Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-02
Preziotti Lives Up
To Raves in Sparkling
Riders Over Spingarn
By Dick Sloy

by Uick SIoy
Dick Preziotti demonstrated
last night what coaches. officials.
timers, scorekeepers and fans
have been claiming all season
in the Interhigh League: That
he is an expert SHOEMAKER and
floor man. the guy that puts the
spark in Roosevelt's game and
one Of the very top players in
the city.
Little Preziotti was all that in
one game last night at Tech
while firing up Roosevelt to a
1882 victory over Spingarn in
the last of the. league quarter
finals. The afternoon game re-
suited In Cardozo ousting Tech
from contention by a $3.50
score, thus putting Cardozo and
Roosevelt together in tomorrow
nights seminal in the Tech
gym. s.
Mondays winners. Dunbar and
Armstrong. clash in the after
noon sernifinal tomorrow at
3:45 O'Clock. The seminal win
ners will play Friday at 3:45
instead Of 8 pm, according to
a schedule change made yes
terday.
Apparently sensing that
Roosevelt needed one of his top
performances to get by a big,
fast and accurate club like
Spingarn. Prezotti really put on
a show.
At 5-foot18 the shortest man
by at least three inches on the
Riders starting five, Preziotti
snagged more rebounds and
loose balls than seemed possible.
He scored IA of his 18 points in
the first half while leading a
come-from-beh surge that
barely fell short at halftime.
Almost alone he frustrated
Spingarn's bothersome pressing
tactics in the second half with
his speed and ban-handling. AL
most alone he froze the ball for
a minute in the fourth quarter
only to foul out with 800 to go
when he collided with his guard,
Donald Duck Wills. 5
When Preziotti left the floor
he received long standing ova-
ton from the crowd of 1900,
mostly from his own rooters but
some from the other side. too.
Dave Brown, the Spingarn coach,
was among the latter.
Applause for Artistry.
IT didn't applaud because he
fouled out" Brown emphasized.
II applauded him because I
recognized a fine performance
by an artist. Preziotti is the
best ball player I've seen here
this year. On the floor I mean"
Dick said simply: 1--WE were
really up for this one-all of us.
We wanted to play Cardozo
again and now we, will"
The night game began and
ended with Spingarn looking the
part Of a runaway winner. The
Roosevelt shooting charts showed
Spingarn making nine goals in
II shots in the first quarter for
an 1910 lead. In the final quar-
ter it outscored Roosevelt, 10
to Is.
But in between these spurts
was the decision. PreZiotti'S 10
points in the second quarter can
celed out 8 made by Spingarn's
Tony Washington and Roosevelt
narrowed the gap to 1880 at
intermission. Then Spingarn
failed to sink a single goal in
the third period while Roosevelt
went ahead, 44-33.
CardOzo's Leads Fade. i
Cardozo held 11-point leads
twice against Tech in the first
quarter of the afternoon game,
bat it was all tied up at half
time when Bob Bordeau began
to hit from the corners and Tony
DiChiacchio began to click on
his drives and foul shots. Bor-
deau topped Techs scoring with
Is points.
Little O'Donnell Hooks scored
Is Of Cardozo's % points in the
first half and James Thompkins
scored 10 in the third quarter
as Cardozo went into the final
with 44-40 lead. Cardozo then
converted nine of IA foul shots
to stay ahead to the end. Hooks
was high for Cardozo with Is
points.
Cardozo topped the West Dr.
vision of the league with a 60
record this season. beginning the
streak with a 5O-48 squeak over