The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 17, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 20, 1963 Page: 9 of 10
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WED., FEBRUARY 20, 1963
THE THRESHER
Nine
OWLOOK■
Going, Going... Gone
'
BY PAUL BURKA
DALLAS, Feb. 17—Dallas can
be a very educational city. In
only two days, we gleaned the
following scraps of information:
1. It is a long, long way from
South Oak Cliff to the north side.
2. Snow is not just a thing you
read about in the papers.
3. Staying on a horse isn't as
easy as it looks.
4. Dallas is the wrong place
to go if you want to see Rice win
a basketball game.
Learning each of the first three
had its rewarding aspects. Not
much can be said for the fourth.
THAT LAST ONE was an ex-
pensive piece of knowledge, too.
It cost Rice a shot at the basket-
ball championship of the South-
west Conference and gave arch-
rivel Texas a clear walk-home
path to the title.
Rice went into Dallas hoping
to win in Big D for the first
time since 1945. When the Owls
last won in Dallas, World War II
was still being fought.
UNFORTUNATELY, that last
statement is still true.
Only Explanation: Owls Got Whipped
The Owls were just whipped.
They fell behind in a first-half
breakdown which saw their out-
side game just fall apart. When
they did apply the pressure in the
second half, SMU just Wouldn't
crack.
Other explanations have been
offered. The Dallas papers prais-
ed the Pony defense for "hold-
ing" Kendall Rhine to 10 points
at the half. Perhaps a ten-point
half is below par, but in our old-
fashioned arithmetical system,
that adds up to 20 points per
game, an average we used to
think was all right.
No, Rhine wasn't "held." A
better explanation is that the
outside shooters were stopped
cold. Barry Rodrigue was blank-
ed, Herb Steinkamp had only two
1 field goals, and Larry Phillips
was missing. In the first half
the Owls were taking (and mis-
sing) good outside shots in pref-
erence to throwing it into Rhine,
who wasn't guarded nearly as
closely by SMU as by Tech or
Arkansas.
A SECOND explanation —
equally insufficient—was offer-
ed by the Houston Chronicle:
poor officiating.
The crux of this complaint was
built around the key play of the
game. Trailing by 13 at the half,
the Owls made a brilliant run at
the roses and cut the Mustang
lead to four. The Owls scored
every time they had their hands
on the ball in the first six min-
utes of the second half—almost.
They were two seconds short.
Then Steinkamp led a three-
on-two fast break, passed the ball
into Rhine, who hit a jump shot.
Two points behind!
TRAVELING was called. No
basket. Six points behind.
It was almost like inserting an
immovable object in the path of a
seemingly irresistable force just
to test the force's strength. The
Owls had incredible momentum,
were scoring at an unbelievable
pace, and had Doc Hayes and the
SMU players on the bench shak-
ing their heads in frustration.
The Owls couldn't miss.
Owls Lost Momentum And Ball Game
But all of a sudden the momen-
um was gone, and minutes later
the rally was wiped out and the
Pony lead was rebuilt.
Our reaction to the play was
that i t was a monstrous bad
break and that 14:02 of the sec-
ond half was the turning point in
the game. If it was a bad call,
It wasn't obvious or flagrant.
Otherwise, the officiating was
good, except one instance when
SMU'^James Thompson staked
a claim to an area under the
Owl basket in the lane and spent
the better part of a minute there.
Or at least he was there in ex-
cess of the allotted three seconds,
and was not asked to leave, nor
were his team mates coerced in-
to giving up the ball until the
same Mr. Thompson had deposit-
ed it through the nets.
IT WAS ALSO said that since
the Owls hit - more field goals
than the Ponies, they actually
outplayed them, and were beaten
only at the free throw line.
Like many statistics, this is
' misleading. Most of the SMU
foul shots were two shot fouls,
when a Mustang would be fouled
in the act of shooting. The real
explanation of the game was the
failure of the Rice defense to
keep the Ponies from getting
good shots. When the Owls foul-
ed, it was often to stop an excel-
llnt SMU shot. If the Owls hadn't
fouled, no doubt the field goal
margin would have been differ-
ent.
WE WROTE two Weeks ago
that a hot outside team could
beat the Owls, and SMU was a
hot team indeed Saturday night.
Rice scored 49 points in the sec-
ond half, and gained only three.
But with 14:02, it was all too
-clear that the last futile hope
was gone, and somewhere south-
west of Dallas on Highway 81 a
sigh of relief could be imagined.
It was, for all but the Uni-
versity of Texas, the saddest
time in sports: the time to start
thinking about "next year." It
won't be easy in '64, but it can't
be any harder than • winning in
'63 will be.
Muchmore, Elson
Unofficial Victors
In Card Tourney
Winners of the Rice division
of the National Intercollegiate
Bridge Tournament will be an-
nounced Thursday by John Har-
ris, tournament director and
former national bridge champion
at Rice.
