Las Vegas Heat keeps its cool, beats Arizona

Steve Carp

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 9:31 a.m.

As Jerry Reed once told Burt Reynolds, "Don't take your foot off that hammer, son."

The Las Vegas Heat tried to run and hide Bandit-style from the Arizona Heat Thursday in a must-win adidas The Big Time game at Green Valley. But after putting it on cruise control following a 22-point first-half lead thinking they were in the clear, Smokey roared by.

It took some fancy maneuvering by Las Vegas to pull out a 93-88 win and advance into the Open bracket.

The Heat was scheduled to play the West Side Warriors of Wisconsin today at Cimarron-Memorial. A Heat victory would match it with EBO Oakland at 8 p.m. at Cimarron. A loss in either game would eliminate Las Vegas.

"We relaxed," Heat coach Ron Montoya said. "I felt we had the game well in hand and I was wrong. I wanted to play as many kids as I can and it almost backfired."

The Heat used a 15-0 spurt to go up 17-4 five minutes in and the lead grew to 35-13 midway through the first half. But Arizona switched out of its zone defense and pressured its way back into the game to lead 76-75 with less than three minutes remaining.

It got worse for Las Vegas when Green Valley's Demetrius Hunter caught an elbow to the mouth and went down in a bloody heap. Hunter lost a tooth in the exchange and never returned. Moments later, Rancho's Robbie Cole fouled out and Jamar Glasper joined Cole on the sidelines shortly thereafter with his fifth foul.

But Mario Finley and Jason Juniel picked up the slack in the final minute. Finley scored five straight points and Juniel hit a 16-foot jumper to put Arizona away.

"We got a little lazy," said Juniel, who finished with 10 points. "When I saw Robbie and Jamar foul out and Demetrius wasn't coming back, we had to step it up."

Finley, who scored 13 points, called the letup a rookie mistake.

"That won't happen again," he said.

The Heat survived a 26-point effort from Arizona's Jason Blair to finish 2-1 in pool play. Glaspar had a team-high 22 points before fouling out, while Alex Hernandez added 11. Cole and Ronnie Jones had 10 apiece.

Stars win again

The Las Vegas Stars went through pool play undefeated, finishing strong Thursday at Durango by beating Upstate South Carolina 86-68. By winning, Las Vegas drew Texas Blue Chip in the opening round of bracket play today at Durango.

A Stars' victory over Texas Blue Chip would match them with Florida Flash II at 8 a.m. Saturday at Durango.

Las Vegas started out a little sluggish before picking up the pace early in the second half and pulling away.

"I'm happy to see us playing hard for three games in a row," coach Phil Clarke said. "That was a pretty good team we beat."

Western's Vance Lawhorn led the Stars with 19 points and Brian Lang had 11 points off the bench. The Stars also received 10 points each from Durango's Stephen Simister and Cheyenne's Cory White.

Bishop Gorman's Robby Findlay was the catalyst on the boards, grabbing 10 rebounds and keeping several early possessions alive.

"Robby gave us a strong effort," Clarke said.

Gerg gets an assist

Former UNLV coach Tim Grgurich rarely, if ever, turns down an opportunity to help kids. So when Heat coach Ron Montoya was trying to get enough funds to outfit his players, Grgurich stepped up by picking up the cost of the team's footwear.

But it didn't stop there.

Grgurich also attended some of the Heat's pre-tournament practices to observe and make suggestions to Montoya. In addition, the Heat got to work out with some NBA players who were in town to work with Grgurich, an assistant with the Seattle SuperSonics.

"I can't say enough nice things about Gerg and what he has done for me and my players," Montoya said.

Hoop du jour

* MAD MOVES FALLS: Thanks to a record-setting 60-point effort from Lance Williams, the Illinois Fire beat Mad Moves of Las Vegas 111-98 Thursday, dropping Mad Moves into the 'B' bracket. Mad Moves plays today at 4 p.m. at Green Valley. Williams broke Glendon Alexander's record of 51 points set in 1995.

* INTERNATIONAL UPSET: After getting waxed by 67 points the night before by the New York Panthers, Team Brazil bounced back Thursday with a 58-44 win over Triple Threat Purple of Canada.

* RECORD SETTERS: Aliso Niguel's Nathan Hair sank a record 21 free throws in his team's 72-69 win over Alberta Juvenile Men Thursday. Hair was 21 of 28 from the line. ... Villa Park II barely eclipsed Hair's total from the stripe, scoring a record-low 24 points in a 79-24 loss to the Madison Broncos. The 24 points shattered the old mark of 35, set by the Orem (Utah) Tigers in 1995.

* SONIC SIGHTING: Seattle SuperSonics coach George Karl and his wife Kathy took in some of the action the last two days at Green Valley as some friends of the Karls have sons who play for the Seattle-based Friends of Hoop squad. ... Meanwhile, the list of coaches attending this year's tournament continues to grow in record numbers. As of Thursday, 368 college coaches had checked in. Also, 189 media badges have been distributed.