The Wilmington morning star., 1946-01-01
TAR heel CACERS
TEAM TO BEAT IN
SOUTHERN LEAGUE

S1AFE Ell HILL, Dec. Sl-tF1-
Twenty-seven thousand New York
and Philadelphia basketball fans
were today confirming what close
followers of the University OF
North Carolina basketball team be.
gan to suspect toward the close Of
last season-that this years Tar
Heels are going to be mighty hard
to handle.
Riding the crest Of successive
upset victories over two previous.
ly unbeaten major eastern quintets
last week, the White Phantoms
have an overall seasons record
OF seven triumphs and one loss
a 64-63 heart-stopper to a formida.
BILE Greensboro Ord outfit.
Coach Ben Carnevale's boys are
rated in the upper brackets ma.
tionally following last weeks 43.
Al conquest of New York Univer.
sity at Madison Square Garden
and a smashing follow-up 47-36
trimming of St. Joseph's at Phila-
delphia.
However, news of their success
against two of the better clubs
above the Mason-Dixon line was
no genuine surprise to cage addicts
hereabouts.
Not when they looked back to the
last half of the 1944-45 campaign.
After dropping five of their first
IS games year ago, the Tar
Heels started to click and finished
their regular season with smash
ing performance of nine victories
in 10 starts, seven times going
over the 60-point mark. Against
Davidson they rolled up SO for a
new university record. Their av-
erage for Is games was 81 points.
The momentum of their stretch
drive carried over into the South
ern Conference tournament and
they whacked N. c. State, South
Carolina, regular season leader,
and Duke, all by more than 10
points in that order to run off with
the post season play.
A half dozen of those point-mind-
led basketeers of year ago re-
ported back to 1t. Carnevlae this
year and when the boys opened by
running up 5x5-40.
Victory over Camp Lee, Va, and
a 64-46rout of Camp Pickett, Va,
it appeared that they were pick
; ing right UP where they left off last
season.
Then they ran into a power
packed Greensboro Ord club which
although outscored in baskets, a.
20, dropped "a foul shots to take
a sizzling 64-63 victory. That has
been the only loss, suffered by the
Phantoms this year, and their Sec
ond in 81 starts over two seasons.
In winning seven out of eight
this year the club has averaged 81
points as against 40 for the opposi-
ton, which includes two confer
ence foes ,.
Although Jim Jordan, last year
conference scoring king, is again
hitting the hoops, with SO points
for eight games, he has been
forced to take second place behind
red hot center John Dillon, who
has Gagged 1876 points. In the loss
to Greensboro, he sank 10 foul
shots. His lowest score was II
| pOinfS AGAINST CT Tocay,h'S Tor.
dams running mate at forward,
Bob Paxton, has contributed 81
points for third place on the team.
Carnevale, a former hero of the
Hardwoods at N. Y. u, will next
send the Plants into action Satur-
day night against the Airborne
Center Team from Fort Bragg,
formerly of Camp MacKan, Md,
originally scheduled to play here.
Wednesday, will not be met until
next Monday.
1t might be well to note that the
Carolinas are disproving the theory
accepted in some QUARTERS that a
team must have at least one
"giant" in these days of seven
foot stars. Jordan is the tallest of
the lot and he is a modest six
three.
Solmd-coa ching, speed and alert
ball-handling are paying off in VIC
tories for the heroes of the hill
these days.
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