Page 4 University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 27, 1852 224 316 56 = 810 KU Wins National Cage Title,80-63 Clyde Scores 33 Points As KU Tops St. John's By JOHN HERRINGTON Kansan Sports Editor Led by record-shattering All-American Clyde Lovellette's 33 points, Kansas won its first national basketball title in three NCAA tournament attempts last night, downing St. John's "miracle" team, 80-63. It was the first time in history a Big Seven conference team won the national collegiate basketball crown. Kansas made the "third time charm" pay off. Phog Allen's men tried for the title in both 1940 and 1942. Indiana dumped the Jayhawkers in '40. Colorado did it in '42. But last night's ball game was an entirely different story. The Jayhawkers played a "will to win" type of game that was just too much for Frank McGuire's Redmen from Brooklyn. In winning, the Kansans presented their 66-year-old veteran coach with one of the few titles his teams haven't been able to win in the past. From Lovellette's opening free throw that put the Jayhawkers ahead for keeps to Ron MacGilvray's last second heave from 50 feet out that missed the mark, the Jayhawks were in complete command. St. John's just couldn't keep up with the lads from Lawrence. When they tried to hold Lovellette down, Kansas' outside shooters found the mark. When they pressed Bill Lienhard, Bob Kenney and Bill Hougland on the outside, Lovellette hooked in the points. Defense Pays Off 5nn pnivsb Once again, as in previous NCAA tourney games with Texas Christian, St. Louis and Santa Clara, Kansas' spectacular defensive play did much to stymie the Redmen. From the opening tip-off, the Jayhawkers started their ball-hawking antics. With Dean Kelley, Charlie Hoag, Lienhard, Kenney and Lovellette doing most of the "stealing," the Kansas "grab-it-and-go" game paid off in numerous baskets. Except for some good backboard play in plays by St. John's MacGilvray and Bob Zawoluk, Kansas' rebounds completely dominated both backboards. Time after time, the high-jumping Jayhawks pulled the ball off the glass backboard's of Seattle's Edmundson pavillion from the hands of would-be Redmen rebounders. During the entire first quarter the Kansans lead stayed between three and seven points. At the end of the first period the Jayhawkers led by five points. From then on the Redmen had to watch the score steadily mount on the Kansas side of the board. At halftime, the Jayhawkers were in front 41-27. At the three-quarter mark they had a 19-point lead, 60-41. St. John's put on its biggest rally in the final period. In that quarter the Redmen racked up 22 points to Kansas' 20. But it wasn't enough. Zawoluk and Jack McMahon carried the burden of the scoring for St. John's. Dunking seven field goals and an additional half-dozen free throws, Zawoluk scored 20 points before going out on fouls in the fourth quarter. McMahon scored 13 points on six field goals and a charity toss. But the whole field of scorers had to take a back seat to the miraculous Lovellette. The two-time All-American from Terre Haute, Ind., made his last college-competition performance an impressive one. The 6-foot, 9-inch Kansas center poured in 12 field goals and nine free throws to take scoring honors. The 33-point performance lifted him to a 35.2 points per game average in NCAA tourney play against four opposing teams. He hit 31 points against Texas Christian, 44 against St. Louis and 33 against Santa Clara. His amazing tournament play earned the big boy the "outstanding player" award. Lovellette Shatters Records Lovellette completely rewrite the NCAA tournament record book. Besides that, he set a new major college three season scoring record of 1,888 points. That topped the old mark of 1,886 set by Dick Groat of Duke. Lovellette's 77-game-career-average stands at 24.5 points-per-game. Clyde set a new tourney record for total points in a four-game series with 141 counters. The old mark was 83. He made 33 free throws in the series to erase the old 27 charity-toss record. The old record for field goals in a series was 41. Lovellette hit 54 in his four-game stand. He set a single game scoring record with his 44-point showing against St. Louis. His 16 field goals against St. Louis also was a new mark. CLYDE LOVELLETTE Kansas All-American Center Illinois Third In NCAA Finals SEATTLE — John Kerr's 26-point shooting show and a strong finish earned Illinois a 67-64 victory over Santa Clara last night and third place in the NCAA basketball championships. The Illini dominated the game for three quarters only to have Santa Clara come roaring up with a point making spree that put the Californians in front at 55-53 after three half minutes of the final period. They had trailed twice by eight points in the third stanza at 48-40 and 50-42. Illinois got the lead back on free tosses by sub guard Max Hooper and forward Olive