Evening star., 1947-03-20
Navy Begins NCAA Title Quest in Garden Tonight
|Middies, Holy Cross
Clash in Opener Of
Regional PlaYoffs
By the Asseciatsd Press


NEW YORK, Mar. 20.-Kentucky
and Utah, beginning four-day va
cation before clashing in the final
of the National Invitation Basket
Ball Tournament, turn Madison
Square Garden over to another
group of classy collegians tonight
for the opening round of Eastern
regional playoffs in the NCAA tour
ney.
The NCAA eliminations send Navy
against Holy Cross in the first game,
with Wisconsin's Big Nine cham
pions tangling with City College Of
New York in the second.
Kentucky, shooting for its second
straight title in the invitation tour
ney, reached the final by outshoot-
ing North Carolina States Southern
Conference champions, 60-42, last
night.
A Garden crowd of 1912 got some
thing of shock in the earlier semi
final game when Utah's hard-play-
ing ball hawks bounced second
seeded West Virginia out OF the
tourney, 64-62, in a game that was
close only in the first and last min
uteS.
Mountaineers Off Form.
Nobody was more surprised than
the Mountaineers themselves when
the speedy Utes snapped A tie
and whipped into an 1l-4 lead with
the game barely under way.
It was evident from the outset
that the Mountaineers were not the
same high-geared outfit which had
dumped Bradley University out of
the tourney earlier and that Utah's
Redskins hadn't come the long dis
tance to go home empty-handed.
With Arnold Ferrin and Vern
Gardner showing the way, the Utes
outfought their opponents at every
turn, built up a 1921 halftime lead
and were coasting along with a 10
point margin when little more than
a minute of playing time remained
But with the odds hopelesSly
against them. the Mountaineers sud-
denly came to life and might have
yanked the game from the fire II
time hadn't run out on them.
Score After Whistle Blows.
Ed Beach, Joe Duff and Jim Walt
hall contributed to the unsuccessful
rally, Walthall adding the last two
points on free throws after the game
had ended with his being fouled
on a shot as the final whistle blew.
The Kentucky North Carolina
State tussle progressed in the op-
ooslte manner. The Wildcats, cham
pions of the Southeastern Confer
ence, found themselves being
battled on even terms throughout
the first half, which ended in a
1920 deadlock after the lead had
changed hands five times and the
score had been tied seven times in
| all.
The Red Terrors, led by Jack
McComas, lost and then regained
the lead by a single point early in
the second period, but the Wildcats,
with Ralph Beard setting the pace
as usual kept banging away and
pulled into a commanding lead at
the 10-minute mark when State
suddenly grew cold. The Terror's,
who went 61a minutes without bag
ging a field goal, never we're able
to pull themselves together again
and Kentucky won going away.
Navy Has Best Record.
Navy enters tonights game with
a record of 16 triumphs in II starts
compared to Holy Cross "a victories
and 3 defeats. Wisconsin won Is
of it's 20 regular season games while
iCCNY came through in 16 of 20.
Utah's success in the invitation
tourney means that it would be
possible for the Big Seven Confer
ence to furnish the winner in that
meet as we'll as the NCAA compe-
tition. wyoming, Big Seven cham
pion, plays Texas in the Western
regional playoffs at Kansas City
tomorrow night with Oklahoma
meeting oregon State in the other
game