Fischer Ready to Become Household Name

D’Or Fischer isn’t a household name, but he’s put himself in some good company.

The 6-foot-11 freshman from Northwestern State blocked 13 shots last Monday night in the Demons’ 76-70 victory over Southwest Texas State.

Although that was one off the Division I record held by David Robinson of Navy, Roy Rogers of Alabama and Loren Woods of Arizona, it was enough to put him one in front of Shaquille O’Neal of LSU on the best one-game performance list.

“I can’t really believe it. Me and David Robinson and Shaq? That’s crazy,” said the Philadelphia native who never started a game in an abbreviated high school career at two schools.

He didn’t start against Southwest Texas State, either, but he was in the game less than two minutes in. He went on to produce the second triple-double in the 88 years of basketball at the Louisiana school by also getting 11 points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes.

His averages going into the game were 3.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 8.5 minutes.

His only other notable outing was 12 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks in the season-opening loss at TCU.

“My phone has been ringing with people who weren’t at the game calling to say they aren’t going to miss the next one,” Northwestern coach Mike McConathy said. “I’ve been around this game for a lot of years but I’ve never quite seen anything like this.”

The blocks total, reported as 12 immediately after the game, increased Tuesday after a local sportscaster discovered a block early in the game that was not recorded by the statistics crew.

NCAA statistics official Jim Wright approved the addition because of the clear video documentation.

Fischer, who has a 90-inch arm-span on a 220-pound frame, had a career night by halftime, when he was a perfect 4-4 shooting, including a 3-pointer, made both of his free throws, had six rebounds, and 10 blocks to go with 11 points. He missed all four of his second-half shots, but added eight rebounds, three blocks and an assist.

“It was unbelievable,” Northwestern guard Josh Hancock said. “It was like he was playing against a bunch of 4-footers.”

McConathy said he’d like to believe this was Fischer’s “coming-out party”

“We have to keep in mind that he’s just learning the game,” he said. “He’s smart, and if he continues to work hard, this won’t be the last time he dominates a game.”

*

NIFTY FIFTY: Oliver Morton of Chattanooga set a school record with 50 points in a 101-95 victory over Pikeville on Wednesday, becoming the first Division I player to reach that mark this season.

Morton, a 6-foot-10 senior center, got his final point in the second half when he made a free throw after a technical foul had been called on Pikeville, an NAIA school.

“I was going to let Bryan Richardson shoot the technical but somebody told me he had 49 points,” Mocs coach Henry Dickerson said. “So I let him shoot it. He is a great kid and a gracious kid and I am very happy for him.”

Morton, who leads the team in scoring at 12.7 a game, had a previous career high of 34 points last season against Appalachian State. He was 20-for-28 from the field and 10-for-13 from the free throw line and had eight rebounds.

Morton had the 15th 40-plus point game this season, about the same pace as last season when there were 22.

*

CURFEW CALL: Greg Walker is the assistant sports information director at Oregon, a position he held the previous two years at Washington State, his alma mater.

Last Friday night, Walker saw six Washington State players in a bar in Eugene after curfew and called Cougars coach Paul Graham in his hotel at 1:45 a.m.

“It was absolutely the right thing to do,” Walker said. “I took a few minutes to deliberate the pros and cons of notifying Coach Graham. Out of respect for him, and having worked with him last year and having respect for what he’s trying to do there ... I put myself in his shoes and decided I would want to know the information.

“I’m sure most of those guys aren’t very happy with me. But they put themselves in a bad situation. They’re probably not bad kids, but they certainly made a poor decision.”

On Saturday morning, Graham suspended the six players -- including his son Nick -- and sent them back to Pullman. The short-handed Cougars lost to Oregon 81-66 later that day.

Washington State apparently holds no grudges against Walker.

“I don’t think there was anybody upset down here,” WSU sports information director Rod Commons said.

Walker said his conversation with Graham was brief.

“I told him, ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but several of your players are across the street,”’ Walker said. “He let out a sigh and said, ‘OK, thanks for calling.’ That was the extent of it.”

Walker said he would have preferred to remain anonymous, but says he would have felt worse if he had kept quiet and some harm had come to the players.

“If I had not said anything and those kids had gotten into trouble later on that night, or somebody got hurt or even if they got away with it and pulled the wool over Paul’s eyes, that’s not doing anybody good,” he said.