tl19900308_000 "Vol. 85 No. 6 ""Required Reading"" March 8, 1990 Published weekly by the students of Towson State University, Towson C:120 NCAA bound! Tigers capture first bid ever photo by Bill The team celebrates the 73-60 triumph over Lehigh University for the East Conference Championship Tuesday. by Mike Jefferson Staff Reporter In the midst of the spectator taunting and raucous roar of the crowd last Tuesday night at the Towson Center, the Tigers were waging war against the Lehigh Engineers of Bethlehem, Penn-sylvania. Both teams were vying for an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament. Only one team could go. Lehigh had been twice in the past (1985 and 1988), but TSU had never been. It was the chance of a lifetime. Head coach Terry Truax came into the war with an arsenal of weaponry that included All- American Kurk Lee and last year's Rookie of the Year, Devin Boyd. Probably the most power-ful backcourt in the ECC this year, they led the team over the final hill to victory, 73-60, corn-bining for 35 points and eight straight free-throws. Both teams carne into the championship game red hot, having won eight out of their last eleven games. Both coach Dave Duke of Lehigh and Truax said either team would have been a good representative of the conference in the tourna-ment. Tuesday night, each players' jump had a little bit more spring, (a.k.a., Chuck Lightening and Kelly Williamson slams) and the shots and passes had a little bit more zest, especially for seniors Mike Morin (5-10, 5 rebounds), Kennell Jones (2-4, 6 assists), Kurk (8-11, 6 rebounds) and Kelly Williamson (3-9, 6 re-bounds), who could have been playing in their last college career game. The Tigers came out aggres-sive, committing three fouls in the first three minutes, but after settling down and working a few quick transitions up-court, got into their groove. At the 14:06 mark, Lee buried a three pointer to put the Tigers up 16-9. Lehigh's sophomore Dozie Mbonu, the ECC's leading re-rmY ile bounder with 8.2 per game, Coast scored two of his team high 23 points at the 11:42 mark, putting Lehigh within one. He then as-sisted senior Scott Lyer off a steal and Lehigh went up by one. Both teams exchanged back and forth, until sophomore Chuck Lightening shook the Towson Center with a baseline slam, taking the Tigers up by three. By halftime, TSU had edged out the Engineers 33-32. ""I think we turned up our de-fense better and elevated our level of play the second half and I think that created some easy buckets for us,"" said Truax. ""Overall, as always, it was just a tremendous team effort."" Kendall Jones, TSU forward and 1990 Scholar Athlete of the Year, said, ""I think for a team to win, we must have players that compliment each other well and other guys on the team to know their roles. I think that's what makes teams win, because they have everyone who does a little bit of everything in different aspects of the game."" 3164 F43 IT A PP PIN � in, Sk 31 6-14 25 11 3 4 12 31 6-21 64 1 0 2 23 Moran 211 4-6 0.0 3 1 2 11 *AI ye. 26 1-2 0-0 0 6 1 2 0 Hers 31 14 4-6 4 1 3 11 Forma /5 24 114 1 0 6 6 Aucirron 7 0-2 0-0 0 0 I 0 .11004 110-1 0-0 1 I 1 0 T I.TC� 1 1-1 C 0 3 Team 2131 23-ss 11-11 34 13 11 SO ?wino 113616 PI1 PT I A 31 34 64 I 0 4 11 -Wes 31 2-4 0-0 11 I 4 4 Mann 27 S-10 0.0 I 3 1 � ao'rd 32 S. 3-3 S .1 3 13 Las 3: 11-11 3-6 I 3 saw t4 14 2-2 t 1 3 0r0131 7 04 0.0 t 0 0 C Upheireie 73 34 2-.1 S 0 0 1 Tani 266 27411 �7-el 3? $4 le n This is exactly what happened Tuesday night. Four Tigers scored in double figures. They used tight defensive pressure to generate 10 steals, and Kurk Lee, who was kept scoreless for 11 minutes at one point in the second half, made some key passes off tough Lehigh defen-sive pressure. ""I told myself if they change defenses on me, I'm gonna give the ball to my other teammates to get the open shot,"" said Lee. Lee said he was going to make sure he didn't force up too many shots. For Lehigh's Bob Krizansky, ECC First-Team Selection, who was 5-14 from the floor, the night was disappointing for more than just the obvious rea-see WIN, page 10 "
