Evening star., 1950-02-20
Preliminary PIayoffs
Among Public High
Teams Slated Today
By GEORGE Huber


school basketball team to lock up
it's league championship this year.
Along with their 51-34 triumph
over DeMatha yesterday, the
Johnnies put a clincher on the
Metropolitan Catholic crown and
earned a featured place in The
Evening Stars Metropolitan tour
nament opening a week from to-
night at University of Maryland
BY Wednesday night. all the
other championships except the
District public high title should be
decided and all eight places in The
Star tourney will be filled. The
District public highs will hold
their semifinals Wednesday night
and both winners there make it
to Saturday afternoons cham
pionship game and next weeks
Star tournament.
Preliminary Playoffs Today.
Preliminary playoffs this after
noon and tomorrow are deciding
what teams make it to the public
high series semiflnals. Eastern.
Division l winner, is in, but five
other teams are battling for three
places. This afternoon at Uline
Arena, starting at $3.50 pm,
Coolidge meets Tech and Cham
berlain plays Western. The
Chamberlain Western winner
takes second place in Division /
and earns a place in Wednesday
nights semiflnals as, opponent for
the Coolidge-Tech winner. Loser
of the latter game gets another
chance in still another prelimi-
nary playoff at $3.50 pm. tomor-
row at Uline's against Central.
The winner there is Easterns OPP
ponent Wednesday night.
Along with st. Johns, George
Washington of Alexandria is the
only other team definitely in The
Star tournament. The Presi-
dents, winner of the tourney last
year, are certain of no worse than
a tie for first place in the North
ern Virginia League and can win
the crown by taking either of
their two games this week. They
play at Fairfax tomorrow night
and play host to Mount Vernon
Friday night and are strong IA
vorites in both instances.
Maryland Teams Decide.
Also to be invited are the
champions in Montgomery and
Prince Georges Counties in Mary
land. The Montgomery title is
up for decision in Wednesdays
$3.50 pm. rubber game between
Montgomery Blair and Bethesda
Chevy Chase at University of
Maryland.
The Prince Georges title also
will be decided Wednesday. Hy-
attsville is playing Mount Rainier
tonight at Maryland and will take
the Group A crown if it wins, as
expected. That will send it, against
Oxon Hill. the Group B champion,
on Wednesday for the county
title. Should Hyattsville be up
set tonight, it would be tied with
Bladensburg in the A league and
a preliminary playoff will be
needed.
Filling out the eight-team Star
tournament will be a second team
from Virginia and another team
from the private-parochial group.
A meeting of the Tournament
Committee is scheduled tomorrow
at the Touchdown Club to decide
which team to invite. Washing
ton-Lee, which is certain of no
worse than second place in the
Virginia league. appears likely to
be the second team from that area.
Macdonald Stars for Johnnies.
The st. Johns victory yester-
day was its seventh straight in
the Catholic League and it has
only to beat Gonzaga Thursday
for perfect record. Gonzaga is
in second place with Al record
after spilling Georgetown Prep,
47-43, in the other half of yester-
days double header at Catholic
u.
Center Bob Macdonald was the
big Johnny scorer yesterday with
10 points. Bob McLindon also
was plenty of help with II points
as the Johnnies went to 32-18
halftime lead and won handily
Gonzaga had more trouble with
the Little Hoyas and led only o.
20 at halftime. Prep was ahead
in the third period off scores by
Pat Haley and Waite Waller, but
the Eagles finally took over in the
fourth when Pat MCGOWAN hit
hot streak. He finished as the
afternoons individual scoring
leader with 20 points.