The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 49

Sports Titans host Elmhurst F3 Dlini topple Purdue F3 Pontiac tops Streator F6 Sunday, Jan. 21, 199 thr Bryan Bloodworth ps I'll Trotter's 'calming' influence, 27 points power Redbirds By BRYAN BLOODWORTH Pantagraph sports editor Alone at the top. That's where Illinois State's' basketball team perched itself Saturday night with a 77-72 Miss A Trotter had 19 points while no other Redbird had more than six. Muller drew a momentum-turning charge on Bradley's Chad Kleine with 43 seconds remaining and the score tied at 68-aIl. The sophomore, who had eight of his 10 points in the second half, made both free throws from the charge, which would have been his fifth foul had he not gotten the "I had foul trouble early and' never really got going," Muller said.

"I felt I was set (on the charge), and luckily I got the call. It was a key possession." Muller then tipped Steve Hansen's missed free throw out front to Smiley with 28 seconds to go. "We work on that in practice," Muller said. "Coach (Kevin Stallings) believes you get more possessions trying to tip it out instead of trying to get the rebound. Jamar did a great job chasing it down." "We call him the Golden Boy because he comes up with golden plays," Smiley said of Muller.

"He doesn't play with a lot of flash, but he makes things happen offensively and defensively." Smiley continued his recent success in pressure free throw situations, making three of four in See VICTORY, Page F3 By RANDY REINHARDT Pantagraph staff Dan Muller and Jamar Smiley may have come riding to the rescue late, but Mo Trotter made sure there was a game to rescue Saturday night for the Illinois State basketball team at Redbird Arena. Trotter scored a season-high 27 points and was a calming force in ISU's hectic 77-72 Missouri Valley Conference victory over Bradley before a standing room only crowd of 10,310. "That's the role I play on this team. I'm one of the primary scorers," said Trotter after the Red-birds moved into sole possession of first place in the MVC at "If you can't count on a senior consistently you don't have a very good team. "They found me open, and I was doing a good job cutting to the basket" Trotter nailed 9 of 15 shots from the field and all eight of his free throws, including a pair with nine seconds left that sealed the Braves' fate and gave ISU its 12th straight Valley win at home.

"Mo did a great job scoring. He was taking some tough shots and making them," said Muller, who was Mr. Clutch in the final three minutes. "He definitely kept us in it" At one point in the second half, ouri Valley Conference jj a'rch-r iva BRADLEY 77 72 Bradley. The triumph, which came before 10,310 people the fourth largest crowd to watch a game at Redbird Arena pushed ISU's league-leading conference record to 5-1 and its overall mark to 11-5.

"I'm a little bit surprised and happy," said ISU coach Kevin Stallings of his team's position in the standings. "I shouldn't say surprised delighted would be a better word because I tell our kids all the time that winners expect to win in advance. You need to expect success in order to get it" Success was anything but easy for the Redbirds and they didn't expect anything less from Bradley. The game was tied 18 times, including 11 times in the second half. The final tie was at 68 when ISU's Steve Hansell made, two free throws at the 1:13 mark.

ISU, which has won four straight, took the lead for good with 43 seconds remaining on two Dan Muller free throws. Muller, who scored 8 of his 10 points in the final 3:48, got to the free throw line by picking up a charging foul against Chad Kleine. After Muller's free throws, Bradley turned the ball over when Dwayne Funchess couldn't track down an errant Kleine pass. Fun-chess tried to keep the ball from going out of bounds, but tipped it to Hansell. The ISU guard was fouled going to the basket but missed two free throws.

However, Muller tipped the second miss out front to Jamar Smiley to keep the ball in ISU's hands. "Dan Muller's a keeper," said Stallings. "I like the way he plays." Smiley was fouled and made two free throws with 17 seconds to go to extend the ISU lead to 72-68. The Redbirds added five of six free throws, including four by Mo Trotter, in the final 11 seconds to ice the victory. ISU, which has had its problems at the free throw line in the past, made 22 of 30 attempts, including 21 of 26 in the second half.

The loss dropped Bradley's record to 9-5 overall and 4-2 in the conference. Trotter scored a season-high. 27 points to lead the Redbirds. Smiley came off the bench to add 13 points and five assists. "Mo's our senior and he's come to the forefront," said Stallings.

