Back to back for Adak

Following the final telegraph time out in the semi final Alaska-Adak finished off Mount Pilot Central St. with a 10-0 run in the last minute to advance to the championship game with a 167-157 victory. The game was a rematch of the LNCUTMV Championship game and Adak got their revenge. The hot shooting carried over to today and Adak quickly opened a 15 point lead in the first 5 minutes of the title game against Bugtussle St. Bugtussle switched to a match up zone and took a 3 point lead at the break.

In the second half both teams traded baskets until the 10 minute mark when Bugtussle St. went cold from the field. Alaska-Adak pushed the lead back to double digits and the Beetles never had an answer. Some late 3s brought the final margin to 9 points but it was too little, too late as Alaska-Adak wins it's second consecutive D4 National Championship 87-78.

Southern NAIA Tech topped Mount Pilot Central St. 127-113 in the consolation game.

D4 Final Four set

16 started and now only 4 remain. The often criticized LNCUTMV Conference made a clean sweep of the regionals and it will be an all LNCUTMV Final Four. The LNCUTMV made a controversial move this year by refusing to play non-conference games. All 8 of their teams qualified for this years tournament and half are still dancing.


Defending D4 Champ Alaska-Adak now 19-17 on the year won the Firewater College Regional with wins over fellow LNCUTMV member Daisy Moses Medical College and then ran the host Firewater College (IND) off their own floor to claim a return trip to Hooterville.






"System originator" Mount Pilot Central State 20-14 had little difficulty in the Los Robles-Carizzo Springs regional despite playing two LNCUTMV teams Southern NAIA Tech-Hooterville was the victim in the first round and Pigs Knuckle Hollow-Creekside fell in the second.







Southern NAIA Tech 21-12 hosted a regional at Sam Drucker Court at Haney Automotive Arena and quickly dispatched Forked Tongue University (MANIAC) and Morris Wanchuk (IND) to get to play on.









Rounding out the field is Bugtussle St. at 17-17. They are the lowest remaining seed having started out as the #10 team. They upset Trout Creek A&T (IND) in the first round and were the beneficiaries of another upset as #2 Reservation St. (MANIAC) fell to #15 Wisconsin A&M-Springstead (UCWI) on their home floor.



As previously stated the Lower North Central Upper Tennessee Middle Valley (LNCUTMV) lead the way with 8 teams in the tournament, followed by the Minnesota and Northern Iowa Athletic Conference (MANIAC) and the Independents each with 3. The University Conference of Wisconsin and Illinois had 2**.

**Exeland Institute/Edgewater Institute @Ojibway (EIEIO) was selected to this years field as College of St. Redskin (IND) was ineligible due to insufficient non-medical red shirts.

Ruppert, come here...............

First name when they want something, last name when I'm in trouble.

We had a customer come through for a visit today and they got there earlier than expected. So as I went through the pre-shift inspection I gave them a brief course on what the Hubtex was and some of the difficulties in driving it etc. One in the group was an obvious tree hugger type, not bad looking but had her hair pulled back and wasn't wearing any make up, so I thought I'd have a little environmental fun with her. Probably has a bumper sticker that says her other car is Birkenstocks. Anyway, I was brushing some oil on the mast and she asked how often we had to do that. I told her we used to do it every week when we were using grease but that we used whale oil now and it lasted twice as long.

"Whale oil" she exclaimed. "Yes. One of the maintenance guys has a brother in law that lives in Europe and he found a supplier for us. They ship it in a danish ham can so customs never questions it", I replied. A puzzled look came over her face and she seemed hesitant to ask me any more questions. About that time the Plant Manager arrived and took them on their tour. We have the oil in a ham can to throw off OSHA. They nailed us real good not long ago about not having things labeled properly so the ham can is used as a loop hole. If anybody questions it we just tell them that somebody must have brought it in for lunch. Since it's from a one pound ham it's a reasonably believable story.

Finally their tour was complete and they went in the office for a bit. I was glared at every time she saw me so I know she either bought the story or didn't appreciate the joke. Finally they left and Mike came out of his office. "Ruppert, come here. Would you mind telling me why I just spent the last 10 minutes explaining that our maintenance department was not illegally smuggling whale oil in from Europe" he asked. "Why am I always the one to be questioned when something unusual happens" I replied. "Don't change the subject, answer the question", he demanded. "Well, I might have mentioned something like that, they didn't believe me did they" I asked. Finally after a few seconds he chuckled. "No, you had the story sold until you mentioned the ham can. But she said she had to ask me about it because you told it so straight faced that she wasn't 100% sure about it. Next time laugh a little so they know you're kidding".