Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 7

POST-GAZETTE: April 2, 1 477 -7 fmm Record 16,649 See Losing Streak End ennsylvania Stars Surprise U.S. 1 Witter MB! Law nvv 4.1.4 i' XIX i -tk Ci-i By PHIL AXELROD Posi-Gaiette Sports Writer Maybe it wasn't Eugene Banks at his best. But even a sub-par Banks is pretty good. Travel-weary and injured, Banks, a' 6-7 whiz from West Philadelphia High School, scored 20 points and took MVP honors as Pennsylvania stunned the United States, 98-92, last night in the 13th annual Dapper Dan Roundball Classic at the Civic Arena. A crowd of 16,649 largest ever to witness an indoor sporting event in Western Pennsylvania cheered wildly as Pennsylvania snapped a five-game losing streak and narrowed the series to 9-4.

working diligently all night, was the dominant force for Pennsylvania, but Wes Matthews, a slippery 6-1 guard from Bridgeport, stole the spotlight with a game-high 29 points and six assists. The-game was billed as a classic showdown between Banks and New York City's 6-6 Albert King, considered the two finest scholastic stars in the nation, but it didn't work out to a classic show. "I didn't play that well," said the soft-spoken Banks. Asked about Banks' performance, Frank Chau, co-coach of the Pennsylvania team, said "Eugene had an ice pack on his side at the half and he was limping so bad that I didn't think he could play in the second half." But Banks played, finishing with a six-of-19 shooting performance and 10 rebounds. "He was injured and tired," said Chan.

Added Banks, "Tliere was a lot of holding and grabbing and double-teaming." While Banks was having difficulty getting unpacked, King; was suffering through a dismal night, too. "My performance could have been better," he said, smiling. "They were good and we're 'good; this is a game for the people somebody has to lose." The U.S. coach, Howie Evans, felt that the U.S. was a loser going into the game.

"We were at a disadvantage as soon as I looked at the roster," he said. "They (Sonny Vaccaro) gave us name ballplayers, but they didn't give us good matchups for the game. They gave us seven centers and no forwards." And, he added, "We didn't have the guards to stay with them." Maybe the U.S. didn't have the numbers at guard, but, in Matthews, they had the classiest guard to come into the Roundball since Calvin Murphy. 1 His all-round play was flawless.

So was his shooting as he hit 14 of 20 from the field. "I used my quickness to break open and then let it go," explained Matthews. "I felt it was a personal duel and I was out to beat my man." Matthews certainly did his job, but, in the end, it was the Pennsy guards Fran McCaffery, David Kennedy and Jeffrey Clark who turned the tide. "Our three-guard offense was the difference," said Chan. "The U.S.

couldn't match up with that lineup." a vit mmsrmMmmmmm vtmsmmmMm saw Post-Gazette, Photo ov Bill LkviS Post-Gaictte photo bv ALBERT FRENCH General Braddoek 's 'ele arris appears to boot ball in Pennsy game. East Stars Surge On Technical Shot Wexley Mathens, halfpinl 6-1 U.S. Star, looks eight feel tail he soar for semp Broken Promise, Broken Jaw Banks, Clancy Share MVP Pennsy Box EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA (100) fam-a tm-a reb. of to 5-12 5-5 0 13 3 2 2-2 2-2 2-2 Curtis 2-6 Furr 5-6 Gainev r5 Hastings I lwri 13-21 1 As far as Chan was concerned, the play of the game was McCaffery's steal of an inbounds pass and a subsequent layup that gave Pennsylvania a 91-87 lead in the final minute. McCaffery was the man on the spot in the late going and the steady LaSalle product responded with a cool 17 points and some solid ballhandling.

Until McCaffery took over, the Pennsy offense was taken care of by Banks and Sam Clancy, who closed with a rush to total 14 points and 11 rebounds. As long as the 6-6 center from Brashear High didn't stray too far from the basket he was effective. Outside the ten-foot range, though, Clancy was in trouble which accounted for a five-of-18 shooting performance. Overall, Pennsylvania shot just 37 of 104 from the field. "The shots weren't falling, but they were good ones," said Chan.

1 RSblnson 2-3 0-0 1 14 3. 8 i 1 1 3-4 4-8 Totals 418 14-17 20 100 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA (91) torn a ftm-a reb. Bellamy J-1 1 Brown 2-8 Brudnok i 0-4 Cox 4-8 Harris 2-11 Hobart 1-5 2-2 0-0 e-8 0- i 2-2 2-2 2-2 4-5 2-2 1- 1 0-2 6-21 4-7 5-7 6-10 1-4 the Roundball Classic. I've always wanted to be MVP Asked if it bothered him to take home the trophy the news media had voted to Banks, Clancy shnigt'd. "As far as I'm concerned, Gene is No 1 in the he said.

"I'm not only talking about Gene as a basketball player, I'm talking about Gene as a fnond New York's Albert King wasn't surprised to see Banks give away his MVP trophy. That "That's Eugene. That's the type of person he is," King said. 'He's not one bit selfish and he just didn't think he won that award." Asked who he thought won the award, King played the diplomat. "Oh, I couldn't pick," he said.

