European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 23, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 20 the stars and strikes Marne men big Blue rate very close in final. Don Samueil staff write Darmstadt Germany is if Usa eur official had not bothered with a Basket Ball tournament at All but hand picked two teams that were most evenly matched and would pro vide spectators with interesting basketball they could hardly have expected a better finals pairing. Tuesday the two finalists the3rd div Marne men and the com z big Blue winners of first and second half standings Wilder Varga Gordon Washington launch their Best of three series for the Usa eur title. The Blue hosts the opener at Frank Furt s Blozis Hall. The scene switches thursday to Wuerzburg s Leighton bar Racks gymnasium Home for themar Nemen and if a third contest is necessary it will be staged a Bamberg s John f. Kennedy gymnasium Friday night. Ballgames Start at 8 10 . If play so far this season is an indication there will be a third two teams Are extremely evenly matched. They can shoot they love to run and have the horses who can and they Are capable of playing Good solid if not spectacular defensive Ball. The Blue has the tournament scoring Champion in de Billy Smith and nobody came near his lofty 409-Point total which in eluded a pair of 40-Point performances. They Blue also has Jim Washington who can a times also be spectacular in the scoring column. The Marne men counter with Athree pronged scoring punch paced by that magician of the court Reggie Greene. The 6-foot Greene besides being a Fine out Side shooter can find open team mates with spectacular passing and is a master at the steal for two easy Points. Roland latin a 6-2 inches who can play Forward or guard has a Peculiar Low arching one Bander or jump shot but it finds the Range often. Gordon is a very steady All around eager who has averaged Over 20 Points pregame most of the year. With rugged 6-5 Vic Bender earning himself a starting shot that leaves toy Fitzgerald an Kirby Mcdaniel struggling for the no. 5 starting spot on the 3rddiv Quint. Fitzgerald 6-3 had an Edge in scoring with a 10 plus record but if the Marne men need height Mcdaniel is 6-7 an the biggest Man on the squad. Bender who also has average Dover 10 a game since his return just As the first half ended does t look very Graceful out there but he gets the Job s Strong and gets his share of the at the Blue once again not too much can be said Forsmith. Yet surprisingly the 6-7 sex Loyola of Chicago eager the biggest com z player usually plays outside and leaves the Pivot duties to 6-5 Herb Edwards who can be very effective perhaps the strongest Point for the first half Kingpins is their guards. There is Little to choose from Between Bob Lohse 6-0, the6-2 Curt Crittendon and 6-0 Tom Baker. All Are extremely fast and have burned other teams with their Quick Breaks and easy Ripples. Add Loston Benton to theom z club and you find seven solid cagers All of whom will see lots of action. Benton is the Type of player not often noticed except by his double figure totals in the score Book. He s Well Ca Pable of Topping 20 on any give night. In depth and playing experience As Well As height the com z club probably has to rate the Edge but a slight the seven who have played a lot the Blue can add three or four More who manage to get on the scoreboard in just Reggie Greene. Marne men s magician de Billy Smith top Blue scorer Ron Lohse. Speedy com z guard Vic Bender. Rugged Pivot Man Bine defenders Nab team honors Smith who else wins Usa eur scoring title Darmstadt Germany a the same old faces appear on top of the final Usa eur basketball tournament scoring Fig ures but Down in the rank there was a bit of shuffling am one new name crept into the individual top 10. Smith com z Taylor Berli Russell Berlin. Greene 3rd dive. Williams 24th Washington com individual leaders g Fig it to avg 15 149 111 409 27. 7 77 23 �i87 20. 11 112 59 283 25. 14 128 14 111 z 12 09 ii 297 21. 59 281 20. 38 234 19.latin, 3rd div 13 102 48 252 19. Tipp Usa heur "14 94 �80 �2tj8 . Williams Usa eur �14 112 3s 202 18.Gordon, 3rd div 14 111 39 201 18.0 team offence g to avg com z 15 1,511 Loo. Usarkur-7th array 15 1,482 98.8 3rd div 14 1,302 93.0berlin 4 1,295 92.5 24ul div 14 1,220 87.2betaf 4 1,199 s5.0 82nd Aad com 14 1,194 85.3 bul div 14 1,109 83.6 team defense g to avij.82nd Aad com 14 1,165 83.2 8th div 14 1,190 85.4 com z 5 1,288 85.9 8rd div 14 1,211 80.5 u8akeur-7uj army 15 1.3u5 93.024th div j4 1,348 902 Berlin 14 1,390 b9.3bjbtaf 4 1.392 �9.4 0. A e 5 scoring statistics of certain com z de Billy Smith walked away with individual scoring honors on a 27.3 average with 409 Points in 15 games. Team Wise com z and the 32ndaadcom defenders finished on top