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Kentucky Sports Scan
Compiled By Nick Nicholas Staff Writer
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Tennis
Kentucky's top tennis player Paul Varga was upset in the Region 3 Tournament held in Athens, Georgia. Varga, the No. 5 seed in the single elimination tourney, was defeated by Carlos Homeds of LSU 6-4, 6-4. Varga and teammate Pat McGee paired together in doubles competition. However, the two from UK were beaten by Northeastern Louisiana's Peter Jetzel and Shawn Cole 3-6, 6-4, 7-6. McGee defeated Richard Holt 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 before losing in the second round to Tennessee Chattanooga's Orlando La-uranco 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. "I was a little disappointed," said Coach Dennis Emery. "But you have to keep in mind it's an individual tournament."
With the fall season complete, Emery is looking forward to UK's opening dual match January 19 at Evansville, Ind. "I think we had a tremendous fall," indicated the coach. I was real happy with all our players. I'm real excited about the spring."
Before the Evansville match, the men's team will participate in an individual tourney in Milwaukee on January 10.
UK's Emery was selected as chairman of the National Indoor Team Tournament in Louisville, January 31-February 3. Emery's position will be to oversee the tournament format.
The tourney, which will be played at the Louisville Tennis Club, will feature 16 of some of the nation's pinnacle teams. Eight squads will be going to Louisville as the top team from their respective regions, with the other schools receiving at-large bids.
Some of the teams that are expected to partake in the action are: UCLA (defending champ), USC, Stanford, Georgia, and SMU.
Asked if he thought his 24th-ranked Wildcats should be invited, Emery replied, "We would love to get a bid, but it's going to be really tough. (Though) we've had the type of fall (to be included)."
The men's swim team was defeated by host Purdue 62-51 in a dual meet at Lambert Pool.
Kentucky went into the last event
(400-yard freestyle relay) trailing only 55-51. But the Bolimakers' relay team nipped UK at the finish by 3:10.18 to 3:11.539 to capture the final seven points.
"I thought we could beat them," said Coach Wynn Paul. We swam real well. I thought we swam as well as we could. We were about one man short.''
UK's Martin Wilby and Dennis Damron had an exceptional meet against Purdue. Wilby captured first in the 1000-free (9:43.15), 200-butter-fly (1:52.61) and the 500-free (4:43.04). Damron won the 50-free (21.42) and the 100-free (47.42).
Diver Robbie Cottrell also placed first for Kentucky with a 3-meter score of 273.45.
UK's record now falls to 1-1.
Lady Kats
A typical basketball opener should include the following: many turnovers, players nervous, poor shooting, and faulty play execution. However, the University of Kentucky Lady Kats of Coach Terry Hall defied that philosophy, in some manner, while defeating Cincinnati 67-56 at Memorial Coliseum last Tuesday night before 1,335 vocal supporters. Even though committing 28 misques, partially due to some opening minute "butterflies", the Lady Kats held their composure late in the contest to preserve the victory.
Cincinnati cut into UK's 31-22 halftime advantage to eventually lead 47-45 with 10:22 left.
At the 8:10 mark Karen Mosley's 12-footer in the lane broke a 48-48 deadlock and started a final UK scoring spree of 19-8 -- thus resulting in the final margin.
The win revenged last season's 84-77 setback to the Lady Bearcats at the UC Armory Fieldhouse. "We were real ragged," said Hall. "I was real happy with out intensity and defensive effort at the end. We played (hard for) 38 minutes and we wrere still diving on the floor and after the ball. I thought we did a real good job encouraging each other."
Lexington Henry Clay product Be-litta Croley had a successful debut as a Lady Kat. With the count 50-48 (UK ahead), Croley scored two straight goals in a span of seven seconds to give the Lady Kats some breathing room. After a Leslie Nichols' miss, the 5-foot-10 guard crashed the offensive boards and connected on a four-footer. On the proceeding inbounds pass, Croley stole the ball and laid it in for 54-48 lead.
For the game Croley netted eight points while playing 19 minutes.
Defensively, the Lady Kats simply took the game away from their northern visitors. Cincinnati seemed confused while inbounding the ball underneath their own basket. Kentucky would sometimes switch from their normal 2-3 zone to a 1-3-1 or a press defense.
"We were just trying to show them a different look and try to make them turn the ball over or take a bad shot," noted Hall. It must have worked as the Lady Bearcats turned the ball over 32 times.
Kentucky shot 50.0 percent from the field compared to Cincinnati's 46.9
clip.
Nichols led UK with 17 points and a team high of eight rebounds. Sandy Harding, the 4-11 guard from Auburn, N. Y., connected on six of 12 field goals and two free throws for 14 points. But is was her intense defense that fired up UK as Harding had seven steals to her credit. With the score 55-50 in UK's favor, Harding cut in front of an opposing player at midcourt and passed to Mosley for an uncontested 15-foot jumper to widen the margin.
Down the stretch, Mosley, a 6-3 junior, was a key for UK as she scored six of her 11 points in the final 8:10.
Along with Croley, Mosley helped shut down UC's AU-American Cheryl Cook. The two would take turns covering the star guard as she was limited to 17 points -- far belowr her 27.4 per game average of a year ago.
Said Hall, "I thought Belitta played real good defense and I thought Karen plaved real good defense on her too. They were both quick enough to stay with her."
The men's and women's swim team results against Louisville ... a look at
the women's gymnastic team ... a review of the Lady Kat's basketball tournament ... plus much more.
Forward Leslie Nichols