CANTON - In the 1st game of the night, Northwestern's sharp-shooting Huskies (30-1) will be rated top-heavy favorites to stop the march of the Strasburg Tigers (25-4) when the 2 teams collide in the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse at 7:45 on Friday night. The Wayne County powerhouse has cut a wide swathe in the cage circles in its area and suffered only 1 loss at the hands of a touted Michigan Class A squad.
Head Coach Roy Bates' charges work from a deliberate attack with a bevy of uncanny marksmen now averaging 46 percent from the field for their 31 games up to the present time. In the 2nd contest on tap in the Class B Regional Tournament, Waynesburg's undefeated Mohawks (25-0) will clash with a highly regarded Canfield Cardinals (25-1) aggregation that has lost but one game in 26 outings. The 2 winners will meet Saturday at 8:00 for the right to continue on to the State finals in Cincinnati next week.
The Tigers were to workout on the Canton Fieldhouse hardwood for the 2nd time today in preparation for their attempt to knockoff the rampaging Huskies. Head Coach Don Martin's crew will have an edge in height on the Northwestern aggregation which boasts two 6-1 cagers as the tallest men on the squad. The only Senior in the 1st 7 men, Dale Weygandt and Junior Chet Welty are the 2 big men in their lineup.
Despite the fact that they have little height, the Huskies have averaged nearly 73 points per contests, while limiting the opposition to an average of 43.4 per game. The tight defense used by Northwestern consists of both man-to-man and a zone. The man-to-man defense has enabled the Huskies to slap a press on many of its opponents with an unusual amount of success.
Only 2 teams have pushed the Wayne County Champions to the limit and they were Lansing East of Michigan, the team which defeated them 38-35 and the Navarre Falcons, which lost a 48-47 decision in the recent Sectional Tournament. Northwestern compiled a 24-0 record last year before losing 2 consecutive contests in the Wayne County Tournament after "flu" had riddled their ranks. This year they started off with 5 straight tremendous wins, beating Nashville 90-34, Burbank 65-56, Homersville 93-35, the Sullivan Pirates 79-56 and Smithfield 68-29 before bowing to the Lansing East squad.
Since that time, Head Coach Bates' stalwarts have rambled through 25 straight games without a defeat with only Navarre offering any real resistance. In the Sectional Tournament, the Huskies blasted Savannah 88-36, the Creston Bobcats 65-44 and Sterling 65-43. The latter 2 teams had been victims of Northwestern twice before that, in the Wayne County Tournament and in regular season games.
The Huskies went on to nip Navarre 48-47 and whip the North Lima Zippers' touted aggregation 58-47 to win the Canton Regional Tournament berth. Welty and Bob Reinke both 5-11, will probably start at the forwards with Weygandt getting the nod at center. Two more Juniors, Don Fasig, 5-9 and Stan Totten, 5-10, will be at the guards with Roger Fair, 5-9 and Don Howman, 5-11, both Juniors, ready for relief duty at the guard posts.
The advance sale of tickets indicates a large following for the Strasburg Tigers with still other county fans ready to take their chances at the gate Friday night.
Thusday, March 12, 1953
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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