offensively and defensively respectively with tourney finalist 3rd div continuing to show improvement in both categories. The big Blue s Jim Washington boosted himself All the Way to sixth place individually Andu Sarteur seventh army s Dewey Williams slipped into ninth place in the close race for the last two positions. The Well balanced 3rd div showed Why their attack functions so Well ending up with three men in the top 10 led by Reggie Greene whose 21.2 aver age was Good enough for fourth place. Roland latin was seventh and Tom Gordon 10th. Murdock Williams joined Smith Berlin s Alex Taylor and Tim Russell and Greene in the select20-Point-per-game Circle. His 23 Points against com z in the Clos ing second round game enabled him to just nudge Over the Mark. The remaining member of the top 10 was Roy Sipp of the cel tics giving Usa eur seventh army a pair in the final list. The Only casualty was the 32nd Aad com s Perry Polinski who dropped out after Only eight Points against Berlin. Man than Cebu Nhel Amelr men provided Mcdavis hot the game his 6-7 helps Sadiv even things up. The h the Blue also has scored Ter averaging Over 100 game and has Given up just a 1 Shade less Point son defense. But the Fig.,-ures include both halves of the 5season, and the 3rd div while anything but spectacular int h e first half i 2-5has Donea Complete turn latin around in the second half. Themar Nemen since Joe Vares took Over the reins rang up seven straight including a sur prising 88-85 Victory Over the first half. Champs. The team seems to show that bit More Hustle a bit More determination since the coaching change. But Blue Mentor Jim Wilder outfit is Well drilled and All of the first seven can score make no mistake about that. It All Points to a most interest ing and closely contested final series one worthy of a command wide championship in any sport. Bynum Berlin tip flyers 7-6 Wiesbaden special Charlie Bynum tripled to deep Brightfield and scored on Julie Henderson s sacrifice Fly to give Berlin s bears a 7-6 Victory Over the Wiesbaden flyers in an exhibition game Here bears scored the tie breaker in the top of the eight hand made it stand up after the flyers had knotted the count inthe Bottom of the seventh on Dave Creed s three Bagger and Joe pimple s single. Bob Mclean who came on inthe sixth inning for Dennis co wart gave up Only one run i four innings and picked up the Victory. Starter will Simmons was touched for five runs including three in the first in his four frames. ,. Trailing 5-1, the bears exploded for four runs in the fifth to eve the contest As Norm Shipes and Pinch hitter George Geiger each stroked singles with the base loaded Good for a pair of tallies each. Bynum with a double and triple in two official trips topped the ear hitlers while Larry Smalley Leroy Weddington and Imp teach had two hits. Smalley s pair including a double. Tim Corlis who took Over for barter Bob Parker in the win took the loss for Wiesbaden. Pearson nabs Staley 250 with Ford _ North Wilkesboro . Pearson who had led the Nam ii a i in �., an i Neine . A Ford driving David Pearson won the Gwyn Stule memorial 250-mile Stock car race sunday when Leader Leeroy Yarbrough s engine blew with nine laps to go. Yarbrough also driving a Ford had taken the Lead for the a Cpd time on the 262nd Lap of he five eighths of a mile North Wilkesboro Speedway. He held an apparently Safe margin of about 10 seconds Over Pearson his engine suddenly went up in smoke in the first turn after getting the 10-Lap signal. Pearson race on four previous occasions cruised Home easily to pick up the $5,100 Winner s share of the$21,500 purse. A capacity crowd of 16,500 watched the race in hot sunny weather. Buddy Baker driving a Dodge finished second. He was trailing Bobby Isaac also in a Dodge by several seconds when Isaac spun in the Oil Slick left by Yarbrough s trouble. Bake went by Isaac before the latter could recover. Isaac had to set the for third Lead changed 13 times among six Drivers in the closely contested race that was marked by 10 caution flags that slowed things Down for 67 laps. There were no serious Wercks and no injuries although the heat caused several driving changes. Pearson s average Speed forthe race was 91.425 Miles per hour. Dare Dieringer s Plymouth with Richard Petty driving in Relief finished fourth. Petty had to quit the race at the mid Way Point when his own plym Outh suffered engine led the Jace three times for a total of 39 , who was in front a total of 181 laps said Lateia already had settled a second place when Yarbrough was place sidelined. Hided Cie Unea 0,nit was Pearson s second w mile win of the season Holman and Moody i Oid. Other race leaders me Isaac for one Lap Lam Smith in a Plymouth 27 laps and Bobby Allison in a Al \ 20 laps. Yarbrough Loci
