Little Gardner receives big honor

UA men's basketball player Jason Gardner was honored Wednesday by the Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Association of Basketball Coaches as the recipient of the 2003 male Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award.

The award is presented annually to the nation's most outstanding senior who is six-foot tall or under. Gardner joins Sean Elliott (1989) and Jason Terry (1999) as the only University of Arizona players to earn Player-of-the-Year accolades.

"It is a great honor to be named Player of the Year, especially from the Basketball Hall of Fame," said Gardner. "It's nice to be included on this list with so many other great players from the past."

The highest-scoring guard in Arizona history, Gardner, a 5-foot-10, 191-pound native of Indianapolis, Ind., averaged 14.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 32 games this season. He averaged a team-best 34.9 minutes per game, shot 39.2 percent from the field, including 33.2 percent from three-point range.

Gardner was named all-Pacific-10 Conference for the third time in his career on March 10. He earned All-America accolades from the John R. Wooden Award, United States Basketball Writers Association, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Associated Press, and the Senior CLASS Award. Gardner received All-America accolades 10 times in his four-year career.

One of only four Pac-10 players in history to amass 1,500 career points, 500 assists and 200 steals, Gardner led Arizona to a 107-29 (.786) record. In his four-year career, Gardner led the Wildcats to the 2001 national championship game, won two Pac-10 regular season titles and one Pac-10 postseason tournament championship.

Established for men in 1969, the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award is named in honor of the daughter-in-law of James Naismith, the creator of the game of basketball.

Baseball rallies to down Cougars after rain delay

The No. 24-ranked Arizona baseball team battled a rain delay and a recent trend of losing late leads to rally for a 11-9 ninth inning win over Washington State in Pullman, Wash., yesterday.

The Wildcats broke a 9-9 tie in the ninth with a pair of runs to down the Cougars in the three-game series opener. The win improved the Wildcats' record to 27-13 overall and 6-4 in the Pac-10. The loss dropped the Cougars to 11-25 and 3-7 in conference play.

Junior Brian Anderson drove in freshman Brad Boyer from second for the game-winning run with two outs in the ninth. Boyer, who walked with one out in the inning, scored his second run of the game after stealing second. The stolen base was the fourth of the game for Arizona and Boyer's team-leading 17th of the season.

A fielding error by WSU's Jeff LaRue allowed Derek Decater to score from third to give Arizona and reliever Wes Zlotoff a two-run cushion at 11-9.

The senior right-hander came on to retire the side in order to close out the win for his first save of the season. Freshman John Meloan (4-0) picked up his fourth win of the year with 2 1/3 innings in relief of starter Richie Gardner.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 9-3 lead on the Cougars with three runs in the third, two in the fourth and four in the sixth.

Washington State rallied to pull within one run at 9-8 in the sixth with five runs on six hits off of Gardner and tied the score on Grant Richardson's solo home run after a 32-minute rain delay in the bottom of the seventh.

The Wildcats, who have lost five games this season in the ninth inning, avoided another late-inning meltdown on Anderson's two-out single and Zlotoff's solid ninth inning on the mound.

The Wildcats and Cougars will meet up for the second game of the three-game set tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Heptathalete finishes 16th for track and field

UA track and field athlete Amanda Underwood competed in the heptathlon event at Azusa Pacific University, posting a combined score of 4,444 points and earning a 16th-place finish in the competition. The point total is a new season's best for Underwood, improving her Pac-10 qualifying mark.

Underwood had several impressive performances over the course of the two-day affair. On the first day, she ran a time of 15.68 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles with a slight head wind. She went on to a personal best in the high jump with a leap of 5-1 ¹ (1.56m).

The rest of the Wildcat squads continue competition this weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. on the Mt. San Antonio College campus.

Women's hoops inks late spring recruit

UA women's basketball head coach Joan Bonvicini announced yesterday the signing of prep player Linda Pace to a National Letter of Intent. Pace will join the Wildcats for the 2003-04 season.

A 5-foot-8 guard, Pace prepped at Francis Parker School in San Diego, Calif. As a senior in 2002-03, she averaged 29.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game while leading her team to a 15-12 record. The third-leading scorer in San Diego County this year, Pace was a three-time first team All-Coastal League choice, a two-time first team All-San Diego County selection and was a first team All-California Division IV honoree in 2003. She was her team's Most Valuable Player three years in a row and was a San Diego Union-Tribune Scholar-Athlete twice.

"We're very excited to have Linda Pace join our program," said Bonvicini. "Linda is a great perimeter player who has good quickness and is a prolific scorer. She's a great fit for us, both as a player and a quality student."