The Mass Media

February 5, -19H1*

Beacons get metaphysical, lose fifth in a row, 66-64

by John Hawkins
Apparently, Charlie Titus coaches
two men's basketball teams at
UMass/Boston. One is a young and aggressive group of poised pugilists that
creates offensive opportunities with its
lightning-fast swing passing and total
domination of the offensive boards,
while terrorizing its opponents on
defense with quick-handed pass anticipation and a full court press that
causes frenzied turnovers and franiic
timeouts. The other is a band of
philosophy majors, accidentally
thrown together in a cold and lonely
world, with an offense of tentative
passes and meaningless turnovers and a
defense so burdened with ennui that
Coach Titus, watching this madness
from the sidelines, must be torn between questioning the existence of
hoop-God and performing the Curly
Shuffle.
Last Saturday evening, at the Clark
Center, the Beacons played like Sartrian Existentialists, for five minutes
longer than they played like Wagnerian
Siegfrieds. The result was a headscratching 66-64 loss to a smaller but
quicker University of Southern Maine
team (13-5). The Beacons (10-7) have
now lost five games in a row and seven
of their last nine.
After the game, Coach Titus would
say, "The bottom line is we lost at the
foul line. We had 30 field goals to their
21, but they were at the foul line 21
more times than we were." But though
a number of questionable foul calls
were made by the referees who, at
times, seemed intent on protecting the
smaller, less physical Southern Maine
squad, it was the Beacons' ineffectual
play in the middle of the second half

that forced them to commit a series of

intentional fouls when Southern Maine
decided to sit on a 54-50 lead with less
than five minutes left in the game.
Normally, sitting on a four point
lead with about five minutes left in a
game would be considered a questionable strategy because it destroys a
team's momentum and puts enormous
pressure on the free throw shooter. But

*' We 9re inexperienced and our timing

was off a bit but, all
in all, we shouldn't
be making excuses.
We've got to correct
our problems."
-Charlie Titus
vl si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si* si*
*T* 'T* *T* *T* *T* *T* ^* ^* *v* ^^ ^* ^* ^^ *f* ^f* ^* ^^ M^ *T* *T*

not when you have a Peter Story on

your team. USM put the ball in point
guard Story's hands during crunch
time and when he wasn't running off
large chunks of time from the clock,
Story was singlehandedly pounding the
nails in the Beacons' coffin with clutch
shots from the free throw line (10 out
of 11 for the game), including a streak
of eight for eight with less than two
minutes in the game.
Despite Story's clutch shooting, this
was a game the Beacons gave away.
After opening the second half the same
way they closed the firstwith ex-

plosive low-post scoring from Anthony

Tippett (16 points) and Dan Doherty
(12 points), control of both boards,
and an awesome display of full court
pressure that had the Southern Maine
coach r i f l i n g h i s p o c k e t s f o r
Valiumthe Beacons went on an 18-6
run that saw them surge from a six
point deficit at halftime (36-30) to a six
point lead (48-42) with just under fifteen minutes left in the game. A slam
dunk by 6'1 sophmore Roger Reid at
14:40 looked for all the world like the
game's decisive blow.
But just after the Beacons had emphatically established their superiortity, they went into a self-satisfied
philosophical trance. Big Jim Bennett,
after scoring two baskets off of inside

power moves, began throwing up

bricks from outside (he was 1 for 5
from outside on the night). The
Beacons began t u r n i n g the ball over,
fouling often, and relaxing on defense.
And quicker than you could say, /
think, therefore I am. Southern Maine
was ahead by six points (56-50) and
starting to run the clock down. When
the Beacons finally awoke from th^;dogmatic slumber, (hey found
themselves w i t h too lin.k- time to make
a realistic comeback.
Wasted in the loss was an outstanding all-around performance by Anthony Tippett. After sitting out the last
game due to an academic suspension,
Tippett kept the Beacons in much of
this game with his team-high 16 points,
12 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.
Dan Doherty-also put in a noteworthy game for the Beacons with a 12
point, 7 rebound performance. But the
best performance of the night was by
Southern Maine's Don O'Keefe who
scorched the Beacons for 17 first half
points (he averages 14ppg). O'Keefe
finished on the night with 23 points (8
of 12 from the field; 7 of 8 from the
line), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals,
and no turnovers. O'Keefe and Peter
Story combined^ for 11 of USM's 21
field goals. !7 of 24 free throw points,
and 11 of 17 assists. But the Beacon's
defense made it easy for O'Keefe and
Story throughout much of the game.
"We're inexperienced and our timing was off a bit," said Titus, "but, all
in all, we shouldn't be making excuses.
We've got to correct our problems."
The Beacons will take on S.E. Mass
at the Clark Center this Saturday (7:30
p.m.).

There will be another Senior

Photo session in February 1985.
The attendence for the last session was low so it is important for
those who missed out to attend. It
is extremely important to the
Yearbook that as many people as
possible have their picture taken
as possible, so please, get your
picture made on any one of the
dates shown. You are important.

dates are: Feb. 13, 11am to

; Feb. 14,11am to 7pm; and
Feb. 15, 9am to 5pm.
For more details call the Yearbook Office at X8275