything well. Taylor leads the Knights in scoring with a 14.4 average and shines in passing and defense as well. He also grabbed 13 rebounds, many of them from underneath, versus the Spartans the first time. Sentinel's two junior blondies, Jim Brant and Kris Nord, are no slouches either.

Brant has scored in double figures in the last 16 games and leads the club in that category. Nord adds a refined shooting touch to sticky defensive play. Backing those two up are smooth-shooting Mark Weston, Luoma's "first man off the bench," and scooter Mark By KIM BR1GGEMAN It's bound to be another one of those Sentinel-Hellgate basketball "yawners." For sure, the victor of Thursday's 8 p.m. clash between the crosstown rivals in Adams Field House will previal by at least one point. Maybe even two.

And the contest will probably not last more than one or two overtimes. So, what else is new? Last time the two Missoula AA clubs met, Hellgate faltered, flurried, froze, and finally flourished to "runaway" with a whopping 72-70 verdict. In overtime, of course. What are Hellgate Coach Russ Sheriff, and Spartan mentor Bob Luoma expecting this time around? "We're going to try and win by more than two points," said Sheriff. "I foresee another close game," said Luoma.

So the stage is set for the two teams to do their thing, the last of the regular season before next weekend's divisional tourney in the same Field House. And the pressure is on approximately 20 basketball players who will compete in the game, including six juniors with likely starting berths. Four of them will be on the Spartan side at tip-off time. businessman, Elliot Kahn, who was reported to have contrib-. performance against Flathead .7.

uted to local charity in last Friday. And if Armstrong or Doerfler order to gain his place in the 1' -T ers Association pro-am tournament, had his share of golfing crises, too. He finished with a 100 total, 28-over-par on the par-72 layout that will be the site of the $260,000 Gleason Classic that begins a 72-hole run Thursday. He played in a fivesome with Nicklaus, host Gleason, Bob 4-B's Tourney Starts Tonight The seventh Annual 4-B's Basketball Tournament starts Thursday in the Loyola Gym swith teams Superior and Arlee squaring off at 8 p.m. and the host 4-B's squad facing Bonners Ferry at 9.

Thursday nights winners will play Clark Fork and Sandpoint, respectively, on Friday night. The tournament will conclude with consolation and championship games on Saturday. By BOB GREEN AP Golf Writer LAUDERHILL, Fla. (AP) -President Gerald Ford encountered an economic crisis on the first green of the Inverrary Country Club Wednesday. The President, playing in the pro-am event that precedes Thursday's start of the rich Jackie Gleason Golf Classic reached the green on the par-four hole in three and walked to his ball.

He stuck his hands in his pockets. He patted his pockets. No coins. He had nothing with which to mark the ball. So he borrowed a penny from Jack Nicklaus' caddy, Angelo Argea.

'I told him he could keep it for the whole round," Argea said. "But I told him I'd like to have it back when he finished." Mr. Ford, the first U. S. President to play as a contestant in a Professional Golf INJURY Boston's Dave Cowens a "doubtful starter," drives past New York's Wednesday en route to a game-high 24 points as Celts beat the Knicks 121-103'.

MUPIUnifax) group. Most of Mr, Ford's problems came on the first eight holes. He played them in 52 strokes, 20-over-par. He three-putted three times. He hit one out of bounds.

He got one in a lake. He took three swings to get it out of a sand trap. But, after a quick little lesson from Nicklaus on the seventh green, his game began to improve. He made natural pars on the ninth, 10th and 14th holes. He played his last 10 holes in 48, only eight-over-par.

"I always enjoy it, even when I don't do well." Ford said. Nicklaus, meanwhile, fashioned a sparkling nine-under-par 63, a course record and the best round of the day, and stamped himself a strong favorite for the $52,000 first prize. His score was the best of the day by three strokes. Arnold Palmer had a 66. are having an off night, Luoma can always call on Kelly Smith, a big sophomore with a big future ahead of him.

The Big Men Last time the Spartans met Hellgate, 6-4 junior center Jed Hoover came into his own for the Spartans with 18 clutch points. Since then the big man has become a main cog in the Spartan offensive machine. His competition will come from another junior 6-3 Jay Huggins for the Knights. Hug-gins' height plays an important role in Hellgate's rebounding game. But lately, says Sheriff, "He's more of an offensive threat.