"Gene and Sam both played so well." U.S. Coach Howie Evans, however, felt Banks made the right choice. "Everybody in the gym knew Clancy was the MVP. Clancy got every key rebound for Pennsylvania. But it took a kid with the class of Eugene Banks to give him the trophy," Evans said.

Pennsylvania co-coach Frank Chan thought Banks showed his class. "It just goes to prove that Banks really is the Ail-American kid. He made Sam Clancy's dream come true," Chan said. "It topk a lot of guts to stand up in front of more than 16,000 people and say, 'I don't deserve But Eugene Banks thought everybody was making a big deal out of nothing. "All I did," he said, "was give the trophy to the guy who deserved it." ROUNDBALL NOTES Duquesne's Norm Nixon' received the Joe Tucker Memorial award as Pittsburgh's outstanding college basketball player for the second straight year in a brief halftime ceremony In the pre-game dunking exhibition, the award went to Albert King who wowed the crowd with a turnaround, over-the-head, bounce-the-ball off the backboard slam By RUSS BROWN Assistant Sports Editor The announcer said, and the Most Valuable Player for the Pennsylvania team is Eugene Banks Eugene Banks said otherwise.

"I don't deserve this award and I'm giving it to the player who does," he told a crowd of 16,649. "This. Most Valuable Player award goes to sam Clancy." And that MVP trophy did go home from the Civic Arena with Clancy. Banks wasn't making some grandstand gesture to please the partisan Pittsburgh public. In his heart, Eugene Banks knew he was right.

"I can't be a hypocrite," he said. "I can't accept an award I didn't earn. I could see in Sam's eyes and in his heart that he wanted to win it. He played like he wanted to win it. He had the intensity and desire.

"That," Banks said, "is what the MVP award is all about intensity." Sam Clancy finds something inside Eugene Banks which is worth more than ajdozen MVP trophies. "I thought he deserved that trophy, too," Clancy said. "I was shocked, really shocked when he gave it to me. I thought he was going to take that trophy and go home." If Banks had done exactly that, no one could have argued that he had stolen it. The biggest name on the Pennsylvania team, Banks found himself double and triple-teamed by those 6-9 U.S.

stars. Banks still managed to score 20 points to Clancy's 14 and pull down 10 rebounds to Clancy's 11. But to Banks' way of thinking, statistics don't tell the story. "Sam was the fellow doing the job when we needed it," Banks said. "The fellow who deserved the MVP award got the MVP award." Clancy, only through the generosity of a teammate and friend, fulfilled a long-time dream.

"This is what I've always wanted ever since I started watching OKeefe Wanning Belechak Glfison STARS (92) ttm-a reb. pl TotMs. 23-26 50 .24 24 Eastern Western UNITED STATES torn a 2-3 7-17 14-20 5-9 3-4 2-7 1-2 16 20 32 5 6 10 6 5 2 6 3 4 Williams Hannah Kino Sims Salinas McGee McKov Trlpucka Smith Officials: Tomasovlch, Kllngensmith, Davis. 1-2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0- 0 1- 3 4-12 60 (98) ttm-a reb. PENNSYLVANIA "3-4 6-19 5-18 5 Clancy-.

0 1 2 1 back took a lot out of our team." Too much, it would seem, except for the opinion offered by Lloyd, the East's star forward. "We were just clowning around in that third quarter, you know," he said. "We took it easy, but we knew we were going to come back and win the game. "Oh, it was just for fun anyway," Lloyd said with a shrug. "And it was a lot of fun.

But if they had brought in; some women, too, it would have been dynamite." 2- 2 8-9 4-4 1-2 0-0 0-0 0- 0 3- 5 1- 2 2- 2 10 11 4 1 i 1 0 Lyon Prvor Warwick. Clark 10 98 38-92 51-98 1-7 3-8 4-5 2 0 10 .54 .47 Totals. 37-104 United States AM Stars. rennsyivama AH-atars. Officials: Gene Steratore, Tom Adams, HarpO'Toole.

16449 Anenoence Home Ice Melting Away Time Worst Enemy f- 1L 0 As Pens Try Wings BP By RUSS BROWN Assistant Sporti Editor It was only fair that a critical technical foul on a Western Pennsylvania player gave all the momentum to the East at a critical time since the time wouldn't have been critical except that an Eastern Pennsylvania player was playing for the West. Confusing? Sure was. But that's exactly why the East escaped with a 100-91 victory over the West in the Roundball Classic preliminary at the Civic Arena last night. Here's how it happened. With three minutes to play, the East's LeRoy Choice broke away for a layup which was going to tie the score, 85-85.

Instead, that layup turned into a five-point play, gave the East an 88-85 lead and swung the momentum away from the West. Choice made his layup despite the last-second, futile leap of the West's Jerry Bellamy, who missed the basketball but caught the rim. It was an automatic technical foul. "It was an accident. I was going for the block," said Bellamy, his shoulders drooping and his eyes downcast.

