Banner Graphic, Volume 5, Number 281, Greencastle, Putnam County, 29 January 1975 — Page 9

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A pair of 51’s with a pair of knee braces go after the ball during second quarter action Tuesday night at McAnally Center. At left is South Putnam center Jeff Burdge, who dropped in 21 points to lead the winning Eagle scoring attack, while at right

Western Michigan scares Notre Dame

Gamecocks betray Biliikens with courtesy

By KEN RA PRO PORT AP Sports Writer You can’t beat that southern hospitality . . . and you can't beat that South Carolina basketball team at home, either. The South Carolina athletic department- treated the St. Louis Biliikens to a nice reception and then the Gamecocks roughed up the visitors with their usual discourtesy at the

Tri-State still class of MCC by sacrificing St. Francis

By The Associated Press Tri-State continues to outdistance all basketball foes in the Mid-Central Conference, stomping on St. Francis 103-66 in the latest encounter. Grace defeated Huntington 76-68 in another MCC game, while Anderson romped past Manchester 80-69 in a HoosierBuckeye Conference clash at Anderson. Indiana Tech downed Indiana, Purdue-Fort

Tigers travel to Valpo for ICC sth place

DePauw and Valparaiso, deadlocked for fifth place in the

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Almost twins

Carolina Coliseum Tuesday night. “We certainly enjoyed the hospitality in Columbia until the game started,” said St. Louis Coach Randy Albrecht after losing a 76-60 decision to the nation’s 19th-ranked team. The Gamecocks, who almost never lose on their swanky home eourt, .gave the visitors a bad time behind Tom Boswell's

Wayne 102-88, Bethel beat Southwestern Michigan 73-62, Fort Wayne Bible defeated Grand Rapids Baptist 92-78, WisconsinParkside beat Indiana State Evansville 57-34 and Purdue North Central topped Niles, 111., 72-70. Charlie Ross scored 17 points to iead five Tri-State players in double figures. The winners are 7-0 in MCC action and 14-5 for

Indiana Collegiate Conference, will resolve the impasse tonight

Rick Huser

making the eventual steal on the play is Cub center Rex Baker, who at the time was putting in his first minutes of playing time in almost two months. (BannerGraphic photo by Mike Van Rensselaer)

24 points. - “We’ve played some tough teams this year some of the best in th country,” said Albrecht, “and-South Carolina rates right -up there with the best of them. They got the ball inside to Boswell and Stu Klitenic hit-some bombs that we didn’t expect.” In the only- other -game involving a ranked-team, No. 16

the season. St. Francis, whose Jerome Frison pumped in 29 points, is 0-8 and 2-18. Ed Miller scored 16 points and Ray Streets 15 for Grace, 52 and 12-8. Kevin Williams’ 17 points topped the Foresters. Paced by Arte Larson with 22 points, Anderson spurted to a 38-19 lead and never was threatened. The Ravens have a 7-4 HBC record and are 12-8 overall.

(Wednesday) when they collide on the Crusaders’ floor. The play-by-play broadcast of the 43rd meeting between the two schools will be broadcast, beginning at 8:45 p.m. Greencastle time, by WGREFM. Valpo’s current status in the ICC is somewhat surprising. A pre-season poll of coaches pegged the Crusaders to finish second in ttye loop. Setbacks, however, at St. Joseph’s (7566), Evansville (84-74), and Indiana Central (69-68) have substantially tarnished its early season stock. Two big VU problems have been rebounding and scoring, and that’s about all there is to

DePauw’s Huser tops FG accuracy stats

Indiana Central to take shot at top dog St Joe

St. Joseph’s Pumas, rolling merrily along on a 12-game winning streak, may knock another ICC oontencer out of the box this week when they take on surprising Indiana Central in Rensselaer Wednesday. Winner now of five straight in the league, St. Joe upped its season mark to 14-2 last week with decisive and crucial road victories at DePauw (93-70) and -most important-at Butler (8474).

Baker returns , but South Putnam still tips Greencastle for second time this year

Despite the return to action for the first time since Dec. 13 of center Rex Baker the Greencastle Tiger Cubs dropped their third straight contest Tuesday night, the visiting South Putnam Eagles ending a two game dry spell of their own with a 58-53 victory. Baker hit the McAnally Center floor with 2:26 remaining in the second quarter to a thunderous reception from the Greencastle cheering section, and responded with a steal, blocked a shot and a rebound before the intermission as the Cubs pulled to within seven of the Eagles, 26-19. The 6’B senior put in a little more than five minutes in the third quarter and three more in two shifts during the last stanza as the Cubs twice chopped the Eagles’ lead to three points, but could come no closer. During that second half of duty Baker hit three of four shots from the floor while connecting on a technical free throw to demonstrate that he had not lost his shooting touch during his nine game layoff. His mobility was surprisingly good, but not good enough to afford Cub coach Jim Huter the chance of Baker taking on Eagle pivotman Jeff Burdge one on one. When Baker was in the contest the Cubs played a 2-1-2 of a 2-3 zone. The strategy was effective in shutting off Burdge, who hit only two buckets while Baker was in the game. But when the Cub center sat down with 5:44 remaining in the contest the Eagle middleman went wild, hitting four layups in as many

Notre Dame nipped Western Michigan 73-71. Boswell put South Carolina ahead for good early in the second half as the Gamecocks outmuscled tenacious St. Louis. Boswell sent South Carolina ahead with his 12th point. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound- Bos well scored frequently from inside as the Gamecocks outrebounded St. Louis 43-34. He got help inside from Nate Davis and-Alex English. Davis scored 19 points and English had 10. - Lewis McKinney, with 18 points, and Robin Jones and Dill Morris, each with 12, led the St. Louis attack on South Carolina’s clinging defense with only moderate success. A pair of outside shots by Jones and McKinney put St. Louis ahead late in the first half,-and the visitors enjoyed a one-point advantage at the intermission. But it was all South Carolina after that. Adrian Dantley sank two free throws at the buzzer 4o give Notre Dame a surprisingly close victory over- Western Michigan. Dantley put Notre

the game. The Crusaders are hitting .444 as a team and rebounding at a 39.8 clip. DePauw shoots at a 4.28 clip and is 42.7 on the boards. Part of Valparaiso problems are legitimately explained. It opened the season with a 91-90 loss at Notre Dame, a 69-58 setback at Illinois, and an 82-74 defeat by Northwestern. Good shooting and rebounding are hardly guaranteed in that company. Six-seven all-ICC center Joel Oberman is Valpo’s numberone scorer at 18.5. The rest of the Crusader artillery includes 6-5 forward Jeff Holmes (9.4 ppg), 6-0 guard Rick Bell (10.6 ppg), 6-6 forward Mark Kassner (11.7

Central, 3-1, on the strength of surprising Butler 65-64 last week and a penchant for winning the close ones (three wins by a total of four points), is the only remaining conference club-besides the zooming Pumas-with a single loss. While St. Joe and Central are settling things at the top Wednesday, Valparaiso and DePauw put their 1-3 records on the line in Valparaiso, 0-4 Wabash goes to 2-2 Butler, and 3-2 Evansville hosts non-

This article written by Banner-Graphic Sports Editor Mike Van Rensselaer

minutes on passes from Wayne Erwin and Mark Cowger to sustain the South Putnam lead and bring the Eagles their ninth victory against six losses. The spurt left Burdge with 21 points as he took runnerup honors to Tiger Cub Steve Bruce for the night’s scoring. Bruce, hitting half his points from the line as he aggressively went to the bucket and boards, wound up with 24 points in a performance that Huter labeled “fairly consistent.” The Cubs went to Bruce inside during most of the second half, hoping to draw the South Putnam big men into foul trouble. The Eagle frontliners were slower than they were in the holiday tourney in responding with personals, but Erwin finally obliged in the beginning of the fourth quarter with his fourth foul, while Burdge was whistled less than a minute into the stanza for reaching in to bat the ball away from Bruce, also picking up his fourth personal. Erwin by the time of the latter foul had retreated to the bench, but Burdge stayed on the floor the rest of the way without committing that fifth foul, in spite of all the driving that Bruce was doing. Erwin came back at the 4:05 mark, fired a nice pass to set up Burdge, and stayed away from the wrath of the referees to complete a good night’s work, which on the scoreboard netted him 14 points. Eight of those came in the

