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Giant-killer Chaminade shocks SMUHONOLULU (AP) -Chaminade Coach Merv Lopes compares his unlikely giant-killers to a song that, at least for the moment, is No. 1 on the hit parade,“Not too many people believe in Chaminade, not year in and year out,” Lopes said. “One upset and then they tend to forget you,' you disappear from their memory. It’s like a hit song. So we just want to keep on reminding them we are for real.”Chaminade, a tiny NAIA school, surfaced for the third Christmas in a row to make believers of major-college basketball. After an upset of then-12th ranked Louisville in thefirst round, the Silverswords won their own Western Airlines Chaminade Basketball Classic on Tuesday with a 71-70 stunner over fourth-ranked Southern Methodist.“Every team is even when the game starts,” Lopes said. “I don’t let us put anybody on a pedestal. We start side by side.”In 1982, Chaminade shocked the basketball world with an upset of then top-ranked Virginia, then followed a year later with an upset of Louisville. But Lopes said the win over previously unbeaten SMU may have been the biggest victory yet.“This was bigger than Virginiabecause each game we build on what happened the game before,” he said. “Virginia built us up for Louisville, which built us up for SMU. But it all started with Virginia.“We prepare mentally for each game. We had put the Louisville upset out of our minds at Sunday’s practice and concentratedon SMU from then.”For a time Tuesday, it looked as if Chaminade’s magic would finally fail. SMU held a 70-69 lead when Carl Wright blocked a shot by Chamtaade’s Mark Rodrigues with nine seconds to go.After a scramble, Wright came up with the ball as the final second ticked off the clock. ButWright’s foot was out of bounds and, because the buzzer hadn’l sounded, the game officials gave Chaminade the opportunity to try a final shot.That’s all the chance Chaminade needed. As the buzzer sounded, Keith Whitney's 20-foot shot bounced on the rim and fell through for the winning points. It was the 11th victory in 15 games for the Silverswords.“I let it go as soon as I touched it,” said Whitney, who scored ail but two of his 21 points in the second half. “I wanted to “soft” it up to the basket... I knew it was going in when it bounced andSee SMU, Page 3B
Newspaper Details
Del Rio News Herald
Del Rio, Texas, US
Wed, Dec 26, 1984
Page 18
Full Page
Clipped by
Sante B.
WV, USA 01 Nov 2019
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