Frank Leads Toppers Past Notre Dame
BG Daily News

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Highlights from the WKU-ND Matchup (700k)

November 22, 1986

South Bend, Ind. - Tellis Frank always knew he could start, he just never wanted to rock the boat.

"I've always liked the feeling of starting," Frank said Friday night. "I felt last year if you're one of the best players, you deserve to start. I felt I could've started last year, but I didn't want to rock the boat. I kept my cool and played hard."

The 6-11 Senior from nearby Gary, Ind., continued that hard play here against Notre Dame in the first round of the Coca-Cola NIT, scoring 17 points to lead Western to a 80-63 clubbing of the Irish in front of 5,320 fans.

"I grew up watching Notre Dame and Depaul play, and I kind of had chills before the game started. I got pretty comfortable once I got out on the floor," Frank said..

The total attendance included some 1,000 Big Red fans who made the 7-hour journey to see if the Hilltoppers could live upto their preseason billing, which has seen them ranked in several polls..

Western did that - and then some - by completely outclassing the Irish in every phase of the game.

"I wasn't satisifed with anything we did," said ND coach Digger Phelps. "I was impressed the most with the way Western Kentucky pounded us on the boards. They got a lot of the key rebounding situations, and we put ourselves in a hole early,".

And the Toppers put themselves in a 7:30 Monday night game at Diddle Arena against Texas Christian University, an 83-74 winner at Louisiana State Friday night in another first round game.

Phelps was concerned with Western's strong, talented front line coming into the contest, and his worst fears were realized as Western made the big shots most of the time, and when it didn't, it had somebody there to collect the misses.

The Toppers held only a 34-29 overall rebounding advantage, but the difference showed on the offensive boards, where they enjoyed a comfortable 16-8 edge.

"The total rebounding is deceiving," Phelps said. "They have a very strong, physical ballclub. They're well-coached and well-disciplined. They're not going to lose many ballgames."

All of which left a big smile on Coach Murray Arnold's face in his debut at Western.

"It means a lot to me, personally. Winning my first game at Western is certainly gratifying, especially in a place reeking with tradition," Arnold said, in a voice left hoarse from constant yelling from the sidelines.

Arnold's yelling was the encouraging kind though, because Western ran out to an 8-2 lead, and withstood several challenges in the first half before settling on a 43-25 halftime advantage.

David Rivers, ND's talented All-America guard, made his much-celebrated first appearance of the season after a serious August car crash with 15:16 to go in the half.

Rivers scored eight points and handed out eight assists in a long 34-minute appearance, but he was never the real wizard that ripped opposing defenses last year.

"We had to go to him earlier than we wanted to, and David was overanxious," Phelps said.

"James McNary and Kurk Lee were a good tandem on him," Arnold said. "We were working him hard on defense and we were trying to keep fresh people on him at all times. In all fairness to David, he was put in a situation where he had to make a catch-up offense go. I'm thankful we don't have to play him again."

Controlling Rivers allowed Western to dictate the tempo in the game.

"We wanted to slow them down on defense, and we wanted to run on offense," said Kannard Johnson, who was one of five double-figure scorers for Western with 10 points.

Western's control became even more evident late in the game when it slowed things down to protect its double-digit lead. The Toppers used two and sometimes three guards late in the game.

The Irish made a token run at the Toppers early in the second half, cutting the margin to 54-44 on a Donald Royal turnaround with 11:56 left, but that was as close as ND would get the rest of the way.

McNary had 12 points, mostly on the strength of eight perfect trips to the free-throw line.

Brett McNeal scored 13 before going out of the contest in the second half with a sprained ankle. McNeal is questionable for the TCU game.

Bryan Asberry had a good effort off the bench, scoring 10 points and collecting a game-high eight rebounds.

Asberry logged 17 minutes because Clarence Martin got into early foul trouble. Martin fouled out of the game with 4:48 to go.

Royal paced the Irish with 17 points.

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