Carbon County news., 1936-12-25
THRILLING DRIVE
IN FINAL PERIOD
NETS EAGLES Win
Merriwel Finish Defeats
Polytechnic Five
1926

Exhibiting a lastIhalf drive that
simply would not be denied, Red
Lodges surprising Eagles basket
ball quint edged out the Billings
Polytechnic experts in 'Merriwell
finish Tuesday night, 26 to Is.
Equally surprising was a pre-
liminary game which saw a pickup
team from Sideways and Blooms
hold the powerful Billings Laurel
eats, runnersup in the state Inde-
pendent tourney last spring, to
80 to rs score.
The Eagles showed an amazing
reversal of form during the last
! 20 minutes of the Poly game,
whiting away at an 18 to 7 mar
gin held by the Billings collegians
at half time. In order to tuck away
the bunting, DR.. Mead's basketeers
were forced to harvest 19 points
in the last half, while holding Poly
to only seven.
The cuuegians maintained a 20
to 13 lead at the end of the third
quarter, but could not stem the
rising tide of Eagle determination.
With a minute to go and the score
tied at "a all, B Rae, star Red
Lodge forward, broke away from
his guard to dribble in and score.
Brown, Red Lodge boy who star
red at forward for Poly, counted
with a free throw and the whistle
blew ending the game.
John Zupan was high scorer of
the game with nine points. He was
followed on the Red Lodge team by
B. Rae and Joe Naglich with six
markers apiece. H. Rae, substitute
guard, had three points to his cred
it, followed by Cusina and Tastav
orsnik with a point each.
Besides playing a brilliant floor
game, Brown bagged seven points
for Poly. He received able assist
ance from his mates who passed
brilliantly in the first half and well
in the second half. Toby Leides,
another Red Lodge product, gather
ed five points from his forward
post. Wilson, Poly center, played
a neat floor game and found the
hoop for six points. Cole was a
standout at guard and he contrfbut-
ed five points for his quint. Teno
Leides and Baravich each got a
point.
The Eagle victory was hearten-
ing but brought out several faults
that must be erased. Passing of the
Red Lodge quint was faulty. Time
after time the Eagles would throw
the ball away or into the hands of
an opponent, resulting in several
instances to Poly baskets. With
surer passing the Eagles will be
potent competition for any indie
pendent quint in this area.
DR.. Mead, manager of the club,
announced the Laureleafs, featuring
Frank Ward, All-American from
Montana State several years ago,
will play here next Tuesday, De-
cember 20. Another prize attrac-
ton is the House of David team
which will clash with the Eagles
here on January 5.
With some expert basket tossing,
the diminutive Niemi, forward on
the pickup team, threw a scare into
the Laureleafs Tuesday. Nieni
tossed in five field baskets and two
free throws for IL points. The
Laureleaf victory was largely due
to the portsided thrusts of Rogers,
who, during this tenure at center
in the second half bagged six field
goals for IL points. He was SEEM
ingly unstoppable and had he not
been substituted for Ellison, the
pickup team may have won. The
ocals led 16 to IA at half time.
Dorian and Timmonen at for
wards and Steel at guard also turn
ID in good games for Red Lodge.
Frank Ward, stellar Laureleaf
'harpshooter. played his usual pol
shed floor game and contributed
light points toward his teams to-
al. Dimich, Red Lodge, substitute
Billings guard, turned in anice per-
'ormance.