"I'm a happy guy for that He's a guy we've really been able to rely on the last four or five games. "We were fortunate that Bradley made some turnovers down the stretch that were unforced. We were happy to benefit from them." Kleine, Bradley can't answer challenge down the stretch InGjU "Illinois State made the plays in the final 1:30 and we didn't Give them the credit." Bradley scored the final six points of the first half to forge a 34-all deadlock by halftime. See REDBIRDS, Page F3 Sports Editor days ahead for Redbirds aturday night was what college basketball is all about Excitement generated by a jam-, packed Redbird Arena, intense play from both teams and a noise- level second to none at times. I It's just too bad that it happens, maybe, once a season at Illinois State and it's usually only when ISU and Bradley lock horns.

Was Saturday night's game a sellout because of the presence of the nearby Bradley fans? Or was it because the wait-and-see ISU fans are finally starting to jump on the bandwagon? If it's the latter, that's good, because there are better days ahead for the Redbirds. It's amazing what a few victories can do to restore a team's confidence and pump excitement into the community. Not more than a week ago, fans were wondering what was wrong with the Redbirds and if the expectation level had been set too high for them. You have to give ISU coach Kevin Stallings, his staff and the players credit because despite sluggish performances at times, they never wavered. ItwasStall-ing's belief in his system and Kevin Stallings his players that never caused them to hit the panic button.

What Stallings did not lose sight of was the fact that he has been starting three sophomores, one senior and one freshman the majority of the time. When some people hinted that Stallings might want to consider shaking things up a bit, Stallings simply said he is a purist "I'm probably pretty slow to change because I have a deep belief in what we do," Stallings said. "I know what we do works and the players have shown me it works when we play the way we are capable of playing. "It's just a matter of getting our mindsets to the point where we can perform that way more consistently." Consistency has been a problem area for the Redbirds at times, but that's to be expected from a youthful team. "Consistency is usually the last thing that comes with a team that's very inexperienced like the one we have," said Stallings.

"As I've said before, if we're talking about inconsistency because of youth the whole year, Iwe're going to have a bad year." The interesting thing is that 'despite the inconsistent performances at times, the Redbirds "ar off to their best start since the 1986-87 season. Stpllings finds that very "I think it's a good sign that we're off to our best start in the three years I've been here and we haven't played well all time," he said. Stallings said before the season started that this year's team "as horrifying as it may sound, early in the year could resemble last year's team and lose to some teams it might not want to lose to. "But I also think the characteristic of this team could be that it 1 can beat just about anybody it walks out onto the floor with when it matures and is ready for the fire." With four straight victories, including three against quality opponents Southwest Missouri State and Bradley that time may have arrived. Bryan Bloodworth's column appears each Sunday in The 1 By JIM BENSON Pantagraph staff When Chad Kleine made a 3-pointer with 1:32 left, he looked like a possible hero for Bradley Saturday night Then came the next 92 seconds.

Possibly the longest 92 seconds of Chad Kleine's basketball life. Three errors in the final crucial stretch by Kleine helped Illinois State escape with a 77-72 victory over the stunned Braves at Red-bird Arena. "I don't know. I didn't step up to the challenge. I let my team down," said Kleine, whose 3-pointer from the corner had given Bradley a 68-66 lead.

Kleine charged into Dan Muller with 43 seconds left and was called for a player control foul with the score tied at 68-all. Muller made two free throws to put ISU up to stay. On the Braves' next trip down the court, Kleine threw a bad pass to Dwayne Funches and ISU recovered the loose ball. In a cruel last blow, Kleine grabbed Mo Trotter's missed free throw with 11.9 seconds left and Bradley trailing 73-70. However, the ball slipped out of Kleine's hands, out-of-bounds to the Redbirds.

'XI Ve PantagraphMAUREEN O'CONNOR Illinois State's Steve Hansell went up for a shot between Bradley's Dwayne Funches and Chad Kleine in action Saturday night at Redbird Arena. "The last minute-and-a-half, whatever could go wrong did go wrong," said Kleine. Nothing much went wrong for Deon Jackson. Jackson, a 6-foot-6 senior, came off the bench to score a season-high 26 points. He scored 10 straight points for the Braves to put them ahead 46-40 early in the second half.

