The Gnadenhutten Indians cheering section jumps for joy as the Indians clinch the decision over the Baltic Eagles in the last few seconds of the game. (The Daily Reporter Photo)
Sophomore Eldon Miller of the Gnadenhutten Indians has a shot blocked by Senior Jim Wallace of the Baltic Eagles in first-game action as Senior Fritz Syler of the Eagles joins the play. (The Daily Reporter Photo)
The Gnadenhutten Indians Glen Hines. Glen dropped in 18 points to lead the upset victory over the hot Baltic Eagles 57-52 in his 1st tournament game of the 1954-55 season.
DOVER - An almost unbelievable reversal of form led to the Baltic Eagles (0-1) (15-6) (31-49) defeat in the opener last night as the Gnadenhutten Indians (1-0) (11-11) (50-44), playing without regular Senior Dave Williams, rose up and clipped the Eagles at the wire. The Flyers, with 6-3 Errol Jacobs connecting for 21 points in the 1st two periods, managed to pull ahead of Gnaden in the 2nd frame by a 35-27 margin.
The contest was nip-and-tuck in the opening quarter as the Indians fought the favored Baltic crew to a standstill and led for most of the way until Jacobs began to hit for the Eagles. Jacobs carried over his eye in the 2nd period and after Flyers had fallen behind 25-24 midway in the period, began to sweep the advantage over to Baltic with his accurate shooting.
The All-League performer dropped in 7 straight points before the Tribe scored again and his 13 markers was almost all of the Eagles' 2nd quarter offense. Gnadenhutten came back in the 3rd stanza and slapped on a tight clamp and the Flyers hit rock bottom as they came up with but 4 points and lost their lead just as the quarter ended with Freshman Tom Roth of Gnaden canning a layup shot that gave the Indians a 40-39 advantage.
The Indians lost the services of their Junior center Lloyd Porter in that period, while Baltic had Senior Jim Wallace and Jacobs sit out parts of the 3rd period. Jacobs went scoreless during the time he was in the game in the 3rd stanza and he picked up 3 quick fouls that hampered his play. The Eagles lost Senior Fritz Syler on fouls just after the last canto opened and the Tribe got their smoke signals roaring into a blaze as they hit the warpath and took the lead to hold it the rest of the way.
Despite the fact that Gnadenhutten lost their 2 tallest regulars, Juniors, Lloyd Porter and Chuck Albaugh, less than 25 seconds apart and with still half of the final quarter left to play, Gnaden swept into the victory column with Junior Glen Hines, Freshman Ed Shull and Sophomore Jim Meek carrying the load. The Indians led by as much as 5 points in the last period, but the Flyers shaved that advantage to one point, 53-52 with less than a minute and a half of play remaining.
Glen Hines missed 2 free throw shots for the Tribe at that point and then dribbled almost the length of the floor to drop in an insurance basket and seconds later clinched the win on a fast-break layup. Jacobs returned to action for Baltic in the 4th canto, but went out on 5 personal fouls with 2 minutes and 20 seconds left and his team trailing by 2 points.
The tall Baltic center tallied 24 points in all, 3 coming on free throws in the fading minutes of the 4th quarter for the only points he got in that last half. Hines had 18 to lead Gnadenhutten, but the little guard had plenty of help from his mates as Gnaden connected for 27 free throw attempts, while the Eagles hit for only 10 of 29 chances.
GNADENHUTTEN INDIANS - 57
Ed Shull 0-8-8
Glen Hines 6-6-18
Eldon Miller 2-5-9
Larry Hines 0-0-0
Lloyd Porter 4-0-8
Chuck Albaugh 1-8-10
Tom Roth 2-0-4
BALTIC EAGLES - 52
Glen Reidenbach 4-0-8
Paul Armbrusst 0-0-0
George Regula 2-0-4
Jim Wallace 3-0-6
Fritz Syler 3-2-8
Jim Uher 0-2-2
Errol Jacobs 9-6-24
GNADEN 17-27-40-57
BALTIC 18-35-39-52
Thursday, February 17, 1955
Art Cicconetti, Sports Editor
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio
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