Bellamy was sad because Choice converted the ensuing free throw. The East got the ball out of bounds at mid-court and turned Choice's breakaway into a five-point play when Lewis Lloyd, the East MVP, muscled home an offensive rebound. Twenty seconds later, with 2:30 to play, Choice hit another breakaway to put the East on top by five, 90-85, stealing all the suspense from the final two minutes. No one disputed that the technical foul was the pivotal point of the game. "The technical was the turning point.

It turned into a five-point play," winced Matt Furjanic, the West's co-coach. "The technical swung the momentum back to their side," said West forward Joe Belechak, who scored 14 points. "That turning point swung the game around," said Gary Spencer, who pitched in with eight points for the East. Until Bellamy accidentally did his Tarzan pose on the rim, the West had given the impression of a team ready to pull off a stunning upset. Trailing by a dirty dozen at the half, 48-36, the West put three guards on the floor and ran its way back into the game in the third quarter.

Led by Warner Macklin, Belechak and Greg Manning, the West outscored the East, 32-19. tn those 10 minutes to transform a 12-point deficit into a one-point lead, 68-i7. Manning scored on a hanging drive and a long jumper near the end of the quarter to keep the East ahead entering the final 10 minutes. For the game, Manning hit five of seven field goals, four of five free throws good enough for the West's MVP award. Strangely, Manning is from the East.

He played for Steelton-Highspire, the team which represented the East in the PIAA final and came out second best to Fox Chapel. "I wasn't invited, but after the state tournament one of the Western players got hurt (Norwin's Ben Bailley) and they called me up and asked me to play for the West," Manning said. It could have been that the Round-ball selection committee, a group named Sonny Vaccaro, was influenced by Manning's state-record 59 points in one playoff game. "I have to tell the truth. I hadn't even heard of Manning until the stale playoffs," Vaccaro admitted.

But the East, which had heard of Manning, heard from him last night. It was Manning's swoop layup in the first minute of the final quarter which built the West's lead to three points, 70-67. West co-coach John Sparvero still was worried. "They had too much height for us," he said, "and that ewne- WWmf vim fpiwi rib injury and left wing Lowell Macr Donald is only a spot player after ing most of the season with a knee injury. Defenseman Dennis Owchar will see his first action in more than two months if he can suit up for the play-: offs following a knee injury and, on top of all that, Pittsburgh will ride a slump into the playoffs.

uv Should they get past the Red Wings this weekend, the Penguins will need some help to get Los Angeles and Atlanta out of the way. Dumping Detroit will be no easy; task, though. The Red Wings have beaten the Pens in two previous Detroit ap pearances this season and gave them trouble in the Civic Arena. Whatever the outcome, the Pens are running out of time to work on their puny power play. During last spring's third and final playoff game with' Toronto, the Pens squandered a beautir ful opportunity to take command of the game when they repeatedly misfired" on a five-minute power play in the' game's opening minutes.

tr The power play has been a source of frustration in recent weeks, too. Over, the last 16 games the Pens have con-j verted just two of 42 power play, chances, PENGUIN NOTES Playoff tick-' ets are on sale at the Civic Arena box office. All road playoff games will be tele-, vised (WIIC), bill some games may be preempted on KDKA-Radio by Pirate baseball. If the playoffs go that far. 4 Flames Burn Hawks i ATLANTA Center Tom LysiaK rapped in two first-period goals and as sisted on two others last night as tha Atlanta Flames built a quick 5-1 lead and coasted to a 6-4 victory over the, Chicago Black Hawks.

The loss kept Chicago one point bei -hind Minnesota and two ahead of Van-: couver in the race for the final two, playoff, berths in the Smythe Division By BOB WHITLEY PosMeiene Sports Wrtter The Penguins will reach the end of possibly their most frustrating season with a pair of games this weekend against the Detroit Red Wings, who own the National Hockey League's poorest record this season. Tonight (WHC-Channel 11, 7:30 p.m.) in Detroit and tomorrow night at the Civic Arena the Pens will be trying desperately to claim the home ice advantage for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin Tuesday. Once 15 points ahead of Los Angeles and several in front of Atlanta, the Pens now trail both, in the race for favorable playoff position. The Pens must finish the regular season in front of both to gain an extra home game in the best-of-three first-round series. Otherwise the Pens will open the playoffs on the road, either in Toronto, Atlanta or Los Angeles.

The second playoff game will be played Thursday in the city of the team with the poorer record and a third game, if necessary, Saturday night in the city where the series opened. The Pens allowed the home advantage to slip away in the next to last game of last season and fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs in three games, the deciding game in Toronto, of course. Psychologically the Penguins will have a couple of factors in their favor regardless of their first-round opponent next week. When the Pens determined the Leafs would be their opponents last spring, most were inwardly smug. During the regular season series Pittsburgh had dominated Toronto in easy fashion.

Therefore, in spite of their failure to gain the home ice, the Pens went into the playoffs somewhat cocky. There is no doubt they will play the underdog role this year. Rookie center Greg Malone is only recently returned to the lineup from a it Mliiiir'iilAf 1 in nam" IMie i Post-Gatt photo by ALBERT FRENCH civ's a vie annual Houndhall erowd of 16,649, an all-time record for the elastic..