Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-21
ST. John's Wins Back
League Title, Thanks
To Earlier Tourney
By Dick SIoy

The Washington-Lee Invita-
tional basketball tournament
earlier this month proved to be
q springboard to the Catholic
League championship for st.
Johns, believe it or not.
Coach Joe Gallagher learned
at least three lessons at WI and
yesterday his boys put that
knowledge to its intended use by
singing defending champion
Gonzaga, 1888, for the Catholic
title as about 1850 watched in
Richie Coliseum.
The title game reversed a S.
SO Gonzaga victory during the
regular season. Since that set
back the Johnnies have won six
straight games for an 1876 rec
ord. st. Johns will carry the dis
tinction of winning the league
title nine times in 10 years into
the Washington Catholic Invita-
tional tournament Friday. Con-
zaga, also entered in the WCIT.
has won IS Of it's 81 games.
It is no secret that Gallagher
installed a slow-moving passing
attack to blend with his fast
break and also set his boys in a
1-3-1 zone defense and tested
these tactics in the WI Invita-
tional.
The Johnnies won that tourna-
ment in surprisingly easy fashion
while GonZaga was finishing
fourth in an eight-team field.
The WI tournament also re-
vealed that Gonzaga has trouble
coping with a zone, Gallagher
admitted yesterday. Il had sus-
pected that, but I was afraid to
use it the last time we played
Gonzaga," he added.
Bennett and Natoli Lame
Gallagher had been wary Of
what would happen to zone
when the likes of Ronnie Ben
nett and Tony Natoli worked
against it. Yesterday both these
Gonzaga flashes were slowed
down with tapped ankles, the re-
suit of week-old injuries, and
neither started the game.
Bennett came into the game
with two minutes gone in the
second quarter and Natoli Joined
him two minutes later when
Coach Tommy Nolan got des-
perate. The Eagles operated bet
ter from then on, but it didn't
show up on the scoreboard.
There were two st. Johns boys
also nursing sprained ankles
Center John Moore and his re-
placement, John Hanlon-but
Gallagher decided to use neither
as long as Jim Fitzpatrick could
handle the job. Aside from being
a mite flatfooted off the boards,
big Fitz did fine and Moore and
Hanlon rested on the bench.
GonZaga scored only three
goals in Is tries in the second
period, the first on a long set
shot by Tom McCloskey with 21a
minutes to go. while the John
MES dumped in eight of IA shots
to take a 31-16 lead at halftime,
Jim Collins and Bob Talbot
continued that pace in the third
quarter with eight points each
as the st. Johns five scored
eight times on IL shots and Con-
zaga hit on six out of II. That
made it 1892 going into the
final quarter, and Gallagher sent
in his second string soon after.
Johnnies Sink ~ of 40
In all. st. Johns sank 81 of
~ shots from the floor and Con-
zaga 10 of SO. You're not going
to beat club that shoots that
we'll" Nolan said later, shaking
his head.
McCloskey, junior playing his
first year on the varsity, tried to
take up the slack created by the
injuries to Bennett and Natoli
and scored 81 points to top every
one. All of st. Johns starters
hit for double figures, led by
John Frazier, who scored steadily
throughout for Is points.
A girls preliminary yesterday
resulted in Holy Trinity, Catho-
lie high school champion, losing
to an all-star team from its
league, 56-49. Caryl Rivers of
Holy Names threw in 81 points
for the all-stars and HOLY
Trinity's Nancy Sheehan also
scored 81.
81 Voxw.