Feisty Fife looked upon by teammates as leader

Scrappy. Feisty. Dane Fife.\nIn a three-minute span in the second half of Sunday's annual Red and White intrasquad scrimmage, the 6-foot-4, 200 pound junior guard displayed the character that defines him as a player.\nAfter nailing a 15-foot jumper, Fife drew a charge from freshman guard Andre Owens quashing a possible fast break, and tied up Owens at mid-court by diving on a loose ball. On the ensuing possession, Fife missed a shot, dropped back on defense and stole the ball back, before feeding freshman Mike Roberts for one of his seven assists.\n"Get the ball to people, hit the open shots and guard people," Fife said. "That's my role, simple as that."\nFife scored 19 points, contributed four rebounds, three steals and took three charges, while playing all 30 minutes in the scrimmage.\n"I think Dane's a scrapper," freshman forward Jared Jeffries said. "He really gets after it. He does a lot of the dirty work for us. It's his role to lead us by his example." \nFife averaged 4.9 points, 3 rebounds and led the team with 49 steals last season. With the graduation of guards A.J. Guyton, Michael Lewis and Luke Jimenez, Fife will be looked upon by his teammates to embrace new responsibilities both on-and off-the-court.\n"Definitely, I consider Dane the team leader," freshman guard A.J. Moye said. "The team's going to go where Dane goes. If Dane remains strong, fundamentally sound, and as vocally strong as he is now, the sky's the limit for us. But we're going to go as Dane goes."\nFife controlled the tempo in the first half in leading the White team to a 44-31 halftime lead. He handled Owens' pressure surprisingly well, providing a stable flow of offensive production, committing only two turnovers.\nThe Red team began closing the gap early in the half, but the White team broke the game open, utilizing 12 second-half points from freshman forward George Leach to blow out the Red team 77-55. \nFife's presence on the defensive side of the ball rattled Owens', holding him to six points on 2 of 6 shooting.\n"Andre really struggled today," coach Mike Davis said. "I think Dane really got into his head. I think Dane is good at that."\nIn the second half, Fife played for the Red team and again shut down Owens. His relentless hounding of the freshman translated into numerous fast break layups and odd-man rushes. \n"Dane is really playing well right now," Davis said. "He's playing with confidence, he's playing loose, he's shooting the ball well. He's just got to continue to play the way he's been playing. \n"Dane is a tough competitor. We need for Dane Fife to come out here and play 30 minutes a game and play well"