He's been looking for more shots." Those shots will be the ones that are going to have to be falling Thursday night. Because the way Sentinel-Hellgate basketball games usually go, one shot could make ail the difference. WostornA Tournament Coaching Switch Is Confusing Three Forks and Christian Lead Power Polls By The Associated Press Winning the Western Division title was not good enough to push St. Ignatius into the top ranks of the weekly Associated Press power poll of Class state high school basketball teams. Despite capturing the divisional championship, St.

Ig- together a 16-game winning streak after losing the season opener to Class AA Flathead. The winning string was finally halted in a 67-50 setback to Poison a couple of weeks ago. Meredith said that was his team's best over-all performance of the season. McLeod acknowledged that a pressure factor also affected his team's play in that loss. "It seemed we were playing to keep from losing instead of playing to win," he said.

If there was any leftover stigma attached to that defeat, his players erased it in a hurry. The Bulldogs bounced back last weekend, clinching the title with a pair of road victories at Stevensville and Hamilton. McLeod is probably relieved that the streak meritorious in itself is history. Tournament pressure is tough enough without an added burden. He'll settle for a three-game winning streak in the tourney.

"The second season starts now," he said. "This is the one people remember." While the big three accounted for 64 per cent of the total victories in league play, a consensus of coaches indicated a closer balance between top to bottom than last season. There weren't many so-called upsets during the regular season, but there were a number of close games. And the divisional is always a prime time to spring a surprise or settle an old score. Whitefish is pitted 'against Eureka in its opener, but the Lions (2-12) lost by only eight- points to the Bulldogs a couple of weeks ago.

They are in the same bracket as Ronan (8-6) and Hamilton (5-9). Ronan and Hamilton split their two league games, each winning by two points on the other's home court. Whitefish also had a couple ot close calls with those rivals. The other bracket points to a semifinal showdown between Columbia Falls and Poison Friday night. Columbia Falls faces Loyola (2-12) in its opener and Poison plays Stevensville (3-11).

But that could prove interesting if Poison should be looking beyond Thursday to getting a third crack at the Wildcats, who beat them twice during the regular season. And Columbia Falls has to guard against casting a big glance toward Saturday and a championship date against Whitefish, which handed the Wildcats both their league defeats. Coaches are the first to tell you that kind of reasoning can spell all sorts of trouble, particularly in that "second season" McLeod referred to. THURSDAY PAIRINGS 2 p.m. Whitefish vs.

Eureka; 3:30 Ronan vs. Hamilton; 7:30 Columbia Falls vs. Loyola; 9 Poison vs. Stevensville. By JEFF HERMAN Missoulian Sports Editor If Western A basketball followers tell you that Ralph Johnson is coaching at Poison this year and Mike Meredith is coaching at Columbia Falls they're wacko.

It just seems that way. And to make sure there are no delusions or illusions Bob McLeod is the Whitefish coach. Johnson, the veteran Columbia Falls mentor, and Meredith, in his fourth year at Poison, have merely switched coaching philosophies at least for this season. The names and places are the same, it's just the styles are different. McLeod, meanwhile, just took these occurrences in stride and watched his Bulldogs quietly and methodically set a style of their own.

His team won the conference championship with a 13-1 record and earned the top seeding in the divisional tournament which starts Thursday at Kalispell in the Flathead High School gym. "I guess he (Johnson) and I have kind of reversed things," Meredith said of the switcheroo. In past seasons, Johnson's Wildcats were recognized for their disciplined, ball control approach Meredith's boys were the league's speed merchants. Not this campaign, anyway. "We just felt this year we should open up," Johnson said.

"It's the first time we've really been fast breaking and pressing." His players found the change very accommodating. The Wildcats scurried to second place in the standings with a 12-2 record, 16-4 over all. His team averaged 78 points a game, reaching the 100-point plateau twice. And to prove the Wildcats are offensive on the scoreboard that is the previous school record was 67 points a game. Meredith is satisfied with his team's transition to the controlled, disciplined brand of basketball.

Last year his Pirates raced to a perfect 14-0 league record and third place in the state tournament. But he lost eight players and several nimble feet through graduation. He figured the replacements would be more suited to pattern basketball. It took awhile for them to conform to that format, but the Pirates finished with five straight victories and claimed third place with an 11-3 mark. "We have played some real good ball games lately," Meredith said, attributing the recent success to a process of maturation and the "acceptance of pattern basketball" by his personnel.