Follmer. Herb Schoenstein tied it up at 58 all and the Broncos went into a stall with four minutes left. Then huge Bob Peterson, who alternated with Kerr at center for Illinois, hit a rebound after Santa Clara lost the ball on a missed basket. The Illini broke swiftly into scoring territory. Fouled on his shot, Peterson hit from the charity line to make it 61-58 and Illinois stayed in front the rest of the distance. Broncs Booted ILLINOIS (67) fg ft - a pf tp C. Follmer 6 5 - 1 17 Gerecke 2 3 - 4 1 7 Bemoras 0 3 - 4 0 3 Peterson 1 3 - 5 0 5 Kerr 10 6 - 7 3 26 Fletcher 1 2 - 6 4 4 Hooper 1 1 - 1 3 3 Bredar 1 0 - 0 5 2 Wright 0 0 - 0 0 0 TOTALS ...22 23-32 17 67 SANTA CLARA (64) fg ft- a pf tp Sears 4 2 - 2 4 10 Gazert 1 2 - 2 4 4 Young 6 6 - 6 4 18 Schoenstein 2 4 - 4 3 8 Soares 2 0 - 0 2 4 Peters 4 5 - 7 2 13 Benedetti 1 0 - 0 0 2 Brock 2 1 - 1 2 5 Garibaldi 0 0 - 0 0 0 TOTALS ... 22 20-22 21 64 Score by quarters: Score by quarters. Illinois ... 12 20 20 15—67 Santa Clara ... 14 14 17 19—64 On To Helsinki! KANSAS (80)
FGFGAFTFTAPFTP
Kenney41146212
Lienhard5822412
Davenport000010
Keller110022
Lovellette1225911433
Born000000
A. Kelley020000
D. Kelley253657
Hoag265759
Smith000000
Heitholt000000
Hougland251325
Totals286324352580
ST. JOHN'S (63) | | FG | FGA | FT | FTA | PF | TP | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | McMahon | 6 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 13 | | Walsh | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | | Peterson | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Zawoluk | 7 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 20 | | MacGilvray | 3 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | | Duckett | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | | Walker | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | | McMorrow | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | | Giancontieri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Sagona | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | | Davis | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | SCORE BY QUARTERS 12 55 13 23 35 63 KANSAS 18 23 19 20—80 ST. JOHN'S 13 14 14 22—63 OFFICIALS—Cliff Ogden and Leo Eisenstein. Jayhawks Shoot At Olympic Crown By BOB NELSON Coach F. C. "Phog" Allen's Jayhawkers attained the highest collegiate basketball honors possible Wednesday night by soundly trouncing St. John's university, 80 to 63, to capture top 1952 NCAA honors in Seattle. A bigger goal now looms ahead for the Jayhawkers who hope to "go all the way" in the Olympic Playoffs which start Saturday night in Kansas City's Municipal auditorium with the Allenmen playing Southwest Missouri Teachers College (Springfield, Mo.), the NAIB champions. By winning Saturday's game, Kansas will fly to New York Sunday and play the winner of Saturday's La Salle-St. John's game on Monday irt Madison-Square Garden. A pair of victories will give Kansas the 1952 Collegiate Olympic Championship and send seven of KU's cagers to Helsinki, Finland for the Olympic games late in July and early August. An Olympic championship for KU would present "Phog" Allen, better known in his profession as "Mr. Basketball," his greatest achievement in some 42 years of coaching—a long career filled with fabulous honors. A vivid and accurate description of the Jayhawkers' 1952 basketball season, the greatest in the school's history, is simply not possible due to the lack of adjectives that can adequately describe the colorful and colossal season which produced 26 victories in 28 games. Many team and individual records were rewritten—some of these marks likely shoved out of reach for many, many years as in the case of the American Center Clyde Loebelle with the Philadelphia individual school, Big Seven conference, and National Collegiate Athletic Association record. In compiling the highest major college career average ever attained (all games played—77 games in big Clyde's case), Lovellet scored 545, 548 and 795 points respectively in his three years for 1,888 points, a "cool" 24.5 mark per game. Jayhawkers' 1952 Basketball Record 57 Baylor ... 46 H 83 Denver ... 46 H 64 Creighton ... 47 V 74 Southern Methodist ... 51 V 78 Southern Methodist ... 57 G 78 Rice ... 48 W 76 Southern California ... 55 H 64 Colorado ... 56 N 90 Kansas State ... 88 N 75 Missouri ... 65 N 71 Oklahoma* ... 48 H 60 Missouri* ... 59 V 69 Nebraska* ... 66 V 64 Kansas State* ... 81 V 45 Oklahoma A&M ... 49 V 104 Iowa State* ... 68 H 73 Colorado* ... 68 H 104 Iowa State* ... 50 V 90 Nebraska* ... 52 H 60 Oklahoma A&M ... 46 H 65 Missouri* ... 54 H 40 Oklahoma* ... 55 V 78 Kansas State* ... 61 H 72 Colorado* ... 55 V 67 Texas Christian (NCAA) ... 64 N 74 St. Louis (NCAA) ... 55 N 74 Santa Clara (NCAA) ... 55 N 76 St. John (NCAA) ... 63 N 1987 Totals 1615 70.9 Average 57.6 Season—Won 26, Lost 2 Big Seven—Won 11, Lost 1 *Big Seven games.