European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 25, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday april 25, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 25 we s series opener by Bucky Fox staff writer Kaiserslautern the Only bomb threat came from the Heilbronn eagles. Or Heilbronn As assistant coach John Morgan called his team. He could afford the hot new name be cause the eagles Riding Patrick Elmore s 42 Points exploded All Over the Kaiserslautern panthers wednesday night. Bombing the Basket for the last six Points Heilbronn detonated a town 91-83 in the opening game of their Usa eur men s basketball semifinal. The eagles champions of Vii corps take their 1-0 series Lead to their Badener Hof Cavern gym for a 2 . Saturday Date with the panthers champions of the 21st support come. A Heilbronn Victory would end the Best of three series. A a town Triumph would Force a third game at 2 . Sunday also at Heilbronn. A town happens to be the defending Usa eur Champion. The panthers plan Usa eur basketball to stay that Way. So said guard Curtis Thompson Well get pm saturday and they got pm wednesday for the first 38j/2 minutes. That s when a town relinquished its Lead for Good. The panthers had t played for three weeks thanks to last week s series postponement because of feared bomb threats after the libyan shootout but hardly looked gun shy. They Rode Center Charles Copper s Long Range scoped 17 Points to a.46-42 halftime Lead. Then with their top players Copper and starting Forward Tony Gray on the Bench the panthers reeled off eight straight Points for a 78-70 Lead. Five minutes remained. A town looked unbeatable. Then again Heilbronn s Al More looked unstoppable. The Connecticut Yankee proved King of this basketball court by pull ing this act in the final five minutes jumper from the left Corner Layup Baseline jumper and Dunk. He saved that rim Rattler for last. It came with two seconds left igniting the horde of Heilbronn fans. They swarmed the floor turning two seconds into two minutes. Heilbronn coach Terry Taylor insisted that Elmore s 42 Points were team num Bers. Michael Jordan the other night scored 63 Points. They went to him because he was hot or open. It was a team Effort Taylor said. The Guy who made sure Elmore got the Ball was guard John Rousey. He continually dished to Elmore As Heilbronn fought Back. Rousey a philadelphian scored 21 Points himself. His three Point play clinched the Victory with 50 seconds left. Just before that James Dixon produced the biggest defensive play of the night. The 6-foot-7 Reserve Forward blocked Copper s shot to preserve the eagles 82-81 Lead and set up Rousky s rousing drive. We were behind and defense was the Only thing we know to get us Back said Dixon the 31-year-old former Hanau player. Taylor credited guard David Watson with ironing out Heilbronn s second half press. We knew they were tired the coach said. We wanted to Speed it up and make them play our Forward Isadore Stewart who scored 12 Points grabbed a game High eight rebounds for Heilbronn. Copper led a town with 24 Points but was held to seven in the second half. Gregory Dawson followed with 20 Points Gray 13 and James Baldwin 12. Only Dawson kept a steady Pace throughout. We just ran out of Gas said a town coach Scott Copus. They took control of the game. They pressed and we just hurried our shots. We were up by eight and let it slip or rather let Heilbronn s big guns heat up. Women s semifinal Frankfurt romps 8j-56 is photo by Dave Didio Adriene Buggage of Falconette goes up for shot. Against Heidelberg s Annette Pittman by Tim Boivin staff writer Frankfurt Frankfurt s combo of a Cool Cumbo and a directed an 81-56 thumping of Heidel Berg wednesday night. With the Victory Frankfurt the v corps Champion took a 1-0 Lead in the Best of three Usa eur women s semifinal. The series moves to Heidelberg for a 2 . Game saturday with the if necessary game scheduled for 2 . Sunday. The Cool Cumby As in Jackie poured in 31 Points for the Falconette. Eighteen came in the first half As Frank Furt raced to a 35-23 halftime Lead. The big Buggage As in Adriene overcame an 0-from the Field first half to score 14 Points. Thirteen of her Points came in the second half. Buggage and Cumbo filled the Gap left by Bonn can non the Falconette Center who led them to the title the last two years. Cannon who Cumbo said was the Best she had seen in the Pivot in Usa eur was discharged from the army april 16. Without Cannon to bomb from the Baseline Frankfurt coach Herb Holloway s charges looked like they were running a Box and one offence in the first half. Box everybody else away from Cumbo at Point guard and let the 5-foot-2 my officer