December 7, 2004

Sports

T-birds shootout set for Jan. 3-4

Lewis Shaw
Contributining Writer

What has been the Rotary Basketball Shootout for the past 21 years will now become the Thunderbird Shootout and will be held Jan. 3-4, 2005, at Mesa Community College.
Coach Alton Lister’s charges will host Chipola Junior College from Marianna, Florida, Vincennes (Indiana) University and New York Institute of Technology.
Chipola is ranked among the top teams in the country in the first regular-season NJCAA Division I poll and has won six of its first seven games. The Indians are defending state and Panhandle Conference champions, coming off a 32-5 season that had them placed sixth in the national tournament.
Vincennes has won the Shootout on five previous occasions. Dan Sparks is in his 26th year as head coach of the Trailblazers, during which time his teams have won 684 games and lost only 183 for a 79 percent winning percentage. FIT is another formidable opponent, having captured the Shootout in 1998 and 2002.
The initial matchups on Jan. 3, have Chipola and Vincennes in the opening game at 6 p.m., followed by Mesa and New York Institute of Technology at 8. The two winners will battle for the 2005 title at 8 p.m. the following night, with the two losers playing a consolation game at 6.