USD Women Win Easily Over Wisconsin Green Bay

The USD women’s basketball team easily defeated Wisconsin Green Bay, 64-45, in a nonconference game at USD Thursday night.

USD, trailing 22-21 with 6:33 remaining in the first half, went to a full court press and outscored Wisconsin, 18-4, during the remainder of the half.

Guard Paula Mascari led USD (10-2) with 11 points. Chris Enger and Rochelle Lightner added 10 apiece.

Wisconsin (6-5) was led by Dawn Schirmacher, who scored a game-high 17 points.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Point Loma Nazarene rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Grace College, 78-75, in the Point Loma Tournament. The Crusaders will play George Fox, an 83-75 victor over Western Washington, in tonight’s championship game.

Grace led, 36-25, at halftime, but PLNC (3-8) shot 63% from the field in the second half to pull out the victory. Brad Davis scored 18 points and Rob Hubbard added 17 for PLNC. Rich Coley led Grace (5-9) with 22 points.

Five players scored in double figures as Christian Heritage routed visiting Colorado-Colorado Springs, 85-64. The victory was the Hawks’ sixth in a row, tying a school record.

Christian Heritage (9-3), ranked No. 2 in the nation by the National Christian College Athletic Assn., led 50-22 at halftime. No Christian Heritage player played for more than 20 minutes as the Hawks built a 64-30 lead with 12 minutes remaining. Brad Soucie led the Hawks with 13 points and Lance Roark added 12. Colorado-Colorado Springs (3-6) was led by Erick Mark’s 20 points.

FOOTBALL

Rick Smith was fired as director of public relations for the Chargers in the 10th front-office dismissal since mid-December.

Smith, 50, had worked for the organization for 15 years. He was replaced by Bill Johnston, 32, his former assistant and the club’s director of community relations.

Smith’s firing was the latest in a front-office purge that began Dec. 18 with the dismissal of Steve Ortmayer as director of football operations. Others fired were Ortmayer’s personal secretary, the five-member scouting staff and Ortmayer’s top two lieutenants in the personnel department, Chet Franklin and Les Miller.

A record crowd watched the Sea World Holiday Bowl on television as the game between Penn State and Brigham Young on Dec. 29 drew 3.4 million viewers.

The game, won 50-39 by Penn State, received a 6.2 rating--the highest non-NFL rating of an ESPN telecast.