Dame ahead 71-65 with 1:51 to go, but- Western Michigan tied the game on two jumpers by Jim Kurzel and a basket by Jim Harvey with 17 seconds to go. Notre Dame led 44-34 at the intermission, but Western Michigan came back to tie the game five times after a nine-point spurt early in the second half. Dantley, who has averaged 32 points a game, finished with 27 to lead all scorers. Tom Cutter led Western Michigan with 19, In other games, Fordham beat Columbia 67-58, Marshall Rogers scored 37 points to lead Pan American over Georgia Tech 80-73, Tony Rufus hit a last-second layup to- lift Baylor over SMU-66-63, Jimmy Moore scored 40 points to power Utah State ovet Wyoming 84-69, Kent Allison’s- 23 points sparked Arkansas past -Rice -74-67, Creighton beat Oklahoma City 61-58, Bob Bigelow tossed in 22 points to pace Penn over Princeton-75-57 and St. John’s, N. Y., tripped Villanova 72-63.

ppg), and 6-3 guard Mark Peters (3.7 ppg). All but Peters were starters last year on Valpo’s 15-11 team. This year nearly the same personnel stand at 5-9 for the season and 13 in the league. DePauw probably will counter with a quintet composed of Orrin Bargerhuff, Steve McCabe, Rick Huser (this week’s top shooter in the ICC), Mark Emkes and either Joe LeFevre or Tom Netzel. Bill Caskey, who had 24 at Wabash, of course, will see plenty of action too. The Tiger’s next home game will be against Evansville Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

conference Indiana State. Saturday’s big match, if Wednesday’s form chart holds up, will put Butler at Valparaiso, with both needing a victory to get back on St. Joesph’s quickly vanishing trail. Evansville will be at DePauw and Wabash will host Central. St. Joe has the bye Saturday and a pivotal date with nationally rated Eastern Illinois. ICC defending scoring champion Jim Thordsen led St.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29,1975, THE PUTNAM COUN T * BANNER-GRAPL.

third quarter after Greencastle had cut South Putnam’s halftime lead to three points for the first time on a 15 foot Baker baseline shot at 5:49, his first scoring of the night. A ten foot jumper and layup from Erwin quickly jacked the Eagle lead back up to seven at 32-25, in the vicinity of which it stayed until the quarter’s conclusion, when the scoreboard read 38-30 South Putnam. The Eagles kept their advantage at eight until midway through the final period, when a pair of free throws by Bruce and a ten footer by Connie Hunter narrowed it to four at 46-42. That’s when Erwin reentered the game and set Burdge up with a layup to put the Eagles back up by six. Bruce then traded buckets with Bruce and Cowger to keep the Cubs within six, from where they narrowed the lead to three on one free throw by Huntei and an 18 footer by Kent Frazier at the 2:02 mark. However Cowger came back ten seconds later with a five footer, the Cubs turned the ball over, and the Eagles went to their four corners offense to open the middle. At 1:13 it was certainly open, as Brudge dropped in a bunny that extended the South Putnam lead to 56-49. From there it was run, gun and foul time for the Cubs, who converted two more buckets by Bill Earl and Baker, the latter from 18 feet away with ten seconds remaining. That cut the Eagle lead to three at 56-53, but Erwin iced the decision with a 22 foot bank shot that rippled the cords and hit the floor as the buzzer

Bill Earl of Greencastle puts some of his gridiron experience into play during a few of the many ragged seconds Tuesday night at McAnally Center. Breaking through the hole formed by teammates Steve Bruce (25) and Frid McClaine, Earl bursts

