St. Joe, Port Washington Out! (3-1-56)

DOVER ST. JOSEPH'S was ready to put its basketball equipment in mothballs for another year after Midvale, the Tuscarawas County tournament standard-bearer, eliminated the Ramblers from the Class B sectional at Dover's Memorial Hall last night. Down by only six points at the half, the Ramblers couldn't keep up with Johnny Columbo and his radar-eyed Midvale mates in the second half and they went down to defeat 87-68. Port Washington (15-8) surprise team of the county tourney, was the first to leave the Memorial Hall battling as the Purple Riders fell victim to tough Killbuck (16-3) by an 80-73 count after a stirring struggle which marked the opening of the lose-and-out warfare. At least one more county team is destined to be on the sidelines after tonight. The winners will advance to the co-finals. Berlin, runnerup to Killbuck in Holmes County, takes its 18-5 record against the Dennison Railroaders (5-13) at 7:30, while in the nightcap the once-beaten Strasburg Tigers do battle with the other Dennison team, the St. Mary's Blue Waves (4-14).
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STRASBURG MEETS WAVES
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Strasburg must be rated a strong favorite over St. Mary's which hasn't played as rugged a schedule as the Bengals who won 19 in a row before being clipped by Midvale in the county finale. St. Mary's, with only one six-footer in Freshman Paul Smolak, will be out-reached as the Tigers boast a lot of rebound power in Ronnie Gray, Willie Rieger and Jerry Froman. Froman and Jim Kuecher, all-county stars, are the club's ace point-makers. Berlin has the second best record in the sectional and a standout scorer in Wilford Conn, but Dennison, which has been the county's hard luck team - The Railroaders lost a half-dozen games by only a few points - may carry too many guns. "Chick" Maurer's club has scoring balance in 6-3 Jerry Hill who has scored 292 points, Allan Kennedy who has canned 210 and Tom Maitland who has made 222. Killbuck returns to action against Malvern and Midvale will meet Millersburg in semi-final jousts on Friday night. The winners of these two games will meet the victors in tonight's skirmishes for berths in next week's district competition at Brilliant.
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Thursday, March 1, 1956
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio