M Closing In On NCAA Basketball Title

Monday, March 16, 1964 THE ANN ARBOR NEWS Page Twenty-One

M Closing In On NCAA Basketball

By Wayne DeNeff

"All the way

"In the N-C-A-A! ! .'"

A group of Michigan fans
unfurled a banner with those
n ]•»!-()•-. in Ia';t Mnnd.'iv's Pur-
.-iiic ..a jin- ,(; Yo^i ; ieklhouse
and the words were looking
more like a prophecy than a
wild dream today.

The Wolverines stand two
victories away from the NCAA
basketball championship after
winning the Mideast Regional
title at Minneapolis last week-
end with victories over defend-
ing NCAA champion Loyola of

Chicago, 84-80, and Mid-Amer-
ican Conference king. Ohio
University, 69-57.

Now the Wolverines are
bound for Kansas City for the
NCAA semifinals and finals to
be played on Friday and Sat-
urday nights. The first game
Friday will pit Michigan (22-4)
against Duke (25-4), the East
Regional champ, and in the
second contest Kansas State
(22-5), Midwest champ, will
battle UCLA (28-0), far
West titleholder.

The NCAA designates the
first-game winner as the east-
ern champion and the second-
game winner as the western
champion. Those two teams
will clash for the national
championship in the second
game Saturday night while the
Friday losers will play for
national third and fourth
place.

How about the Wolverines'
chances?

Well, they've already beaten
Duke in a regular - season
game, 83-67, and one of the
ihings spurring the Big Ten
co-cl. ". - \:; "ii- '•!'ii r:' rnent
is th .itch

COACH GETS A LIFT: Michigan Basket-
ball ("•«'' nave Strack is hoisted onto the
shoulf Oliver Darden (left) and Doug
Hernci ^uci Michigan defeated Ohio Univer-

sity, 69-57, to win the NCAA Mideast Regional
championship. George Pomey gives the coach
a scalp rub while Tom Ludwig looks on with
obvious joy at right.

with the unbeaten and No. 1
ranked Uclans who shocked
them in the Los Angeles
Classic, 98-80.

The catch, of course, is that
Duke, too. might be anxious
for just such a rematch with
the Wolverines and there is
ample evidence that the Blue
Devils are a better ball club
today than the one which
Michigan beat in the sixth
game of the season.

Wolverine Larry Tregoning
apparently will get another
opportunity to defense t h e ,
Duke sharpshooter, Jeff Mul- !
lins, who scored 73 points in^
the Blue Devils' pair of vie-1
tories ov' . Vil^nova and Con- \
necticut rapped up the s
east res- Although |
he fouli ie seconds
half T r e g o n r n g outscored|
Mullins, 17-13, when they were|
"- •T"1-—! 'n (hat: game Dec. 21. |

- tumbled Ohio LJni- '^
versity with a great perform-
ance from Cazzie Russell, a
tremendous lift from the bench ,;

and a scoring spurt with about |
12 minutes to play. |

Ohio pulled into a 43-43 tie
with 12:43 remaining before
tlie Wolverines suddenly
.seemed to realize they were
the intended victims of an-
other upset by an Ohio team
which had stunned the basket-
ball world by creaming Ken-
tucky, 85-69, the previous
night.

And it was Russell, gimpy
foot and all. who responded.

The Chit 'nore
broke free ti' ' i u and
got a feed from George Pomey
to score on a layup and make
it 45-43. Moments later, he
faked left. turned around to
his right and hit a short jump-
er to increase the lead to four,
47-43. The Wolverines then got
a break when Ohio, trying to
save the ball from going out
of bounds, fired right into the
hands of Jim Myers. Myers

flicked the ball to Bill Buntin
who scored on a layup and it
was 49-43 at 10:47.

Bobcat Don Hilt scored a
field goal but Michigan came
right back with five more
points as Pomey connected
from the outside, Oliver Dar-
den hit on a fantastic tip in
which he leaped across in
front of the basket and Rus-
sell dropped a free throw. It
was 54-45 at 7:22.

What followed was an ex-
change of baskets until Rus-
sell scored from the side to
make it an 11-point lead. 60-49,
with 4:05 left. Mid .•n
played ball control n;: ;i-
ed the high percentag*
Nine of the game's la-
points were scored from the
free-throw line.

The vigorous pace and bril-
liant effort against Loyola ap-
parently had taken something
away from the Michigan reg-
ulars because they were not

nearly as sharp for the Bob-
cats.

They gained a slight lead
but couldn't improve it against
an Ohio squad which was
-shooting only .324 per cent.

Coach Dave Strack started
substituting early and got the
bench help needed in a tough
tournament.

