Evening star., 1950-02-05

Georgetown staged the top
comeback of the Districts college
basketball season last night, fin
ishing with a rush to defeat New
York University, 71-60, after trail
ing by Is points early in the
second half.
The Hoyas were hopeless in the
first half and Coach Buddy
O'Grady cleaned the bench in an
effort to break their ice-cold
streak. but to no avail. They came
out and missed the first six shots
of the second half, and the Violets
added a basket to their halftime
lead to make it 1928.
But about the time the 3,O66
fans were ready to concede
N. Y. U. a victory, the Hoyas
started to move. They crept up
slowly for while, then the Violets
became ratified and with Tommy
O'Keefe and Italo Ablondi hitting
consistently Georgetown was right
back in the ball game.
Hoyas Win Going Away.
The Hoyas' turnabout was so
complete that they actually won
going away, adding points in the
last three minutes while holding
the Violets scoreless. N. Y. U. had
no answer to Georgetown's freez-
ing tactics and after the Hoyas
took 6o-59 lead they outscored
the bewildered visitors by II to /.
The victory was Georgetown's
ninth against five defeats and it's
third straight over top opposi.: ion.
The Violets' record now is SIS.
This was N. Y. US first game since
1t beat Duke by Is points on jan
uary II. In the meantime. they
added a transfer from Syracuse,
6-foot-6 Mel Seeman, who scored
Is points last night.
1t was the usually inconsistent
Ablondi who came through for
the Hoyas with his top perform
ance in a Georgetown uniform.
Ablondi was the only Hoya player
to score more than one basket in
the first half.
Time and again the sparse
haired blond from New York
tossed in the basket that gave
the Hoyas heart, and in addition
he was all over the court and
an inspirational leader as well.
When he fouled out with George
town leading, $500, he received
merited ovation. His 20 points
were high for the night.
Go Into Scoring Slump.
After Georgetown took a quick
Al lead the Hoyas went into
scoring slump and were outscored,
13 to l, in the next few minutes.
Joel kaufman was one-man at
tack for the Violets in this Pc
riod. The Hoyas were missing
shots in wholesale quantities, and
for the half O'Keefe did not make
one OF his favorite overland swish
shots. O'Grady had players in
the lineup who were strangers to
fast company, but with his regu-
lars cold he was hoping for help
from the subs.
Georgetown pulled within six
points at 1924 at one time, with
Ablondi doing most of the scor-
ing, but the Hoyas went to pieces
near the end of the first half
and the Violets took a 41-28 ad-
vantage to intermission.
If O'Grady could sell whatever
he gave his players at halftime
he would be a millionaire. Coach
Howard Cam of the Violets
ranted and raved at his team as
Georgetown narrowed the margin,
but it didn't do much good.
Lead Finally Regained.
Georgetown finally regained the
lead at .51-50 on a drive-in and
layup by Johnny Brown and then
John Mazziotta, Abllondi and
Brown again made it $3.50. The
Hoyas outscored N. Y. u. 25-7 in
this spree. Here Mazziotta fouled
out and bis replacement, John
Norris, suffered a shoulder dis
location on his first play That
left it UP to Dan Supkis at center,
and he performed adequately in
the pinch.
The Violets scored three quickies
to tie the score at 56-al, then
moved ahead 58-57 on Kaufnlan's