Whitefish compiled an 18-2 season record and put Si UM Sports Briefs Gymnasts Go to Oregon The UM gymnastics team, now 11-1-1 on the season after a tie with Eastern Montana for first in the state collegiate meet, travels to Monmouth, this weekend for the Northwest Regional Championship. Competing for the UM team will be state champions Coleen Brinkerhoff in the vault, Kay Kilby in uneven bars and Sandy Sullivan in all-around, plus Sally Atwater, Nan Brandenburger, Deb Ronish, Carol Thompson and Barb Winslow. Skiers Seek Travel Funds The UM ski team, which qualified as a unit for the NCAA finals, is now looking for the funds to go to the national meet set for March 2-8 at the Purgatory Ski Area near Durango, Colo. The Grizzly alpine contingent outscored both Boise State and MSU in the qualifying meet last weekend in Bozeman. Eric Kress claimed a second in both downhill and slalom, while Arnstein Rustberggard was third and Bruce Tremper fifth in the downhill.

However, the. cross-country team did not do as well as hoped, taking second behind the Bobcats as Tom Diehl had an individual fourth and Brent Turner fifth in the meet. In jumping, Dave Rossetter was third and Rustberggard fifth. Women Cagers in Regional The UM women's basketball team, on the rebound with two big wins after a disappointing loss in the state collegiate tourney, hopes to keep on winning at the Northwest Regional Championship Tourney, which starts Thursday in Pullman. The Honey Bears, now 10-5 on the year, may be without the services of junior guard Michelle Peck who injured her back last weekend in the state meet.

Peck averaged 12.1 points per game in the regular season. Starters for UM will be Cathy Brown at center, Chris Mahoney and Janele Sullivan at forward, and Nancy Coleman and either Susan Huffman or Peck at guard. natius was selected only seventh in this week's poll. To add insult, Thompson Falls, which took second place in the divisional tournament, is rated one notch ahead of St. Ignatius.

Three Forks, the Southern Division champion, with 24 victories and no defeats, was a unanimous choice to retain its long-held No. 1 post. Belt, the Northern Division champion, moved up one rung to second while Eastern Division titlist Sacred Heart of Miles City, unranked last week, is rated third. Big Timber, which placed second in the Southern Division, is rated fourth, the same as last week. In the Class ratings, Manhattan Christian and St.

Leo's of Lewistown exchanged places, with Christian getting the No. 1 nod and St. Leo's falling to second. By The Associated Press Here are the results of the weekly Associated Press power poll of Class and Class Montana high school basketball teams. The results, determined bv votes from sports editors and sportscasters.

are based on 10 points for each first-place vote, nine for second, etc. First-place votes and season records are in parentheses. Class 1. Three' Forks ill i24-0i 110 2. Belt '21-2i 92 3.

Sacred Heart H8-5i 86 4. Big Timber H9-6i 70 5. Medicine Lake 120-4 1 54 6. Thompson Falls (19-51 51 7. St, Ignatius 114-9) 35 8.

Manhattan 118-71 34 9. Harlem U7-6I 28 10. Corvallis 12-9) 15 Others receiving votes, in order: For- svth 116-101. Fairfield H8-4. Harlowton 119-71.

Broadus (18-6). Class 1. Manhattan Christian i5i 120-21 89 2. St. Leo's ill 122-1) 86 3.

Frenchtown (2i 120-1 1 65 4. Hvsham i2i i21-2 64 5. Westbv 122-1 60 6. itiei Absarokee i21-2i 47 Ennis 119-31 47 8. Roberts 120-3) 28 9.

Philipsburg 118-5) 20 10. Victor (15-81 14 Others receiving votes, in order: Power (18-21. Twin Bridges ()9-5i. Hot Springs 117-5), Wibaux 19-4 1, Bozeman Rosarv 116-51. Custer i14-8i.

Arlee (12-9i. I 55: Missoulian Scoreboard YMCA Buketall Washington National 38, Stockman's 27 MAD Parts 25, KYLT 18 Montana Sports 35, Mobil Oilers 20 College Basketball Maryland 70, Clemson 64 G. Washington 82, Georgetown 78 S. Carolina 80, Canisius 75 Wake Forest 89, F. Dickinson 55 Va.

Tech 78, W. Virginia 68 Miami, 0. 78, Dayton 66 Rutgers 88, Wm. and Mary 70 Kent St. 66, Pittsburgh 68 Toledo 78, Loyola-Chicago 42 Bowling Green 73, Ohio 66 Duquesne 107, St.

