Evening star., 1954-12-19
Colonials Expected
To Climb 10 Finals;
AU in Quantico Event
BY George Huber

Dy george HuDeP
George Washington's basket.
ball team, already winner of the
Steel Bowl Tournament, goes
after another December cham.
pionship tomorrow when it takes
on Oklahoma A&M in the fea-
ture flrst-round game Of the
Oklahoma City tournament.
The pairing against the Mis-
souri, Valley Conference and de-
Tending tournament champion
title-holder seemed a tough one
for the Colonials when it was
made before the season opened,
but recent developments indi-
cate CIV should work its way
to the finals. Wichita. runnerup
to the Oklahoma Aggies in its
league last year, looks like the
other finalist.
American University, which
broke a nine-game losing streak
by beating Fairleigh-D Dickinson
of Rutherford, N. j., Friday
night. also plays in a tourna-
ment starting tomorrow. Fair
leigh-Dickinson, five 9th r
smaller schools and the Guam
tico Marines will take part in
the Quantico Invitation event.
Terps, Hoyas in Journeys.
Maryland and Georgetown
wait until later for their tourna-
ment action. the Terrapins play
ing In the All-America City
Tournament at Owensboro, KY,
December 27-30 and Georgetown
in the Canisius Tournament at
Buffalo, N. Y, December 27-
January !.
George Washington has still
another tournament appearance
coming up, the Richmond affair
December 1880. Except for two
games against Wake Forest, all
Of the Colonials' December ap-
pearances have been or will be
In tournaments.
George Washington, Southern
Conference champion, and Ok
lahoma A6zM meet in tomorrow
nights windup game. The other
night game has Wyoming, run
nerup in the Mountain States
Conference, opposing Tulsa, last
years third-place team from the
Missouri Valley.
Oklahoma City Plays Houston.
Afternoon games tomorrow
have Oklahoma City. a strong
Southwest independent that
turned in an 1877 season, meet
ing Houston, a Missouri Valley
also-ran that shows improve
ment this season, and Wichita,
runnerup in the valley and this
years conference favorite. play
ing San Francisco, runnerup in
the California Association.
Oklahoma A8cM was picked
No. IL in the Associated Press
preseason poll after going to
the quarter-finals of the NCAA
tournament last season. Hank
Iba's Aggies had run into diff
culties up to this week end, how
ever, losing to Illinois, Texas
Tech and Wyoming after earlier
victories over Howard-Payne and
two over West Texas.
The Aggies are defense
minded with Iba at the controls.
and last season, led the country
in that department. Their slow.
sure style of play is similar to
that Of Maryland's.
Aggies Lack Big Man.
The report from Oklahoma is
that the Aggies lack a big man
this year. which could mean
trouble when they go against
Joe Holup and others of his size
or close to it on the CIV team.
Of course, it will make for
something of a contest when the
two teams meet tomorrow night.
with George Washington's run
'em-down, throw-'em-up style
running headon into Iba's de-
fensive system. Almost certainly
the Aggies will be able to slow
down the Colonials to some ex-
tent, and CIV supporters hardly
can count on Corky Devlin
matching his 28.5 points-a-game
average or for Holup to continue
at a 24-point clip.
In addition to Devlin and
Holup, other starters for CIV
are Joe Petcavich, George Klein
and either Buzz Ciriello or Ed
Catino. Petcavich is the No. 8
man in scoring. and very handy
to have around the backboards.
The team was scheduled to leave
for Oklahoma City by plane this
morning.
Of the other teams in the
tournament, Wichita has been
regarded as probably the best.
The Shockers have practically
everybody back from last sea-
sons runnerup team. Selected
as No. Is in the preseason poll,
they were tied with Wake Forest
for 17th place last week.
The other afternoon oppo-
nents, Oklahoma City and Hous-
ton. both appear to have good
teams.
Draw Tonight at Quantico.
For the tournament opening
tomorrow at Quantico, the draw
for pairings will be made to-
night.
In addition to American u.
the collegiate teams taking part
are Wabash College of Craw.
fordsville, Ind, Washington 8
Jefferson College of Washington
Pa. University of Buffalo. Bel.
mont College of Nashville, Tenn.
and Springfield College ol
Springfield. Mass.
Games will be played at Q, 4
6 and 8 pm. through Wednes.