The Strasburg Tigers' 6-4 Junior Center Jerry (Goose) Von Kaenel follows through on a hook shot attempt with Senior Forward Ken Huston (8) of the Port Washington Purple Riders following him as Sophomore Center Tom Jones (7) of the Purple Riders and Senior Forward Eldon (Zeke) Mullett (66) of the Tigers move in for a possible rebound. Senior Guard John Shetler of the Bengals watches the play develop at the far left.
The 1954 Port Washington Purple Riders Basketball Team. FRONT: Jim Landon - Tom Jones - Herbert Peters - Larry Combs - Paul Frank - Ken Huston - Fred Welsch and Ken Stocker (Manager). BACK: Head Coach Bray Toot - Bob Welsch - Vernon Glazer - Gary Dichler - Dale Veley - Don Jones and Jim Hill (Manager).
Jim Landon is a 5-9 Senior Guard for the Port Washington Purple Riders. Jim has been the play-maker for the Purple Riders this season and his defensive ability has been a definite asset to the squad. Landon has been a starter all season after playing only occasionally last year. He had 7 points in a losing cause against the Mighty Strasburg Tigers last night.
DOVER - The Port Washington Purple Riders staggered the Strasburg Tigers with a flurry of scoring punches, but the knockout blow glanced off the Tigers as the undefeated League Champions hung on to claim a 61-60 victory in a semi-final battle of the county Class B tournament at Memorial Hall last night. The Purple Riders appeared to be on the way out as a fairly easily 24th victim of the Bengals unleashed their polished attack.
A rally at the closing stages of the 3rd stanza ignited the aggressive underdogs; however and The Riders came crashing back into the picture with a force that sent Strasburg reeling backwards as they called on their reserve stamina to battle through the last hectic seconds of the contest.
An overflow crowd jammed into every available seat before the 1st game got underway and hundreds more fans were turned away from the doors. The packed house saw the Sugarcreek-Shanesville Pirates sail to a 73-48 triumph over the Gnadenhutten Indians in a Consolation tilt and then watched the Tuscarawas Broncos explode in the 2nd quarter and gallop past the Baltic Eagles 70-47 in the other semi-finals fracas. Port Washington's defeat sent the Purple Riders into the Consolation Division semi-finals with the Pirates tonight in the nightcap, while the Eagles and Midvale Blue Devils collide in the opener at 7:30.
The winners of tonight's Consolation Division contests will meet in the preliminary Saturday night for the Consolation Division Crown, while the Tigers and Broncos will tangle in the Championship game in the feature attraction.
Head Coach Don Martin's Strasburg Tigers (3-0) (24-0) (88-23) tightened up in the stretch and the Port Washington Purple Riders (1-1) (12-8) (20-50) galloped headlong into the opening as they went all out in an effort to corral the upset and their very 1st chance at winning the county tournament title. The Purple Riders' firebrands shot the works in the closing stages of the tilt with most of the crowd, sensing an upset, roaring its approval. Early in the opening quarter the Riders had showed signs of an upset in the making as they raced into a 15-11 lead as the stanza closed.
Junior forward Paul Frank and Senior forward Ken Huston set the pace for Port Washington with Junior forward Jerry Haswell displaying some accurate shooting to keep the Tigers in the running with 6-4 Junior center Jerry (Goose) Von Kaenel and Senior forward Eldon (Zeke) Mullett controlling the boards. Still the Purple Riders came on with a pressing aggressiveness as Huston, displaying his leadership qualities at their best, kept the Riders in contention.
The Bengals' balance appeared to cool off Port in the 2nd frame as the Strasburg crew contributed in the scoring, while keeping the underdogs at bay and walking off the floor with a 30-22 lead at halftime. That's when some of the fans left, thinking it was all over. All through the 3rd stanza the Tigers maintained a 7 and 8 point advantage until the closing minutes when Frank, Senior center Larry Combs and Huston hacked 4 points off the deficit in rapid fire order.
Senior guard Jim Landon's desperation heave just before the buzzer sounded was the spark that seemed to kindle Port Washington for a stretch drive as the ball banked off the boards and swished through the nets to make the score 49-46 Tigers at the close of the 3rd period. The Bengals again eased away to an 8-point lead at the outset of the 4th canto with Senior guard John Shetler setting the pace, but the Purple Riders marshaled their forces and delivered a frontal attack that brought the fans to their feet.
Frank came through with a free throw shot and followed up a miss with a field goal to deadlock the count at 56-56 at the 3-minute mark. Sophomore forward 6-0 Jim Kuecher made one of 2 free throw attempts to give Strasburg temporary reprieve, but Huston, the able floor general of the Riders, came through with a jump shot that gave Port the lead 58-57 at the one-minute, 30-second mark.
Haswell came through with a clutch drive-in shot and Senior guard Fred Peters followed with another seconds later and the Tigers were on top 61-58 with 45 seconds remaining. Little Senior guard Fred Welsch stepped up to the free throw line and canned 2 foul shots to clip the score to 61-60 where it remained. Port had 2 chances to move in for the clincher, but the struggling Bengals batted the ball out of bounds on the try and then grabbed the ball as the seconds ticked off during the throw in.
Huston tallied 21 points for Port Washington and Frank followed that up with 14 and Senior center Larry Combs dropped in 12, while Goose had 17 markers, Haswell 13, Shetler 11 and Zeke 10 for Strasburg.
STRASBURG TIGERS - 61
Jerry Haswell F 6-1-13
Eldon (Zeke) Mullett F 4-2-10
Jim Kuecher F 0-1-1
Jerry (Goose) Von Kaenel C 6-5-17
John Shetler G 4-3-11
Fred Peters G 4-1-9
PORT WASHINGTON PURPLE RIDERS - 60
Paul Frank F 5-4-14
Gary Dichler F 0-0-0
Ken Huston F 9-3-21
Larry Combs C 4-4-12
Tom Jones C 0-0-0
Fred Welsch G 1-4-6
Jim Landon G 3-1-7
Friday, February 26, 1954
Art Cicconetti, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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