The scores were still being
added up and double-checked, but
at Thresher deadline time Clyde
Muchmore and Mark Elson had
unofficially, won East-West first
place, with Mary Jane Cleveland
and Paul Burka finishing second.
No results were available for
North-South winners.
One of the most interesting
hands of the night involved one
of the best hands most of the
players had ever seen:
NORTH
Spades: A Q
Hearts: K Q J
Diamonds: 3
Clubs: J 9 7 5 4 3 2
SOUTH
Spades: K I
Hearts: A
Diamonds: A K Q 10 9 8 7 5
Clubs: A K Q"
Opening) lead: seven of spades.
THE HAND was bid different-
ly at each table, but South always
opened two diamonds. One pair
wound up at six no-trump, all
the others got to seven.
The spade lead knocks out your
only entry to dummy. If diamonds
split, you're in, but if they don't
you must take a safety play.
THE CORRECT line of play is
to take the ace, dropping the king
from your own hand. Take the
queen of) spades.
If you didn't slough the ace
of hearts, you're down. If you did,
cash the king-queen-jack of
hearts, sloughing the three high
clubs in your hand. Next lead the
jack of clubs. Since you have ten
clubs, the ten of clubs may well
be a singleton, in which case you
have seven club tricks, three
heart tricks, two spade tricks,
and three diamond tricks off the
top—enough to bid nine no trump
if you had to.
If the ten doesn't drop, you
can still play for the diamonds
to break, or you can even try
the finesse, if you're daring.
The point to remember is that
the line of play described above
doesn't hurt you, and if it doesn't
work, you can go back to your
diamonds.
Will Rice Wins Basketball; Grabs Lead
In Fight For Vofleyball League Honors
Will Rice lived up to its fa-
vorite's ranking by rolling to an
easy 52-36 win over Baker to
take college honors in basket-
ball. Hanszen grabbed third place
with a narrow 40-37 win over
Wiess.
Ricky Blume led all scorers
with 17 for Baker, but Kenny
Wynne of Will Rice and John
Mullen of Hanszerualso hit double
figures, as did Don Saunders for
Wiess.
IN VOLLEYBALL play Will
Rice Gold and the Grubbs are
tied for the league lead in one
league, with the Will Rice Wilies
standing alone at the top of the
second league. A third league has
two more Will Rice teams at the
top—Will Rice Red and Will Rice
Black.
The Will Rice Gold is defending
intramural runner-up, while the
Grubbs are this year's favorites,
being led by Bob Hill and Kendall
Rhine.
Entries for Softball play must
be in by March 2. League play
will begin a week later.
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Two doors from Post Office
Owis Take Close Win
But AggiesWon't Help
It was Mutt-and-Jeff night in the Southwest Confer-
ence.
At Houston the littlest Owl—Herb Steinkamp—and
the biggest—Kendall Rhine—teamed up to edge the Bay-
lor Bears in a come-from-behind 74-70 win for Rice.
But in Gregory Gym the Mutt of the SWC was mak-
ing a bunch of Jeffs out of the Texas Aggies, and virtually
clinched the championship in the process, as unbeaten
Texas rolled on, 83-73.
At the conclusion of last night's action, Texas led
the conference with a 10-0 mark.
three games ahead of the Owls
with only four to play and drew
a step closer to the inevitable.
IT WASN'T EASY for either
the Owls or the 'Horns, but both
teams used second half rallies to
win. Rice got off to a flying
start, scoring 15 points in four
minutes at the start, but faded
Bond Wins SWC
Title In Bowling
John Bond, freshman bowl-
er from Wiess, tied for first
place in All-Events competi-
tion in the Southwest Regional
competition at Southern Meth-
odist University last weekend.
He bowled as a member of
the Rice team, which finished
sixth among 18 teams compet-
ing for a shot at the national
finals in Washington, D. C., to
be held in April.
Bond's total pins were com-
piled during team, singles, apd
doubles events. victory en-
ables him to compete in the na-
tionals.
quickly. They had to come from
behind to lead at halftime, 36-34.
Meanwhile Bennie Lenox was
leading the Farmers to 37-36 mid-
way lead over the league leaders.
The Owls opened second half
play as if they hadn't heard the
public address announcement of
the Texas score. Steinkamp's 18
points in the first half was all
that had kept the Owls in the
game until the break, and then
the burden fell on Rhine.
Playing magnificently offen-
sively and defensively with four
fouls already against him, the
Owl pivotman scored all the Owl
points during the first 11 min-
utes of the second half. He fin-
ished with 28, six more than
Steinkamp, and it was his one-
hand cram which broke the tie
for the last time at 68-66.
NOT TO BE overlooked was
Larry Phillips' usual clutch per-
formance. Scoreless the first 32
minutes, and twice benched, he
scored eight key points in the
last eight minutes.
But not even Lenox's 43 points
could stop Texas, and1 the 'Horns
once again crushed Owl hopes.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 17, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 20, 1963, newspaper, February 20, 1963; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231228/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.