Evening star., 1940-03-05
Fight for Metro
Basket Laure|s
Opens Tonight
Mount Rainier, Blair,
HyottsviIIe, &c. c.
In Girls Tourney
BY ROD THOMAS.

While st. Johns and Gonzaga
eyed each other menacingly, the
Little Fox had nothing on Mont
gomery Blair today as it viewed
without alarm its clash tonight with
Roosevelt in the opening contest of
The Stars metropolitan Washington
interscholastic basket ball title
tournament at Tech. Play will start
at 7:30 o'clock.
In the nightcap of a double
header st. Johns and Gonzaga.
with no odds ventured, will battle
not only for ground in the metro
politan struggle. but for the pa
rochial school championship of the
city. Each has beaten the other
indecisively.
Proudly bearing the District inter-
high pennant for the first time in 20
years, Roosevelt moves into the
tournament with high expectation
of another triumph, but finds its
first opponent oddly undaunted.
Blair, ranked by some at the bottom
of the list of eight teams in the
competition, received with apparent
relish the news it would meet Roose-
welt in the first round.
A while back the Rough Riders
were forced to push their spurs to
outstrip Blair by seven points.
And we're stronger now" said
one of the Silver Spring lads today.
Cadets to Be Ushers.
Arrangements have been made to
care for genuine capacity crowd
tonight. Many times when the Tech
gym appeared to be crowded space
was noted by close observers. A
squad of St. Johns cadets, in uni
form. will be ushers tonight and it
is expected the usually overlooked
spots of vantage will be filled.
Another large gathering is as
sured Thursday night when Eastern,
the defending champion, makes its
tournament debut against one of the
favorites, George Washington of AL
exandria, and Bethesda Chevy
Chase, Montgomery County cham
pion, meets Westinghouse of Ar
lington.
Bethesda Chevy Chase, unrepre-
sented in the tournament last year
for the first time in the eight-yaar
history of the event, is back with
one OF its best teams and in Wash
ington-Lee will face a pet enemy
OF the current campaign. The Le-
landers and Little Generals have
split even in two games. Virtually
the entire student body of Beth
esda-Chevy Chase plans to attend
the game and in the roofing will be
led by a team of girl cheer leaders
of which it boasts.
Eager for Battle.
Following the BIC. CIVIL. con-
test, Eastern and G. w. will face
in game relished by both, neither
having been satisfied by the result
of joust several weeks ago in
which Eastern prevailed in an extra
period.
Competition among the boys,
however, probably will be no more
spirited than that to which the
girls look forward. The girl teams
were selected last night and pair
ings made, thusly: Mount Rainier
VS.. Bethesda-Chevy Chase and
Hyattsville VS.. Blair, with a double
header to be played Saturday at
Tech, starting at pm, and the
winners to clash Monday night in
a preliminary to the boys final.
The boys semi-fnals will be con-
tested Saturday evening.
Through its girl team, Hyattsville
is back in the tournament after
several years absence and the
lassies of Mount Rainier are carry
ing on for their school in an off,
year for the boys.
There is no favorite among the
shrlll teams. An examination of
records reveals so many victories,
counter-victories and dope upsets
that the whole business is rather
chaotic. Blair will be the defend
ing champion.