Orange Optimist Tournament : Chapman Barely Hangs On, 80-77 : Panthers Have Trouble Against Minnesota’s Bemidji State

Another day, another nervous breakdown for Chapman College’s basketball team.

Friday night marked the opening round of the Chapman College/Orange Optimist Tournament, the annual two-day hoop-a-thon hosted by the Panthers. As such, Chapman was entitled to schedule itself against some cupcake from nowhere, a pushover that would guarantee a Panther appearance in the tournament title game.

And Chapman appeared to have lined up precisely that in an opponent named Bemidji State, a tiny NAIA school located on the shores of Lake Bemidji in north-central Minnesota.

Consider this baby in the bag.

Oh yeah? So what was Chapman doing, leading the Beavers by a single point just before the buzzer--and leaving the court with a tenuous 80-77 victory after Panther guard Jimmy Saia sank two academic free throws?

“What did you expect?” said Walt Bowman, Chapman athletic director. “We’re gonna have 28 of these. I won’t have any fingernails left by the end of the season.”

That’s the way the Panthers play them, regardless of the competition. After six games, Chapman is 3-3--with no game decided by more than five points.

“One of these days, I hope we get an easy one,” said a drained Kevin Wilson, the Chapman coach. “But I know we won’t get it tomorrow.”

Wilson was referring to tonight’s 8 p.m. championship confrontation with big and physical Sacramento State, an 89-82 winner over Southern California College. The Hornets are 3-1 and, on an off-night, manhandled the defending champions of this tournament.

Chapman had all it could handle in Bemidji State. Now, you might ask yourself: What is a Bemidji State? Or, you might ask yourself: How do you pronounce Bemidji State?

Bill Brown, the first-year coach at Sacramento State, couldn’t. After beating SCC in the evening’s first game, Brown was discussing his possible opponent in the final--either Chapman or “ Be-jeema .”

For the record, it’s Be-midge-ee . The school has an enrollment of 4,500 and is located 240 miles north of Minneapolis. Last year, the Beavers finished 13-17 overall.

They didn’t figure to provide much of a challenge for Chapman. As Wilson yelled at his players during one frustrating stretch in the second half, “If we play defense, we blow ‘em out!”

But that was precisely the problem. Chapman didn’t play much defense, didn’t take care of the basketball (22 turnovers) and couldn’t stand prosperity--nearly throwing away an 11-point halftime lead.

About the only thing the Panthers did right was shoot. From the field, Chapman was an even 60% (27 of 45), led by Jon Samuelson’s 9-of-13, 23-point performance.

But even with such accuracy, the Panthers were in deep trouble in the game’s final minute. They led by just a basket (77-75), but Bemidji State had the ball and forward Dale Harper all alone under the basket.

Beaver guard David Lee got him the ball with 35 seconds remaining and Harper went up for the potential tying basket. But then, swooping in at the last instant, came the right arm of Chapman center Karl Tompkins--swatting the ball away in what both coaches later called the play of the game.

“That was probably the game right there,” said Bemidji State’s Will Baird. “I felt that if we could get back even, we would’ve had the emotional advantage.”

Said Wilson: “Karl came out of nowhere. That was a big block, a real big block. That might have stopped us from going into another overtime.”

The season is two weeks old and already, Chapman has experienced two overtime games. A third was prevented when Saia sank a free throw with 11 seconds left, giving the Panthers a 78-75 lead.

Bemidji State’s Roger Ackerman scored to make it 78-77 with one second on the clock--just enough time for Saia to take the inbounds pass and draw a foul as the buzzer sounded.

With both teams walking off the floor, Saia sank two free throws to account for the final outcome.

An interesting sidelight: Bemidji State Coach Baird is a 1965 graduate of Chapman, where he played basketball for two years under Paul Deese. Before Friday’s game, Deese and other Chapman alumni welcomed Baird back with a dinner in his honor.