Evening star., 1952-03-16
Freshmen Stars
Lead Explorers
Ito Easy Victory
Cola and IehIe Excel;
Bonnies EosiIy Down
Dukes in Consolation
BY the Associated Press

Sales unranked basketball team,
paced by a pair of teen-aged
freshmen. avenged a series of
snubs tonight by smothering Day.
tons towering. experienced Flyers.
1854, in the finals of the 18th
annual National Invitation Tour
nament.
A standing-room only crowd Of
18,485 packed Madison Square
Garden to see the climax to the
years most incredible Cinderella
story. In preliminary game. st.
Bonaventure win the third-place
consolation by smashing lethargic
Duquesne, the tournaments No.
seeded entry, 48-31.
Tom Cola, muscular, good-look-
ing son of a Philadelphia police
man, and Fred Iehle, slender. one
handed pop-in artist who. like
Cola. is just 10. provided the i'm
petus for the triumph by scoring
40 points between them. Cola had
% and Iehle l8.
Beat 3 NCAA Teams.
Thus for the third time during
the meet, LaSalle humbled one
of the teams picked to represent
the East in the NCAA champion
ships, beginning next Friday. The
Philadelphians were overlooked
when the bids were passed out
earlier this week.
Duquesne and st. Johns, who
with Dayton were selected for the
National collegiate championships,
were semi-final and quarter final
victims of the sharp-shooting Ex-
Iplorers.
LaSalle threw a collapsing man
to-man defense at the boys from
Ohio and held big Don Meineke,
Dayton center and the tourna-
ment's leading scorer, to 13 poinls.
The 6-foot-7 Meineke, who pre-
Iviously had registered II points,
was limited to four field goals.
Three players were largely re-
sponsible for throttling this big
gun Of the Flyers-Gola, Norm
Grekin and Jack Moore, the latter
Ia 6-foot-5 jumping jack who did
a tremendous job on rebounds.
Fouls Retard Meineke.
Meineke had the misfortune Of
drawing his third personal foul
in the first eight minutes of the
game and his fourth with only
four minutes gone in the second
half. AS a result, he was forced
to spend part of his time on
the bench.
Dayton lost it's two regular
guards through excessive fouling
in the late stages. Pete Boyle
went out midway of the last half
and the 225-pound Leland Norris
was disqualified two minutes later.
Cola, who shared the tourna-
ment's most valuable" honors
with Grekin, played in the pivot
during the first half and ac-
counted for Is of his % points
before intermission. In the Sec
ond half he pulled out, Turing
Dayton defenders with him and
left the basket range open to
Iehle, who has a fine one-handed
push shot. Iehle hit for six field
goals in the final half.
Moore Rebound Ace.
With Meineke well handled,
Chuck Grigsby, Dayton's 6-foot-
S forward, was given a free hand
and he led his teams scoring with
18 points, including eight field
goals.
A big factor in LaSalle's VIC
tory was the rebound work of
Moore, rangy Negro guard. Moore
monopolized recoveries off both
boards, although he played the
entire last half with four personals
on him.
Dayton held an 9-8 lead early
in the game but LaSalle pulled
away to an 1918 advantage at
the end of the first quarter and
increased this to $3.50 at the half.
The flyers spurted at the start
OF the second half and cut the
LaSalle lead to two points. 40-38.
before Grekin, Cola and Moore
hit in quick succession to pull
away.
The explorers, in winning the
NIT championship, qualified for
the Olympic trials opening here
March 20. They have a chance
to increase the discomfort of
NCAA officials in that event since
they stand tc meet the NCAA
champion, to be decided within
the next two weeks.
La Sale wasn't ranked in the
(See NIT, Page B-3)