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Hamilton's Cowboys Drop Opener, 79-61
Former University of Kentucky assistant coach Leonard Hamilton lost in his debut at Oklahoma State last Saturday. Pepperdine. led by Levy Middlebrooks' 20 points, defeated the visiting Cowboys 79-61.
Hamilton left Kentucky last season after 11 seasons at UK. Before coming to Lexington he spent three years as an assistant coach at Austin Peay. During his 11-year stint at UK, Wildcat teams recorded a lofty 270-78 mark.
Kentucky Crowns Four 1986 Champs
Last week at Louisville's Cardinal stadium Heath, Mayfield, Owensboro and Louisville St. Xavier wrapped up state football crowns in their respective divisions.
Heath 27, Cumberland 12
Heath's Greg Armstrong, a smaller version of Chicago's William Perry, intercepted a pass and caused a fumble as Heath captured the Class-A title with a 27-12 victory over Cumberland. Armstrong's blocking helped teammate Jamie Jones find more than one hole to run through.
The Class-A and 2-A were played on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, while the Class 3-A and 4-A titles were decided on Saturday afternoon.
The Class-A champs had to overcome a 12-7 halftime deficit. However, halfback Jamie Jones scored two second-half touchdowns for the team from western Kentucky. Jones compiled 184 yards on 30 carries.
Mayfield 21, Newport Cath. 20 (OT)
In the second game of Friday's football doubleheader. Mayfield knocked of Newport Catholic in overtime, 21-20. Mayfield, which captured its second straight 2-A title, held Catholic on a two-point attempt in the extra period.
Following Mayfield touchdown and extra-point in overtime, Catholic's Frank Jacobs hauled in a five-yard score to pull his team within one.
Each team gets one possesion and four plays starting at the opponent's 10-yard line. If a tie still remains then both teams will again receive another possession at the 10.
Catholic decided to go for the win, but failed when quarterback Gary Gabbard's pass intended for Jacobs fell incomplete.
Owensboro 14, Belfry 0
The Owensboro Red Devils won the 3-A title by blanking Belfry, 14-0 last Saturday. Speedster Maurice White rambled for 242 yards on 21 attempts, including touchdown spurts of 86 and 79 yards.
If not for White, Owensboro would have had only 38 yards rushing. However, the Red Devils' defense held Belfry in check throughout the afternoon. The Pirates gained 173 total yards, 126 via the ground.
With Owensboro leading 7-0 at halftime, White, who's a starter on OHS' hoop demons, dashed 79 yards on the Devils' initial play of the third quarter. In his first season at running back, White rushed for almost 1,900 yards and 26 touchdowns. This was the first season for the Red Devils in 3-A competition, who after last season dropped from the 4-A level.
Starting the third quarter, Belfry drove to Owensboro's 16. The drive ended in zero points for the Pirates when they were stopped on fourth down.
St. Xavier 27, Boone County 14
In Saturday's nightcap.  Louisville St. [Continued On Page 4]
Rough Weekend For 'Cats, Cards
Jenkins, Scott Will Help UK's Power Game
Whew! What a weekend.
While 1 was flipping through the channels on my television set Saturday night, trying to find out all the latest basketball scores, I accidently tuned in to a news report. Something about President Reagan and Iran. It seems that all the boys up on Capitol Hill were in an uproar because the President had been caught selling arms to Ayatollah Khomeini. All the big wigs in Washington were amazed.
"Sell weapons to Iran, our enemy?" they said. "How pro-postrous."
Now I've always been a big Reagan supporter, but I tend to agree
Mike Estep
Cats' Pause Columnist
with his critics on this one. If we're gonna supply weapons to someone who really needs them, how about making sure they're on our side?
Hey, Mr. President, how about sending some of those weapons this way?
While you're delivering all those aircraft carriers to the Ayatollah. how about sending a couple to Lexington? Eddie Sutton sure could use a couple of big men.
And Denny Crum could most certainly get more use out of a good FT boat than the Iranians could. When you're planning your next shipment, how about earmarking a playmaking point guard for Louisville?
As we found out last weekend, Kentucky's college basketball teams could use some weaponry of their own.
From The State Department. . .
For the state's two foremost basketball powersKentucky and Louisvillethis first weekend of the 1986-87 college basketball season pointed out some glaring weaknesses.