Francis, Pa. 101, 2 ot Cincinnati 66, Xavier-Cinc. 57 VMlW.Va. Wesley an 68 Illinois St. 99, Indiana St.

91 Richmond 101, Appalachian 97, 2 ot Lafayette 68, Rider 64 Syracuse 79, Niagara 66 SetonHallM. Army 91 UNCCharlotte97, Walsh 58 Nebraska 59, Oklahoma St. 58 Northeastern 98, Boston U. 92, ot Old Dominion 104, Phil. Textile 77 Morehead 73, Marshall 72, ot Michigan 91, E.

Michigan W. Michigan 72, N. Illinois 67 NBA Detroit 104. Milwaukee 84 Washington 104. Seattle 98 Boston 121.

New York 103 ABA Memphis 114, St. Louis 107 Kentucky 101. Indiana 99 Denver 148, New York 114 NHL -Toronto 4. Kansas City 2 Atlanta 7. Philadelphia 4 Pittsburgh 3.

Washington 1 N.Y. Rangers 5, St. Louis 1 Montreal 4, Vancouver 3 WHA Minnesota 4. Indianapolis 3. ot Chicago 4, New England 3 Houston 9.

Cleveland 5 ft 1 Griz Want to (ill Suspense With tod-Trip Wrap Up Lin' 1 0 0 a a i i 0 0 0 0 a 0 0 a 0 0 a 0 0 4 7 won't return until late Sunday night. And games at those places can be very taxing in terms of physical endurance and stamina, particularly at Flagstaff, with an elevation of 7,000 feet. "Our kids just come out wheezing down there," Heathcote said. Harley Lewis, the UM track coach, said studies have shown that the per cent of oxygen saturation in the blood at that altitude is 94 per cent, compared to 97 per cent at sea level. And that can reduce an athelete's unctiona 1 capabilities by as much as 15 per cent.

Heathcote said his team was in probably as good a physical shape as it has been all season. Eric Hays, bothered by stomach problems, is feeling much better and Tom Peck is finally shaking off the effects of a nagging cold. Heathcote also said the Tips had one of their best workouts of the season Monday. Weber State has been playing much better ball lately, after undergoing a mid-season coaching change. The new mentor, Neil McCarthy, has installed a passing game offense, according to Heathcote, and the Wildcats have adapted well to it.

Northern Arizona has truly been a surprise team this season under another new coaching face in the conference, John Birkett. The Lumberjacks, the perennial league doormats, have escaped the cellar for the first time in three seasons. Northern Arizona has also won three of its seven league road games this season. That compares to one league win on the road in the five preceding years. Three seniors who made the trip to Missoula in January are no longer with the team and Birkett has had some excellent By JEFF HERMAN Missoulian Sports Editor Montana has the opportunity to take the last vestiges of suspense out of the Big Sky Conference basketball race, closing out the regular season tonight at Weber, State and Saturday at Northern Arizona.

The Grizzlies need only one victory to wrap up their first league tiUe ever. They could even stumble and win the title outright, providing Idaho State loses one of its final three league games. But Coach Jud always accentuating the positive, prefers to have his players bring home the championship themselves with at least that final victory. How-. ever at this stage of a long season, the backdoor approach would suffice, too.

Idaho State is also on the road this weekend, playing at Idaho Friday night and Gonzaga Saturday. Heathcote is not expecting easy pickings in the final series, as Weber and Northern Arizona are shooting for fourth place, with slim chances at third. The Montana opponents are 5-7 in league play. "We don't have any time to sit around and pat ourselves on the back," Heathcote said, reflecting on the 67-36 victory over Idaho State last Saturday. When queried if the Grizzlies displayed a so-called "killer instinct" in that game, Heathcote said he doubted it could be expressed in that sense.

"By nature, I don't believe we have the killer instinct," he said. "I think we go more by conviction and go out and get the job done." Heathcote had litUe time to set back and savor that triumph. He was preoccupied with planning for this week's tripand games. A. The Ogden-Flagstaff jaunt is longest in the conference for the Tips.

They left Missoula Wednesday morning and tax lay recently trom t-7 tresnman mare uosswiuer, 6-5 junior om Deuerry ana senior guara Nate rayne. The Weber State contest begins at 7:30 p.m. MDT and the NAU contest starts at 9 p.m. MDT. I GRIZZLY GUARD Michael R.

Richardson during Grizzlies' 67-36 victory over Idaho State draws a crowd and passes off to the open man Saturday. (Staff Photo by Steve Bryan) a a an i.