6 UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Friday, March 22, 1968 Jayhawks advance to NIT finals By Steve Morgan Kansan Sports Editor NEW YORK—The Kansas Jayhawks used a deliberate offensive tempo, a tenacious defense and a towering height advantage to stop Lilliputian St. Peter's of New Jersey 58-46 Monday night in the semifinal round of the National Invitation Tournament. The victory sends the Hawks into the NIT finals at 1 p.m. Saturday against Dayton, 76-74 overtime victor over Notre Dame in the other semifinal game. Obrovc, along with guard Bob Hooper, pumped in the decisive overtime points to give Dayton its slim victory, and put it in its second postseason tournament finale in two years. Last year they lost to UCLA in the final round of the NCAA tournament. "Dayton is a big strong team physically," KU head coach Ted Owens said. "Of course we knew all-American Don May was good, but we've also been impressed by the play of Hooper and their big man (Obrovac)." The Dayton coach revealed Thursday night that Hooper may be playing with a broken hand. He had a jammed finger coming TREASURED FOREVER SCANDIA $450 ALSO $125 TO 1975 WEDDING RING 29.75 REGISTERED Keepsake DIAMOND RINGS CAROLINE 500 WEDDING RING 75 MAN'S RING 125 The name Keepsake in the ring means fine quality and lasting satisfaction. Rings enlarged to show detail. Trade-Mark Reg. Ray Christian "The COLLEGE JEWELER" Special College Terms 809 Mass. VI 3-5432 into the tournament and had it smashed twice in the opening game against West Virginia. "We think the hand is broken but we're not going to x-ray it until we get back home," coach Donoho said, "Things like that don't bother Bobby much." St. Peter's, who annihilated a highly ranked Duke team 100-71 Monday to earn the spot against Kansas, didn't bother the Jayhawks much. "It was our ability to control the tempo of the game and use our height advantage and zone defense to stop the fast break that was the biggest difference," KU coach Ted Owens said after the game. The Jayhawks held a 52-44 rebounding edge with Greg Douglas (13) and Rodger Bohnenstiehl (11) leading the way. A St. Peter's full court press used from midway through the first half through the remainder of the game kept Kansas from putting the game away. "We were never able to deliver a real knockout punch." Owens said "The press kept us from attacking the basket as much as we wanted to. It was not our intention to play slow-down basketball. We didn't intend to stand around and throw cross-court as much as we did against their press." The highly partisan capacity Madison Square Garden crowd of 19,500 repeatedly booed the Jayhawks for slowing the game's tempo. They were accustomed to the St. Peter's run-and-gun style of play that had led the Peacocks to a better than 96-point scoring average going into the game with Kansas. The Jayhawks jumped to an early 7-2 lead with Douglas hitting three baskets in the first four minutes of the game against St. Peter's man-to-man defense. The Peacocks then switched to a zone defense and pulled within one point, 11-10, the closest they ever came to the Big Eight runner-up. Kansas adjusted to the St. Peter's zone and pumped in ten straight points with zone-breaker Phil Harmon hitting on three straight long fielders. This gave KU a 21-10 lead with 6:37 to go in the opening half and proved to be about the margin of difference and helped force St. Peter's to play the Jayhawks' type of game. Bohnenstiehl and White led KU scorers with 17 and 16 points respectively. The Kansas defense held the Peacocks' Elnardo Webster to 11 points, well below his 26-point regular season average. He had averaged 40.0 points in St. Peter's first two NIT games. Tom MacMahon was the Peacocks' leading scorer with 13. KANSAS (58) | | fg | ft | rb | pf | tp | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Douglas | 3-11 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 16 | | Bohnenstielh | 6-12 | 5-6 | 11 | 4 | 17 | | Bas | 6-12 | 6-1 | 16 | 4 | 18 | | Harmon | 3-6 | 2-2 | 5 | 1 | 8 | | White | 7-18 | 2-4 | 6 | 3 | 16 | | Sloan | 2-13 | 5-9 | 8 | 4 | 19 | | Aard | 0-0 | 2-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | | Bradshaw | -2-2 | 0-2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | | Team | | | 0 | 1 | | TOTALS ... 21-54 16-24 52 23 58 ST. PETER'S (46) ST. PETER (s) (40) fg ft bg rb pf Webster 3-17 5-9 13 31 Mahon 1-17 5-1 13 12 O'Dea 2-15 5-5 8 13 Deak 0-0 0-1 4 1 Leckie 0-0 0-1 4 1 Laurie 5-14 3-7 2 21 13 Gregg 5-14 3-7 2 21 13 DePlano 0-0 0-1 1 0 Schwester 0-0 0-1 1 1 0 Drew 1-2 0-1 1 1 2 Team TOTALS ... 16-60 14-25 44 20 46 KANSAS SHERIFFS Officials; Jim Lennon, Hal Gross Attendance: 19,500. ACME SALUTES: Player of the week- Rodger Bohnenstiehl: Outstanding 6'6" KU senior for his fine performance in the NIT! Hillcrest Laundry Mass. Mall