Evening star., 1953-12-05
Openers for Kentucky
And Indiana Top Card
In Basketball Toniqht
BY The Assoeluted Press


NEW YORK, Dec. 5.-Indiana.
defending national champion.
and Kentucky. which hopes to
succeed the HooSiers, open their
campaigns tonight in the first
big Saturday of the 1953-54
college basketball season.
More than 100 games are
listed in gyms and arenas from
coast to coast.
Indiana. minus only one reg
ular from last seasons NCAA
tltlistS, entertains Cincinnati at
Bloomington in a warmup for
a Monday engagement with
Kansas State, one Of three teams
to beat the champs last year.
Kentucky comes back to COM
petition against Temple after a
year OF forced idleness. The
southeastern Conference barred
the Wildcats for a season for
overemphasizing basketball.
Nine Big Ten Teams Play.
Nine of the Big Ten teams
will be in action, with only Wis
consin, which opened last night
with a 64-56 victory over Mar
quette, idle. Illinois invades
Oklahoma and Minnesota visits
Nebraska in two of the top
contests.
Duquesne, club which on
paper ranks with the best any,
where, is a top-heavy favorite
against little Geneva College in
Its first game. Wake Forest and
Duke, two teams which are ex-
pected to challenge North Caro-
lima State for supremacy in the
new Atlantic Coast Conference.
both have tough ones tonight.
Duke entertains Tennessee and
Wake Forest is host to Maryland
in a conference game. N. C. State
has another breather in David
son. Wake Forest outclassed
Davidson last night, 88-46.
Fordham and Niagara, both
counted among the leaders in
the East, clash at Buffalo. Kan
sas State opens against Denver.
The tallest man ever used in
college basketball played his first
game last night for Oregon State.
Wade (Swede) Halbrook, who
measures 7-feet-3, scored 20
points as the Beavers beat Ha-
waii, 1854.
Stanford Upsets Huskies.
The University of Washington,
ranked fourth in the country in
the final Associated press poll
last spring, was upset, 66-5l, by
Stanford. It was the Huskies'
first home loss in % games.
Bevo Francis and his COL
leagues from little Rio Frande
College in Ohio looked consid-
erably better than they did the
night before as they bowed to
Villanova, 1892, in overtime.
Francis scored SO points. Marty
Milligan's field goal with 10 sec
onds to play won it for Villanova.
Seton Halls National Invita-
tion Tournament champions won
their 44th consecutive home
game, walloping Scranton Uni
versity, 80-54.
In intersectional games in the
South, Mississippi Southern won
its fourth straight, beating Ham
line of st. Paul, Mimi, 77-68;
Texas Tech tripped Sewanee,
76-47. and Western Kentucky
coasted past Gustavus Adolphus,
90-73.
st. Louis Beats Soldiers.
st. Louis University beat Fort
Leonard Wood, 1884, after the
Soldiers had won seven in a row.
DePaul of Chicago won it's
third straight at the expense Of
State, 102-47.
Southern California spoiled
Jack Gardner's coaching debut
at Utah with a 54-48 decision.
Gardner switched this season
from Kansas State.
In other Western games, Brig
ham Young defeated Iowa State,
70-59; Washington State brushed
aside Montana, 67-55; Wyoming
swamped Montana State, 80-47:
Oregon beat San Jose State,
1858, and Seattle evened a two