Joe’s winning charges last week and as a result moved on top in the scoring derby, ahead of Evansville’s Jeff Frey. Thordsen had 31 at DePauw and 24 at Butler to up his fivegame mark to 23.6. Frey dropped the second at 20.8 but he took over the free throw lead with a perfect 1.000 (16-16). DePauw’s sophomore center Rick Huser took over the field goal accuracy race from St. Joe’s Duane Gray. Huser had

sounded. “I thought we did some things a lot better,” said Eagle coach TomGoldsberry in the winners’ lockerroom. “We rebounded, at times played real good defense, and we didn’t let the press hurt us at all.” The Cubs employed their full court zone press after successful free throws throughout the contest, but the Eagles were able to break it consistently with medium range passes at the sidelines. Greencastle went with their half-court trap press in the late stages of their ninth defeat against five wins, but it left openings under the bucket of which South Putnam took advantage. The Tiger Cubs’ zone defense when Baker was in the game caused Goldsberry to change his offensive strategy, but he countered effectively with a stack formation that freed Cowger for medium range jumpers, which the senior forward connected on with enough consistency to net himself 12 points to put three Eagles in double figures for a balanced attack. Only two Cubs broke that ten point mark, Hunter barely joining Bruce with 11 markers. The Greencastle scoring deficiency was traced in part by Huter to being “a little impatient on offense. We were not as conservative as we should have been. We forced some shots and made some passes that were misguided.” That was pretty much the story of the first quarter for

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12 of 22 in DePauw’s two games including 9 of 11 in the Tigers’ 92-85 win at Wabash. Gray drooped to second at .623. St. Joe’s Kyle Wiggs, who missed both his team’s games last week, moved to the top in rebounding with a 9.7 mark Valpo’s Rick Bell took over the assist department with 5.8 per game. Predictalby, St. Joe leads four statistical categories this

both teams, who scored only 15 points between them while committing 24 turnovers in the mistake-prone first eight minutes of play. While splitting the turnovers equally with the Cubs, the Eagles took one more of the points to enter the second quarter with an 8-7 lead. Once there they outscored the Cubs, 11-2, in the first three minutes to claim their game dictating advantage. / Greencastle’s B team put together a fourth quarter rally that wiped out what was once a 17 point South Putnam lead to race to their tenth victory of the year against four losses, dropping the Eagles 40-38. Outscoring their guests 23-4 the Cubs took the lead with a minute to play, stretched it tc four points and then held on for the win, only the third time the Eagle reserves have lost this year against 12 victories. “We just took the game away from them,” related Cub coach Gerald York, who complemented Roger Fleetwood’s Eagles on “a terrific first half.” Box Score Eagles (58) FG FT F TP Cowger 4 4 2 1 2 Brown 0222 Erwin 4 2 4 14 Scobee 0030 Burdge 10 1 4 21 Ames 10 4 2 Chesshir 10 12 Puckett 2 10 5 Totals 24 10 20 58 Cubs (53) FG FT F TP Bruce 6 12 4 24 Stevens 0 0 10 Earl 115 3 McClaine 12 0 4 Baker 3107 Frazier 2 0 3 4 Hunter 5 1 3 11 Totals 18 17 14 53 Score by Quarters Eagles 8 24 38 58 Cubs 7 19 30 S 3

through Eagles Jeff Burge (on the floor) and Keith Puckett, while Kelly Chesshir (background) prepares to come over from his linebacker position to stop the play for a short gain. (Banner-Graphic photo by Mike Van Rensselaer)

week. The Pumas are best in team shootings .528), total offense (86.8), total defense (69.2), and team rebounding (50.8) Their dominance in stats that add up to victories couldn’t be more clear cut. Valparaiso, 88-79 loser at Evansville Saturday, is least foul-inclined (17.8 per game) and has made fewest turnovers (15.8 per game). Evansville is number one in free throw shooting (.769) and assists (15.8)