U.S. Olympic Festival : Pitt’s Lane Leads East Over West in Basketball

The East, led by Pittsburgh’s Jerome Lane, moved into the favorite’s role in basketball at the U.S. Olympic Festival Monday with a 96-89 victory over the West.

The third day of Festival action featured play in 18 sports, including women’s softball, where the West beat the South, 9-0, behind the no-hit pitching of Mary Lou Ramm of Chula Vista, Calif.

It was the first no-hitter of the season for Ramm, an elementary school teacher. She walked six and had two of the West’s nine hits.

“I don’t worry about things like that,” Ramm said. “I just try to concentrate on each batter. My ball was going up well tonight, but my best pitch was my curve.”

The South had only one hit in two games, losing, 3-0, on a one-hitter by Tracy Compton of the North in the afternoon.

Lane, a sophomore forward, scored 24 points, 18 of them in the second half, to improve the East’s record to 2-0.

“Today those guys just lost track of me,” Lane said. “They just didn’t want to guard me, and I was open every play.”

East Coach Gary Williams of Ohio State, formerly of Boston College, knows about Lane from Big East play.

“I thought Lane was a pretty good player who played well some of the time,” Williams said. “Now he is starting to realize he can be a real good player if he puts his mind to it.”

He had his mind on basketball Monday, scoring 12 points in the last 6 1/2 minutes as the East pulled away.

Villanova sophomore Doug West added 17 points for the East. Los Angeles’ Stephen Thompson, who will attend Syracuse this fall, led the West with 19 points.

“I think I would have to give the East the nod in effort and reacting to the ball today,” said West Coach Ladell Anderson of Brigham Young University. He felt his team was off-form after upsetting the South the previous night.

“The South is probably the favorite of the tournament,” he said. “We knocked them off, and there was an obvious letdown.”

In women’s play, Deanna Tate and Monique Pompili triggered a second-half surge that lifted the East to a 74-72 victory over the West. The game was close until the East (1-1) reeled off 13 straight points--including four apiece by Tate and Pompili--to turn a 57-56 deficit into a 69-57 lead with 6:42 to play.

“Defense was the key today,” the East’s Dawn Bryant said. “At the end, we were the team in control.”

At night, the South beat the North, 74-71, as Tennessee teammates Sheila Frost and Bridgette Gordon each scored in the final minute. The South, winner of four straight Festival titles, is 2-0, the North 1-1.

The swimming was dominated by 14-year-old Vickie Vogt, a sophomore from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who won five gold medals. Vogt was on the record-smashing South 800-meter relay team and then earned the 200-meter backstroke gold in 2:19.34. She previously won the 200-meter butterfly, and was on the South gold medal medley relay and 400-meter freestyle relay teams. She also has a silver medal in the 100-meter backstroke.

“I was tired from the relay earlier and I thought it would be close, but it wasn’t,” Vogt said. “It’s great winning four medals. I just came here to have fun and see what some of the other swimmers could do.”

Dante Muse of Des Moines, Iowa, also became a four-time gold medalist when he won the 500-meter final in 54.52 seconds, then helped the North to a win in the 4,000-meter relay.

Earlier, Muse won the 1,000 and 1,500 races.

Three-time world champion Rick McKinney of Gilbert, Ariz., took a four-point lead over two-time Olympic gold medalist Darrell Pace after two rounds of the archery finals. Sharon Riley of York, Pa., came from 10th place after the first round to take the lead in the women’s event.