Right Down The Line (2-22-54)

GNADENHUTTEN'S strategy may have failed Saturday night, but it certainly brought home to the Strasburg Tigers the fact that they are and will be the team on the spot the rest of the way out. Coach Fritz Jacobs had a full week in which to get his charges ready for the strategy they pulled against Strasburg. The Indians appeared well rehearsed in their assignments, too. Probably the one big reason for the failure of the plan was the fact that the Tigers were also well rehearsed as to how they should combat just such a plan. Millersburg tried the same strategy during the regular season and the Tigers came away with a 42-22 victory. Saturday night saw the Tigers take a 9-3 first-period lead while at Millersburg they led 9-4 at the same rest stop.
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IT WAS a 20-point second period that sent the Bengals on their way to a victory over the Spartans and Saturday night this same accuracy that has made Strasburg a winner club paid off again. The Tigers got the ball six times in the first period and they scored on five of those occasions. Once they got the lead it was just a matter of letting the Tribe play with the ball. The ability to score when in possession of the ball is the key to breaking up such tactics as Gnaden used. Coach Jacobs' plan was a sound one. He has in Carl Gilmore the top scorer in the county and probably the most accurate shooter. Offensively, the Indians were in a good position to employ the ball-control technique, but with Strasburg's height under the boards looming so large, the Tigers could figure to match the Tribe point-for-point.
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THE TURNING point came in the first three minutes of the game when two costly turnovers gave Strasburg the ball and a four-point lead before Coach Jacobs could get his charges back in the the groove again. Had Strasburg not shot out ahead so early in the game, the Indians might have been able to hold the ball throughout the entire first period and take a chance on the Tigers' ability to score when they got the ball. But that lead, even though it was slim, gave that initial edge to Strasburg and robbed Gnadenhutten of the edge it had in the psychological department. Now that two hurdles have been cleared, it will be interesting to see what Coach Bray Toot has in mind when his Port Washington cagers take on Strasburg Thursday night. After last Wednesday's win over Mineral City, Coach Toot remarked that his charges hadn't played the kind of game of which they were capable. "You can bet they'll play better ball the next time out," he added.
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ONE OF the oddities of this year's tournament is the fact that there were no upsets in the first four nights of play. Personally, we can't remember a year when there wasn't at least one or two upsets in the first week of play. This year seems to be different. Look at the semifinals bracket and you'll see the No. 2 team playing one of the two third place squads while down in the lower bracket the No. 1 team will meet the other third-place quintet.
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Monday, February 22, 1954
Art Cicconetti
Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio