- Publish date:
BASKETBALL'S WEEK
EAST
1. ST. JOHN'S (14-2)
2. COLUMBIA (15-1)
3. VILLANOVA (15-2)
One of Columbia's strong points is that it is not built around one player. When Jim McMillian is having an off night, the Lions can count on Heyward Dotson or Roger Walaszek to take charge. It was Dotson who was on target against Brown, working his way under the basket for 26 points as the Lions won 79-46 and wiped out the memory of their narrow 54-52 victory against the Bruins three weeks earlier. Against Yale, it was McMillian who rose up, scoring seven points in three minutes to erase a 31-30 Eli lead and racing through Yale's zone for 28 points. Columbia won 69-48 and was tied for the Ivy League lead with Princeton, which beat Harvard 76-65 and Dartmouth 61-50. Sophomore Guard Dave Wohl had 39 points as Penn also won twice, downing Dartmouth 61-60 and Harvard 75-70. Cornell squared its league record at 3-3 with victories over Yale (65-64) and Brown (82-77). The Big Red win against Yale came when Dom Calderone swished a 47-foot shot as the game ended.
A smothering man-to-man defense helped St. John's, to defeat Temple 65-49. Villanova had no trouble beating Fairfield 66-45 but got a tussle from Toledo when it traveled to the Midwest. Howard Porter's 27 points were the difference in a 66-61 win.
Teams that visited Pennsylvania and New York had a frightful time. Duke lost to Temple 73-69, Evansville to St. Joseph's 95-84 and Navy lost overtime games to Gettysburg (80-71) and NYU (85-81). Yankee Conference teams had an exceptional week: Massachusetts upset Fordham 73-60 and Syracuse 84-63, and Vermont shocked St. Peter's 69-65. The Peacocks then got 37 points from Elnardo Webster to knock off East Carolina 96-76. Pitt ended a 10-game losing streak by beating West Virginia 90-87, then went on the road and lost to LSU 120—79 and Tulane 110-89. Providence, with Jim Larranasa putting in 40 points, beat Rhode Island 83-59 and took care of visiting De-Paul 83-62.
Ken Durrett scored 40 points as La Salle breezed past St. Francis 107-95 and added 20 more in a 102-65 rout of Loyola of New Orleans. St. Bonaventure split two games, beating Canisius 79-61 and losing to Duquesne 84-69 as Bob Lanier scored a total of 68 points. Duquesne, loser to Detroit by 76-66, lifted its record to 12-2 in the St. Bonaventure game with Billy Zopf connecting for 25 points. After Canisius had lost to the Bonnies, a campus newspaper wrote that there was a "lack of pride" among the players. That was enough to rouse the Griffins, who used a devastating fast break in their next outing to trounce Loyola of Baltimore 102-78. Penn State stopped Syracuse 64-58 and Bucknell 68-66, and Boston College got 28 points from sophomore Jimmy O'Brien to down Holy Cross 77-69.
MIDWEST
1. PURDUE (11-3)
2. OHIO STATE (12-3)
3. TULSA (16-2)
Jo Jo White of Kansas closed out his college career with a virtuoso performance, scoring a personal alltime high of 30 points, snapping off some behind-the-back passes and leading the Jayhawks to an 80-70 win over Colorado. That kept alive the Jayhawk (4-2) hopes of catching the Buffaloes (4-1) in the Big Eight, though it will be a formidable task now that White has used up his eligibility. Kansas State Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons had a nightmare before playing Oklahoma State. "They got ahead by six points and held the ball the rest of the way," Fitzsimmons explained. His dream proved surprisingly prescient. The Cowboys took a five-point lead with six minutes left, then slowed down the action and held on for a 64-59 win. Oklahoma State's Henry Iba should have had nightmares himself: he lost his No. 1 scorer for the rest of the season when Amos Thomas was declared ineligible for having played in an unsanctioned exhibition game. Iba woke up laughing, though; Bill Christopher, who took over for Thomas, sank all eight of his shots in a 76-52 victory over Nebraska.
Purdue took over the lead in the Big Ten with a 95-85 overtime win against Ohio State. The Buckeyes had tuned up for that clash by beating Illinois 76-67 as Dave Sorenson scored 30 points and held Greg Jackson of the Illini to 12 points and one rebound. Jackson then came back to get 36 points in an 86-73 victory over Wisconsin. Iowa also showed that it could not be counted out as it toppled Davidson 76-61. Glenn Vidnovic of the Hawkeyes had 23 points, sinking 11 of 12 free throws to bring his record for the season to 105 of 116. Loyola of Chicago beat Michigan 112-100. Wisconsin snapped Marquette's 11-game win string 56-50, but the Warriors held off Detroit 75-74 even though Spencer Haywood had 35 points, 16 rebounds and blocked nine shots.
Miami of Ohio stayed in front in the Mid-American as Frank Lukacs scored three points in the final 26 seconds to beat Kent State 47-45. Ohio U. remained alive with wins over Western Michigan (78-68) and Marshall (110-94), but Bowling Green faded as it lost to Western Michigan 88-87 in double overtime.
Dayton upped its record to 15-3 by doing a fine job of containing two prolific scorers. The Flyers limited Luther Rackley of Xavier to 16 as they won 72-64 and held Niagara's Calvin Murphy to 24 points, winning 100-70.
Grounded by the weather in Chicago, the Cincinnati Bearcats rented cars and drove to Peoria, Ill., where they defeated Bradley 82-62. They also took care of St. Louis 96-72 and, with Rick Roberson getting 27 points in each game, looked as if they would get back into the Missouri Valley race. Tulsa strengthened its lead by rallying from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat North Texas State 104-94 and then downed Wichita State 94-69. Bobby Smith of the Hurricanes had 32 points in each game. Louisville took over second place by downing Bradley 77-64, while Drake was upset by North Texas State 118-99, but beat Memphis State 85-72.
SOUTH
1. NORTH CAROLINA (14-1)
2. KENTUCKY (14-2)
3. DAVIDSON (15-2)
"It's just fun to be here, even though I am on Medicare, and have these kids entertain you like they did tonight," said Adolph Rupp, whose Kentucky kids last week beat Alabama 83-70 in overtime for his 800th win. Rupp then outfoxed Vanderbilt, shucking aside his usual high-post offense and using a 1-2-2 geared to spring loose Mike Pratt. The strategy worked, Pratt sank his first four shots and the Wildcats won 103-89. "They did just exactly what I told them to do," said Rupp. The victories left the Wildcats with a 7-0 Southeastern Conference record. Runner-up Tennessee (6-2) beat Auburn 64-59 and used what Coach Ray Mears called his Chinese Defense against Pete Maravich of LSU in an 81-68 win. The stratagem—a zone with two men concentrating on Maravich—held Pistol Pete to 21 points, his low for the season. "If you can't beat the folks you're supposed to whip, then you're in big trouble." Those were the words of Georgia Coach Ken Rosemond, who was in big trouble after losing to Mississippi State 73-71 and to Florida 73-69. In other SEC games Mississippi State gave Alabama its second overtime loss of the week, 68-67, and needed another extra period to defeat LSU 84-81.
In the Atlantic Coast Conference, North Carolina put down Maryland 107-87, but South Carolina stayed just a game behind by stopping Duke 64-57. The Gamecocks committed only five fouls in that contest, compared to 20 for the Blue Devils. South Carolina, however, lost to independent Florida State 87-76 as Coach Frank McGuire was charged with two technical fouls. A third was not called, but the game was off when McGuire refused to leave the court. Clemson won its first ACC game when substitute Trip Jones sank a shot with five seconds left to upset North Carolina State 78-77.
Mike Maloy had 38 points as Davidson won 94-74 against Southern Conference foe George Washington, which got 34 points from Bob Tallent.
WEST
1. UCLA (16-0)
2. SANTA CLARA (17-0)
3. NEW MEXICO (13-6)
There are times when a coach has to work every angle to win. In the case of Shelby Metcalf of Texas A&M, the angles were from the corners, where his players had to score heavily if they were to beat Texas on its home court. The trouble was they were not hitting much from the corners during pre-game warmups because of the glare from lights set up by a TV crew. Metcalf threatened to forfeit the game rather than play under the glare of the lights. "It was the only trump I had," Metcalf explained later. "Texas wasn't about to forfeit with all those people [a full house of 7,800] in the stands." Even with the lights doused, the Aggies had trouble winning 65-57, but they took a commanding lead atop the Southwest Conference with a 5-0 record. Texas Tech Coach Gene Gibson, also faced with a crisis, did not fare as well. Despite a reminder from College President Dr. Grover E. Murray that his contract had been renewed last spring on the condition that "this season had to be a good one," Gibson lost to Texas 82-64 and to SMU 87-77. That left the Red Raiders 2-3 and virtually out of the running. Baylor, though, brought its record to 4-1 as it got past Arkansas 74-72 and Rice 71-68. TCU ended a five-game losing streak by beating Arkansas 85-79.
New Mexico, 0-3 in the Western AC, rose up to win twice against outsider New Mexico State (page 54). First-place Arizona rallied to defeat Texas-El Paso 75-66. Wyoming beat Colorado State 76-74 in a contest terminated by the officials with two seconds to go following a flurry of fisticuffs and arguments. A tip-in during the closing seconds by Carl Ashley of the Cowboys—Ram Coach Jim Williams argued that it should have been called offensive goaltending—ignited the ruckus. Independent Utah State got 40 points from Marv Roberts, yet lost 113-82 to Brigham Young, which also downed touring St. Francis (Pa.) 98-85. Utah lost to the Aggies 95-92 but took care of West Texas State 104-82. West Texas, which started the week with a 12-2 record, also lost to Weber State 92-76. Both opponents took advantage of the Buffaloes' habit of slowing down when switching from offense to defense. West Texas perked up against Denver, however, winning 81-75. Houston, awakening after an early-season sleep, stopped Texas A&M 85-71 and Notre Dame 89-82.
Dennis Awtrey hit on 15 of 17 shots and wound up with 38 points as Santa Clara (page 30) won a 103-72 laugher from Hay-ward State. UCLA toyed with California 109-74 and Stanford 98-61 in the Pacific Eight. Lew Alcindor had 59 points, pushing his career total over 2,000. Stanford won 66-56 against USC, which then beat California 98-70. George Irvine scored 48 points, pulled down 39 rebounds and took Washington to a pair of wins against outsiders Montana (78-75) and Montana State (78-71). Independent Seattle, aiming for an at-large bid in the NCAA playoffs, beat Texas-El Paso 86-74 and Montana State 75-73 before wasting an 18-point lead and losing to Pacific 82-81. Oregon State Coach Paul Valenti tried his best to worry himself and his boys over a pair of upcoming games against winless Portland. He needn't have bothered. The Beavers made 13 of their first 18 shots and wound up with two wins—83-59 and 78-57. Portland is now 0-17.
PHOTO
CARL ASHLEY of Wyoming bulls in for a layup in wild win over Colorado State.
