Top Consolation Games Assure Hectic Evening (2-20-54)

The undefeated Strasburg Tigers put their sparkling 21-0 record on the line tonight when they tangle with the Gnadenhutten Indians in the nightcap of the three-game program on tap in the Tuscarawas County Class B Tourney at Memorial Hall tonight. Coach Don Martin's Tigers handled the Tribe easily in the regular season when they posted a 76-53 victory on Gnaden's floor. The Indians have been known as a tournament team; however, and the Tigers will be gunning for that 22nd victory with all of their claws sharpened. Sharing the bill with the Strasburg-Gnadenhutten championship bracket fracas will be a pair of consolation games that should once again draw a capacity crowd and keep the attendance mark climbing towards a new record.
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STONE CREEK'S lineup will be dotted with freshmen as the Panthers try for an important victory over the Midvale Blue Devils, who will probably still be without their chief offensive threat Dave Martin. Midvale lost an 82-64 decision to Stone Creek when the Panthers had Jim Lorenz in the lineup, but tonight's battle will be tagged as a crowd pleaser from start to finish. The first game on tap tonight, the Dundee-Sugarcreek-Shanesville fracas, slated to go on at 6:30, will be another potential thriller with the two teams having staged a nip-and-tuck battle in the regular season.
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Dundee won a 50-48 verdict in a hectic contest at Sugarcreek and the Pirates, who bowed to Baltic's high-flying Eagles Thursday night, will be sailing with all guns manned in order to stay in the running for the state tournaments which open the week following the annual county carnival. In the championship bracket tussle, Coach Martin's Strasburg crew will have to throttle the scoring of Carl Gilmore, the County's top point producer this year. Gilmore's teammate, Glen Hines, is ranked in fourth spot in the scoring race. The winner of tonight's Gnaden-Strasburg battle will move into the lower bracket semi-finals with Port Washington. The Stone Creek-Midvale winner goes to the upper bracket consolation semi-finals with the victor in the Dundee-Sugarcreek-Shanesville tussle meeting the loser of the Strasburg-Gnaden game.
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NOTE: John Shetler, Strasburg's capable senior guard, has been ordered to report for a physical examination at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington March 1. The 6-foot cager received the principle appointment to West Point recently from Congressman Frank Bow of the 16th District. Efforts are being made to have the date of the physical postponed.
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Saturday, February 20, 1954
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio