Evening star., 1951-03-16
Brigham Young
In NIT Finals
But Doyton's S Prowess
As Dark Horse May
Turn Tide Tomorrow
BY the Associated Press

NEW YORK. Mar. 16.-It's
Brigham Young's polished poise
against the never-say-die grit of
little Dayton in the finals of the
National Invitation basketball
tournament tomorrow night.
Brigham Young. classy cham
pion of the Skyline Six, is the
favorite, but don't try to sell that
idea to the lads from Ohio. They
have been dark horses at every
pole and don't convince easily.
A bowling crowd of 16,815
counted them out last night at
Madison Square Garden when top
College Basketball Attendance Shows Big
Drop for Season. Poee c ;
seeded st. Johns collared them
at the final whistle and carried
them. crippled and reeling, into a
five minute overtime.
Win Without Aces.
Dayton's two big siege guns
towering Don Meineke and fat,
tricky Leland Norris-were on the
sidelines for excessive fouls, and
two other stalwarts. Charley
Grigsby and Dick Campbell, were
hobbling around on lame legs.
With big Bob zawoluk still in
there shooting 'em for the Brook
lyn Redmen, Dayton's chances
could have been purchased at any
counter for a plugged nickel.
But the spunky Flyers whanged
out a 1852 overtime victory in
the Semif1nal that long will stand
as a monument to unadulterated
pluck. They simply refused to be
beaten.
Brigham Young moved into
the title round on an entirely
different pattern, chilling the hot
Seton Hall team. $3.50, with such
ease and finesse that the game
tended to be boring.
Seton Hall supporters probably
never will be convinced that
Coach Honey Russell. a balding
old pro, didn't lose the game for
the New Jerseyites before the first
ball was tipped by starting Walt
Dukes, his 7-foot Negro sopho-
more center.
Coach Defies Superstition.
Normally, Russell let's Dukes sit
out the first few minutes of a
game because the human broom
stick has a deep-seated aversion
to opening up. This time the
coach changed tactics.
walt has a superstition or
something about it-never likes to
start" Russell said. But I don t
believe in that stuff"
Dukes started while the New
Jersey fans chanted warningly
from the balconies: Don't start
Dukes! Don't start Dukes!"
Superstition or not, the tall
sophomore didn't have one of his
best nights. Mel Hutchins,
Brigham Young's 6 foot
smoothie, kept him we'll covered
although Dukes scored II points
Roland Minson, the crew-cut
Speedster with the radar eye, led
the Far Westerners' well-oiled at
tack with 26 points, getting a good
lift also from Joe Richie and
Jerry Romney.
The Dayton-St. Johns affair
was thriller all the way, with the
Ohioans taking a lead after three
minutes and holding it until Ia
woluk tied it up with a layup in
the final 80 seconds, $3.50.
Play Despite Injuries.
Meineke, who scored 81 points
in the first two games, went out
on fouls with 13 minutes remain
ing and watched the rest of the
proceedings forlornly, until the
smashing windup. Norris joined
him on the bench shortly after
ward.
Grigsby, who scored 10 points
turned up with a thigh injury and
Campbell turned an ankle in a
spill, but both stayed in and fig
ured prominently in the victory
Brigham Young has fine
team" commented Dayton's Coach
Tom Blackburn in the dressing
room afterward. "I think we'll
need better game than we had
tonight to win Saturday"
Stanley Watts, bespectacled
Brigham Young coach, said: day
ton has a lot of good boys
Meineke, Campbell and Norris, es-
pecially. Our boys are tired, but
we're still shooting for the grand
slam"
The Skyline Six champions
play in the NCAA at Kansas City
next week.