Four stories - Tulsa World (3-4-2006)

[ORUTerry]

Four stories

By MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer

3/4/2006

Four things you probably don?t know about Mid-Con teams:

MR. CLUTCH

While helping Indiana- Purdue share the Mid-Con regular-season title, senior forward Maushae Byles waited to donate his bone marrow to a dying leukemia patient.

The procedure was set to take place last November, but Byles learned that the patient had become sick and too weak to go through with it. So Byles has been on standby.

He missed six games with a knee injury, but came back to average 8.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in conference play and was named Mid-Con Sixth Man of the Year.

He scored 12 second-half points as IUPUI rallied from a 22-point deficit to win at Valparaiso on Jan. 28 and scored 20 points in a win over ORU on Feb. 11.

"I call him our 'X-factor.' If he plays well, we have a chance to win the tournament," said coach Ron Hunter.

INTIMIDATOR

That's 6-foot-7 Zane Teilane (pronounced zah-NAY ti-lah-NAY) of Western Illinois. The top shot-blocker and third-leading rebounder in women's Mid-Con history has discouraged WIU foes from driving to the basket for years.

"This is a half-court, power conference. The truth is, you've got to have an interior player. Zane changed the way people played us," coach Leslie Crane told the Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star.

A member of the Latvian national team, Teilane has led the Westerwinds to four straight regular-season conference titles, and was recently named Mid-Con Player of the Year for the second time.

But one thing is missing: she's never made it to the final of the conference tournament.

MIGHTY MITES

It's hard to imagine a smaller backcourt than Chicago State's 5-foot-9 Royce Parran and 5-foot-6 David Holston. The Cougars don't get much taller with 6-foot-1 Kevin Jones Jr. at small forward.

"I was thinking about this the other day. No one could start a backcourt like this. It's a very small lineup," head coach Kevin Jones said with a chuckle.

Small and deadly. The trio has combined to average 39.2 points and 9.7 assists. Holston and Parran have combined for 138 treys.

Parran scorched Oakland for 39 points last weekend and also had games of 37 and 35 during the season. Holston scored 32 in a game.

BOMBS AWAY

Southern Utah doesn't live on 3-pointers, it just seems that way because the Thunderbirds lead the nation in 3-point shooting percentage (216-of-503, .429).

Several teams have made more 3-pointers this season, but none has shot them more efficiently. Troy (Ala.) made nearly 100 more to lead Division I, but the Trojans needed 385 more attempts to do it.

Southern's high percentage comes from not forcing shots and "having the right guys shoot them," said head coach Bill Evans.

Rand Janes, Henry Uhegwu and Steve Barnes have combined for 151 treys.