"I just felt it" said Jackson, who hit 11 of 15 field goal attempts and 4 of 4 at the line. "I shot when I was open." Jackson's lay-in gave Bradley a 46-40 advantage, its biggest lead of the game with 15:08 left "I didn't think we were taking control," said Jackson. "I made some buckets, but it was still a close game. You have to give a lot of credit to Illinois State. They have tough players and never let down." While Jackson almost single-handedly kept Bradley in the game in the second half, scoring 20 of his points, Anthony Parker struggled the entire game.

The Braves' 6-6 junior, who came in averaging 18.3 points, was held to 12 points. He made just 3 of 13 shots from the field. See BRADLEY, Page F3 Mustangs claim fifth tournament crown in six years By TIM AUTH Pantagraph staff Turn the basketball over 25 times and the defense had better be pretty good. The Ridgeview High School girls basketball team was guilty of those 25 miscues during Saturday's McLean County Tournament championship game against Tri-Valley. RIDGEVIEW 39 TRI-VALLEY 28 HEYWORTH 55 BLUE RIDGE 44 FLANAGAN 43 LEXINGTON 37 Tri-Valley boys, Ridgeview girls win titles Vikings upset Ridgeview, capture first championship 4, Deon Jackson came off the bench to lead Bradley with 26 points on ll-of-15 shooting.

The Redbirds limited leading scorer Anthony Parker to 12 points. "Dan Muller really stepped up down the stretch and made some big plays," said Bradley coach Jim Molinari. players and supporters celebrating at midcourt "This one's for the fans." Senior forward Ryan Curtis, sidelined much of the year by a fractured wrist, scored 23 points to lead the Vikings to victory in their first McLean County title-game appearance. Earlier Saturday, Blue Ridge downed LeRoy, 69-60, for third place, and Lexington defeated Chenoa, 64-48, for the consolation championship. Ridgeview vs.

Tri-Valley The 6-foot-2 Curtis did not play in Tri-Valley's 70-50 loss to Ridgeview Jan. 9 at Downs. But Saturday night he was, in the words of Ridgeview coach Rodney Kellar, "the difference in the game." Curtis scored 16 points in the second half on 7-of-10 shooting, and his 17-foot baseline jumper from behind the backboard gave Tri-Valley a 47-44 lead with 1 minute, 12 seconds remaining. A free throw by Brian Stenger with 41.3 seconds left made it 48-44, but a rebound basket by' Ridgeview's Clint Carden with 6.8 seconds pulled the Mustangs to within 48-46. See BOYS, Page F6 1 By RANDY KINDRED Pantagraph staff The jubilant Tri-Valley High School basketball team was summoned to the scorer's table Saturday night at Shirk Center.

A few feet in front of it stood Ill inois We- TRI-VALLEY 48 46 SvS RIDGEVIEW Murray, holding a trophy many in Downs and Ellsworth had resigned BLUE RIDGE LEROY 69 60 LEXINGTON CHENOA 64 48 themselves to never bringing home. "And now, the McLean County Tournament National Champions, the Tri-Valley the overzealous public address announcer bellowed. National champions? Not quite. But after 86 years without a McLean County Tournament championship, a national title could not have felt better for the sixth-seeded Vikings following a 48-46 upset of top-seeded Ridgeview. said second-year Coach Mark McBride, offering a sentiment shared by the Tri-Valley i (yf 'v'aCT--'''' The Mustangs' defense, however, made amends as they held the Vikings to 21 percent shooting in a 38-29 victory which gave Ridgeview its fifth tournament title in six years.

The victory also provided Ridgeview with a measure of revenge for two losses to the Vikings earlier this season. The Mustangs are now 11-7, while Tri-Valley slipped to 12-6. "They played their best game both times they beat us," said Mustang guard Sarah Dalton. "We See GIRLS, Page F6 TM PtntagraptiKIRK SCHIEBEL Tri-Valley's Mike Pfeiffer (left) came away with the ball in a scramble with Ridgeview's Kasey Wells (middle), Ben Tillery (on floor) and Tim Morefield (right) in title game action of the McLean County Tournament Saturday night at Shirk Center..