Evening star., 1940-03-13
Champs Per|o, Travis,
West Lead Quintet
To Two Titles
Custer, Stor Of Series,
And Mac Donald Picked:
Season Is Red-Hot
By ROBERT HENRY.

Schoolboy basket ball competition
reached new high in this sector
during the winter, and for the first
time in 81 years Roosevelt won the
interhigh championship and con-
tinued on to take The Star-spon-
sored Metropolitan Tournament,
beating Eastern, defending cham
pion, in both.
Seldom has so much interest and
enthusiasm been shown. Every
game attracted large crowds. and the
seasons high was reached in the
final playoff game for the Catholic
school title at Tech, which was
staged as part of the quarter finals
of The Star tourney. Gonzaga won
over st. Johns as 1000 watched.
Upsets were not uncommon, SIM
ply because the underdogs refused
to take seriously their lowly rating.
The upset Central scored over East
ern climaxed these, it being the first
interhigh game since 1887 that the
latter had lost. At the same time,
Eastern's gallant stand in the clos
ing games of the series to stay in
the running, which eventually led
to the finals, was remarkable. All
but eliminated midway of the sea-
son, the Lincoln Parkers, led by Bob
Custer, missed the crown by three
points.
AnacOstia Has Tough Luck.
Tough luck also played a part.
Anacostia, which early in the season
appeared good enough to be among
the finalists, lost three straight
games by a total of eight points,
mainly on its inability to sink foul
shots. Central, too, missed games
by narrow margins, and its landing
in second place in the final standing
was the major surprise of the series.
Roosevelt, which was unbeaten in
interhigh play, as well as in the
Metropolitan Tournament, suffered
a lone schoolboy upset-to st.
Johns. Frank Cady of the Cadets
reached the heights by scoring q
points against Tech, but the feat OF
Custer in making 20 or more in four
games pressed for individual honors.
Custer was the outstanding player
of The Stars annual all-high team,
which, with such tossers as Hymle
Perlo, George West, Ernie Travis OF
Roosevelt and Mike Macdonald OF
Woodrow Wilson to choose from,
required little effort to select. These
players, consistent and f1ashy, were
instrumental in practically all OF
their teams victories.
Custer Cool and Effective.
Chosen two years ago, Custer was
out most of last year because OF
illness. This season, however, he
gained rank as one of the finest
schoolboy courtsmen ever seen
around Washington. Besides his
ability to sink goals from any angle
on the floor with no wasted motion,
Custer was extremely cool under
fire. In several games when his
side was trailing late in the contest
it was Bob who calmly tossed in
baskets that saved the day. In nine
interhigh games he scored lis
points for an average of 1878.
Roosevelt's great trio-Perlo, West
and Travis-formed the toughest
triple threat in the series. Unable
to stop all of them, it was rare that
even one of them was held down by
an opposing quint. Each carried
out his duties in smooth, workman
like fashion and knew the angles
that make the difference between
winning and losing. West was the
most consistent scorer of the group
and ranked second only to Custer.
Perlo set up the Rough Riders plays
and generally inspired the others.
Travis was tops as a center, OF
which there was a general shortage,
and used his height to good ad-
vantage.
Mcdonald Completes Quint.
The fight for the fifth position
narrowed to Macdonald and Moe
Schulman of Eastern. Because of
his ability to score and ably guard
players on the best teams in the
series Macdonald gets the nod.
The second team is composed of
Bart Fugler, Wilson: Jimmy Karas,
Western; Charley Kligman, Gen.
tral; Johnny Places, Anacostia, and
Schulman.
Honorable mention goes to Jackie
Walsh, Tech; Teddy Thomaides,
Central; Gene Cowdrey, Wilson;
Irving Schenker and Jimmy Lump
kin, Western; Frank Ciango, Roose-
welt; San Di Blasi, Central; John
Anderson, Anacostia, and Joe Adri-
ami, Eastern.