Evening star., 1952-02-22
Favorite. Trying
To Tie Record Of
Eastern, ItsFoe
Roosevelt to Bottle
Coolidge in Nightcop
On Trainers Court
By Brian Bell. Jr.

OstSu OStts Sts
Tech opens its bid tonight to
be the first team to win the
Interhigh basketball champion
ship three straight years since
Eastern turned the trick in 1884,
5-6.
Winners of SO in a row over a
two-year span and heavy favorite
to take the playoffs. Tech faces
Eastern at 7:30 in the opener
and Roosevelt clashes with Cool
idge in the second game of the
first-round playoffs at Tech.
The winners meet tomorrow
night on the same court at 8:15
for the title.
Central was the only high
school other than Eastern with a
long string of basketball titles, but
it shared one championship with
the Ramblers. Central won in
1925, but in 1926 its playof game
with Eastern was broken up by a
melee and never replayed. The
two teams were declared co-cham-
pions. Central then went on to
win again in 1927 and 1923.
Eastern at Peak.
Despite Techs long winning
streak-it hasn't been beaten in
Interhigh competition since early
in the 1950-51 season-Bo Bobby
Hart, Eastern coach, has predicted
a victory for his club. The Ram
blers lost to Tech by 10 points in
their regular season game last
week, but were not at full strength
with two of their big men, Graham
Pennington and Joe D'Ambrosio,
ailing.
Tonight Eastern will have Joe
D'Ambrosio. Pennington and Dick
Torbett for work under the boards
and Gino D'Ambrosio, Dick King,
and Bob Ahern for outside scoring.
Ahern has been ssidelined with an
injured foot since the Tech game,
but is ready for action again.
Dutch Usilaner, the Trainers
coach, will be- going after his sixth
Interhigh title in IL seasons as
Tech with his regular combination
of Snookie Herman, Bill Breen, Joe
Cav, Frank Sullivan and Dick De-
CeSare.
), Tech romped through eight
Interhigh tests this season with
a 68.8 points scoring average,
while herman, it's top point getter,
topped individual scorers with a.
20.6 mark.
Tech Has Scoring Stars.
The Trainers have three players
among the top 10 Interhigh
scorers with Breen's 14.4 average
and Caw's ia placing them
4th and 10th behind Herman.
Ahern was Eastern's most con-
sistent scorer, ranking eighth
with a 1873 mark.
Eastern, which had to go
through a four-team playof to
gain the last title series spot,
posted GA Interhigh mark, but
records, comparative scores and
scoring averages mean little in
playof game.
The Coolidge Roosevelt game
stacks up as an even battle de-
spite Roosevelt's 67-47 victory
over the Colts last week which
got the Riders the leagues second
place. ~.
Coolidge was sluggish and off
its shooting form in that crush
ing defeat and can be expected to
be much better tonight in the
big stakes" game.
Roosevelt i'm Form.
Roosevelt, now playing its best
ball of the season, will be at full
strength. Phil Perlo. out for two
weeks with virus. will play, al
though he won't break into the
probable starting lineup of Bill
Smith. Hall Pollin, Bill Wright,
Robbie Smithers and Bob Potts.
The Colts, runners-up to Tech
i'm both the Interhigh playoffs and
The Star tournament last year,
viii be banking heavily on two
|holdover stars to lead them to vic
tory tonight. Ardie Baker and
Carmelo Pine. sharpshooting out
side men. will have to be guarded
closely or they can score heavily.
Bill Harrison also is dangerous
from long range. Stan Bobb and
Rehounder Bob Johnson, who was
sick when the Colts played Roose-
welt last week, probably will round
out the Coolidge starting five.