Pomey, as he has done sev-
eral times before, sparked the
Wolverines with his aggres-
sive defensive play and he
drove in for a basket which
put the Big Ten co-champs
ahead, 26-21. Sophomore
Myers kept the Wolverines in
front later in the first halt by
scoring on a turn-around jump-
er and two free throws. He
added another important sec-
ond-half basket. His seven re-
bounds tied him with Darden
as Michigan's second leading
r< '• - s. Doug Herner came
i' iivide Michigan with
the quic'Kiiess it was missing.

Buntin was Michigan's lead-
ing rebounder with 10 while
Russell was the top scorer
with 25. Paced by Russell's
seven of seven from the free-
throw line, Michigan made
good on 17 of 19 free thows.

e Ohio. too, may have shot its
tbig bolt the previous night
because it did not play as
well against Michigan as it
did against Kentucky. The
Bobcats shot only .385 from
the floor (25-65) and made
only seven of 13 free throws.
Michigan's field-goal average
was .400 (26-65).

Center Don Hilt was Ohio's
scoring leader with 18 while
Bob Cantrell held the high-
jlscoring guard, Jerry Jackson,
||n check with 13 points. Jack-
||on had riddled Kentucky with

,, Although it may not have
played with the same zest of
the previous night, Michigan
was not error-prone against
the Ohioians. The Wolverines
were guilty of just eight mis-
takes compared with 14 for
"their foes. Michigan had a
36-33 rebound edge.

In the consolation game,
Loyola tripped Kentucky,
100-91, although it was outshot

from the floor, 39 field goals
to 31.

Twenty - eight fouls were
called on the Kentuckians and
only 16 on Loyola. And the
Ramblers could hardly miss
from the free-throw line, con-
necting on 38 of 44 while the
Wildcats dropped 13 of 20. Big
Leslie Hunter was the Loyola
scoring leader with 27 while
Cotton Nash restored some of
his All-America reputation by
scoring 23 points to lead Ken-
tucky.

c )Hli 0 M1CI -IIG AN
B FT TP B FT TP
Haley 4 2-6 10 Tre'ing 1 1-2 3
Hilt 8 2-3 18 Darden 3 0.0 6
Storey « 0-0 12 Buntin 6 3.3 15
Jackson 6 1-2 13 Russell 9 7-7 25
Gill 1 0.0 2 Cantrell 2 2-2 6
Davis 0 0.0 0 Pomey 3 0.0 6
Weirich 0 0-0 0 Myers 2 2-2
Lashley 0 0.0 0 Herner 0 2.3
Schoon 0 0-0 0
Barry 0 2-2 2
Buck 0 0-0 0

Totals 25 7-13 57 Totals 26 17-19 69

OHIO
MICHIGAN

27 30—57
-32 37—69

REBOUNDS

OHIO (33); Haley, 11; Hilt, 9; Jackson,
7; Storey, 3; Gill, 3.

MICHIGAN (30: Buntin, 10; Darden,
7; Myers, 7; Russell, 6; Tregoning, 3;

Pomey, 2; Cantrell, 1.

PERSONALS

OHIO (15): Gill, 4; Haley, 3; Storey,
2; Jackson, 2; Hilt, 1; Weirich. 1; Lash-
ley, 1; Schoon, 1.

MICHIGAN (13): Buntin, 4; Darden,
3; Tregoning, 2; Cantrell, 2; Pomey, I;

Myers, 1.

OFFICIALS: Lou Bello and Steve
Honzo.

ATTENDANCE: 9,251.

KENTUCKY

LOYOLA

B FT TP
Miller 8 3-6 19
Rouse 24-4 8
Hunter 10 7.7 27
Egan 4 5-5 13
Coleman 3 14-17 20
Wood 0 0-0 0
Manzke 43-3 11
Con'ton 0 2-2 2

B FT TP

Deeken 52-2 12

Conley A 3-5 15

Nash 11 1-3 23

Mobley 8 5-5 21

Embry 0 0-2 0

Ishmael 3 0-0 6

Kron 1 1-2 5

Adams 4 1-1 9

Harper 0 0-0 0

Totals 39 13-20 91 Totals 31 38-44 100

KENTUCKY
LOYOLA

45 44— 91
53 47—100

REBOUNDS

KENTUCKY ash, 11; Conley, 7;

Ishmael, 7; r Embry, 3; Dee-
ken, 2; Kron, .-,, 2.

ii:;"'! '.42); Hunter, 18; Coleman,
(: Rouse, 4; Egan, 4; Manzke,
2, . . . ., ,.i!on, 1.

PERSONALS

KENTUCKY (28): Deeken, 5; Nash, 5;

Mobley, 5; Conley, 4; Kron, 4; Embry,
2; Ishmael, 1; Adams, 1; Harper, 1.

LOYOLA (10: Egan, 5; Coleman, 3;

Miller, 2; Hunter, 2; Manzke, 2; Con-
naughton, 2.

OFFICIALS: Louis Eisenstein and,
Philip Fox.

ATTENDANCE: 8,706.