drive. And drive. And drive. If she drove the Lane anymore the officials would have had to Start charging her tolls to resurface the Wood. The spirited guard also blew bubbles throughout the game no matter How heated the action. Cumbo is one Cool Cucumber. With the game tied at 19, Cumbo shifted into fifth gear from first skipping the Middle three gears. The clutch hardly coughed As Cumbo sparked the Falco netted on a 14-0 run. Cumbo had eight Points All on fast Breaks. Heidelberg s Elaine Kelly tried to slow Cumbo Down tailgating her the full length of the court for most of the first half. But Kelly never seemed to be Able to catch up much less Stop Cumbo. It looked like a bumper to bumper finish at Daytona but Kelly s engine just did t hit All the pistons like Gumbo s engine did. Gumbo s 18-Point Effort was Only Good for a 35-23 halftime Lead against a Heidelberg squad that came in As a Long shot to upend the defending champs. The Heidelberg players idea for beating the Falco netted was the Long shot. The perimeter shooting was Good enough to carry the generals to the Usa eur positional title but not Good enough for Heidelberg coach Ralph Snoddy. We did t have Good Ball movement Snoddy said. I kept telling the team the Ball had to go inside. Their Large girls took up a lot of space in the Lane on this court. It seems to me this court is smaller than ours is. When it would t work we d go right Back to shooting from the anchoring the 3-2 zone defense for the Falconette was Buggage forced to work More As a Center than her usual Forward position when starting Center Barbara Hudson got into foul trouble. The 3-2, a deviation from Holloway s usual 1-2-2, held the generals to just 25 percent from the floor in the first half. Meanwhile with Cumbo leading the Way on 10-of 17 snap shooting the Falconette were hitting at a 41 percent clip. We wanted to Force them a Little further out Cumbo said. We wanted to eliminate the outside shot from Heidelberg s Cumbo said eliminate but terminate is closer to the truth. Heidelberg s Michelle Shepard was two for 11 from the Field in the first half. Teammate Karol Nelson who came off the Bench throughout the Usa eur position Al to consistently hit from the outside missed her first see Frankfurt on Page 26 lady rattlers strike from free throw line by Tracy Tanner staff writer Mannheim Germany the Wuerzburg lady rattlers weren t rattled at the free throw line As they racked up an 87-75 Victory Over the Mannheim mus tangs in the Usa eur semifinals wednesday night. It was a salvation army contest As Wuerzburg wore out its nikes by walking to the Charity Stripe. The lady rattlers were 27 for 36 from the line accounting for More than a third of their Points. Using a one on one defense Wuerzburg took an Early Lead. Mannheim s fouls also contributed to Wuerzburg s advantage. The lady rattlers stayed about 10 Points ahead for most of the game. But the hard driving Mustangs rustled up the scor ing Halfway through the second half and lowered the rattlers Lead to four. A Happy ending for Mannheim not quite. Remember the lady rattlers were also the Charity Queens in this game converting free throws at every Opportunity. As if Mannheim had t already helped enough Wuerzburg went on a foul shooting spree with 5 40 left. The lady rattlers Sank eight free throws in those final min utes. Patricia Jean a newcomer to the Wuerz Burg team led All scorers with 23 Points going 13 for 15 from the free throw line. She also had nine rebounds. Jean has been in Wuerzburg for two months. I thought i d take it easy and adjust before getting into any serious Ball playing said the 6-foot Jean but that very weekend i was playing with the Jean really pulled our team together said coach Charles Morris. We had Good outside shooters but we were missing the inside Morris Choice of defense was another Factor leading to Wuerzburg s Victory. We did t play As Well As we could have but i think the one on one strategy made them adjust their game to ours. We usually play zone defense but we were looking to hold Darlene Johnson Johnson scored 19 Points to Lead the Mustangs but Mannheim coach Alisa Whitfield agreed that Wuerzburg won the game on defense. The free throw line killed us. We weren t playing Good defense and we were slow. Then we tried to catch up and we fouled she explained. Rebounding was another Factor. Our blocking out was t Good underneath and the girls did t know where the person they were guarding was Whitfield said. In preparation for the second game against Wuerzburg in this Best of three series Whitfield plans to keep her game plan basically the same but concentrate More on defense. Wuerzburg hosts Mannheim at Leighton Barracks on saturday at 1