First of all, coach Denny Crum took his defending champion Cards up to the Great White North and found out just how tough it is to repeat.
Louisville, ranked No. 1 in several preseason polls and in the top five in nearly all the rest, ventured North to the Great Alaska Shootout without a proven point guard and came back home with a goose egg. Oh-for-three. Expected to win the eight-team tourney, Louisville looked terrible, instead coming in last place.
First the Cardinals fell to Northeastern 88-84 in overtime Friday night. Then on Saturday. U of L dropped a 15-point decision to Washington. To cap it all off, Louisville completed the hat trick Sunday, losing to Texas 74-70.
That noise you heard at halftime of the UK-Austin Peay game Saturday night wasn't thunder, it was a collective chuckle by the Kentucky fans who had just been informed, through the Alaskan Pipeline of course, of Louisville's fate. The laughter didn't last long.
Ahead 38-33 at intermission, Eddie Sutton's ballclub had to scratch, and claw to beat the Governors 71-69. It took a 10-foot jumper with 18 seconds remaining in the game by UK forward Irv Thomas, and some nifty defense by freshman Rex Chapman on Austin Peay's last possession, to keep the Wildcats from joining their northern neighbors in defeat.
From The Department Of The Interior. . .
With all the injuries Kentucky had sustained in the preseason, it came as no big surprise that the 'Cats inside game would struggle in the early going this year.
Sutton warned anybody who would listen that UK would be inconsistent, that the inside game wasn't nearly as strong as the perimeter attack. He argued that with the injuries, Kentucky didn't deserve the lofty rankings it had received from the pollsters.
Maybe now, people will listen.
Against a small Austin Peay lineup, which featured 6-8 Darryl Bedford as its tallest starter, Kentucky was beaten soundly on the boards. APSU outrebounded the 'Cats 38-27, including a 16-6 margin on the offensive glass.
And although UK's big menRichard Madison, Irv Thomas and Rob Lockscored 26 points between them, only one basket came off of a post-up move.
"We had no inside game whatsoever," Sutton said after the Austin
I Peay game. After a moment of thought, however, he said, "Well, let me say our inside game didn't give us much. "We're just happy to win. I'm afraid that's the way it will be all
season."
Maybe. Maybe not. It's not really fair for anyone to pass judgement after only one game. But the Austin Peay game did show that Kentucky could definitely use the contributions of Cedric Jenkins and Mike Scott, if they are able to join the team this season.
As everyone knows by now, Jenkins is out of the lineup nursing a stress fracture in his left ankle. Scott is enrolled at Lexington Community College, and will be eligible to enroll at Kentucky for the spring semester.
Sutton said Jenkins is making good progress, riding a stationary bicycle to keep himself in shape and should be able to resume practice soon.
"The doctors believe that everything is going well, but we're not planning on him playing, in all likelihood, until we open conference play," Sutton said at his press conference prior to the Austin Peay game. "I do hope that he can get back where he can practice with us in the next two weeks. He won't be able to go full speed, but at least where he can go back and start getting in shape and shoot the basketball."
Sutton was recently asked how long it would take Scott, the 6-11 Greenup County native to adjust to Kentucky's style of play should he decide to enroll at UK.
"Two days." Sutton replied, a huge grin covering his face. "With this squad, two days.
"I hope Mike Scott comes to Kentucky, because I really believe he would be a very fine player for us," Sutton said, more seriously "I do believe he probably should've been here in the first place
Injured Cedric Jenkins Making Progress
because this is where his heart is. And with the people we have up front, I do believe he will be a very fine player and help the ballclub. Now it's gonna take more than two days, I just said that in a joking manner. But he can help us in the latter part of the season in the NCAA tournament hopefully. But he's gonna have to make the decision to come to Kentucky first."
As was reported in this space earlier, there has been some doubt as to whether Scott will indeed sign with Kentucky. And even if he did decide to become a Wildcat, there has been speculation that he would opt to sit out the rest of this year, in order to play three full seasons.
"I would say if we had Winston and Cedric and everybody was out there, that maybe he would not play (this season)," Sutton said "But I think he sees there's a great opportunity for him to play. That's why I think we've got an ace in the hole and we might get him."
Look for Scott to sign with Kentucky. And look for him to play in January. But until Jenkins and Scott are in uniform, also look for Kentucky's inside attack to struggle.