1948: Favored Cats Stumble in Final Four.

Regional Semifinal

KANSAS CITY (AP)- Building up a 19-point lead early in the second half, Kansas State's Wildcats coasted to a 58-48 victory over the University of Wyoming in the opening game of the Western Regional N.C.A.A. playoffs Friday night.

Baylor's Bears staged a magnificent second half rally to overcome the Washington University Huskies, 64-62, in the second game. Kansas State will meet Baylor Saturday night for the western title and the right to play the eastern winner for the national championship in New York Tuesday. Holy Cross and Kentucky meet in New York Saturday night to decide the eastern representative.

The big crowd was strongly partisan, pulling for the "home" team from Kansas State which had captured the first cage title ever won by a team from that school since the formation of the Big Six Conference in 1928. The Wildcats had a Cinderella season and had every reason to deserve such support. Kansas State, on the basis of its record, was installed as a pre-tourney favorite in the west. The Municipal auditorium sellout crowd of 9,700 saw the Kansans play "cat and mouse" with their foe in the second half. Near the end of the game, K-State Coach Jack Gardner pulled his first string and the Cowboys rallied mildly against the Wildcat reserves.

Kansas State had little trouble in winning 58-48 from Ev Shelton's inexperienced crew of Cowboys. The Cowpokes had only one senior in the starting lineup and that fact was plainly evident through the entire game.

Wyoming's deliberate offense was no puzzle for Kansas State. The Wildcats held the Rocky Mountain boys without a field goal for the first nine and a half minutes of play and Kansas State loafed to a 10-2 lead. The Kansans also were lethargic at the start, but gained steam about five minutes before the half with Jack Dean, Rick Harman and Howard Shannon hitting the hoop regularly.

Loy Doty, Mack Peyton and Jerry Reed hit two-pointers for Wyoming to start the Cowboy scoring and with about six minutes remaining in the first half the Wildcats had only a 12-9 lead. That was as close as Wyoming got. At the half the score was 23-15 for Kansas State.

The first eight minutes of the second half was a scintillating display of the attack that brought the Wildcats through a highly successful season. K-State rained shots into the basket. With only five minutes gone they had stretched their advantage to 17 points, 36-19. In those eight minutes, 20 points were racked up by the Kansans. Big Clarence Brannum, speedy Half Howey, sharp-shooter Harman and the leaping Dean were all in on the scoring. Fancy ball handling and the lightning break dazzled the young Cowpokes.

Coach Jack Gardner inserted his reserves with a big 43-24 lead showing on the scoreboard. Wyoming took advantage of the situation to close the gap slightly, trailing by nine points, 38-47, after five minutes of diligent work. Payton, Wyoming forward, dropped in two long shots and his teammates, John Pilch and Doty, also hit the bucket to cut the Kansas State advantage to seven points, 53-46.

The K-State regulars came back into the game at that point and Wyoming's attack wilted. The Wildcats slowed their fast break after that. They controlled the ball and were content to coast in until the final gun.

Only Payton's one-man stand saved Wyoming from a complete rout. He tossed in nine field goals and two free throws for 20 points- the best individual scoring performance on either team.

National Semifinal

KANSAS CITY, Mo, March 20 (UP)- A "never-say-die" band of battling Baptists from Baylor University, led by an ordained preacher, Saturday night won the NCAA western playoffs and a place in the Olympic bracket as they turned back favored Kansas State College, 60-52.

The hard-fought victory, second in two nights for the Baptists, sent them to New York to represent the west against Kentucky, eastern N.C.A.A champions in the finals in Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. Kansas State will meet Holy Cross, tonight's 60-52 loser to Kentucky, in the first game of the New York doubleheader Tuesday.

The deadly Kansas State accuracy at the free-throw line, which saw them swish in 22 out of 26 chances in the game, enabled the Wildcats to build up a 10-point lead in the first half of the Western final. The Kansans first went ahead at 6-1, but Baylor caught up at 11-all on Don Heathington's free throw after seven minutes of play.

K-State used the free-throw line as a scoring springboard, ring�ing the bell 14 straight times in the first half with never a miss. With the defense holding steady, Kansas State went to a 29-19 lead with three minutes of the half remaining.

A shirt-sleeved crowd of 9700, second full house in two nights to watch the westerns, saw Kansas State pull out steadily after breaking the 11-all tie at the 7-mlnute mark of the first period. Three minutes later the Kansans had a five point lead and they went on in the next seven minutes to run it up to 29-19 as Clarence Brannum, Rick Harman, Ward Clark and Lloyd Krone counted.

As they did Saturday night against the University of Washington, the boys from Waco, Tex. had to overcome a great handicap. Once again they started at the 17 minute mark of the first half trailing then by ten. That same fateful three-minute mark seemed a signal for the Bears. As they had the night before, the Bears started to creep up the ladder in the waning minutes of the first half. Bell DeWitt counted from the field. Bill Johnson hit a pair of two-pointers, Jackie Robinson one, and Johnson wound up the half with three charities in the final minute and made the score was 32-28 for the Kansans at the intermission.

Johnson and Heathington pulled the trigger on the firing which demolished what was left of the K-State lead in the first three minutes of the second period. Johnson's two free throws and Heathington's goal tied it before Johnson put Baylor ahead, 35-33.

The excitement of the rest of the second half is seen in the fact that nine times the score was knotted before the verdict went to the Bears. The tie marched up the scoring ladder from 35-all to 49-all, the final-knotted count, before Baylor put on the pressure to take a well-earned victory.

The Bears had been in the driver's seat all through the lead-swapping. They went ahead, then forced K-State to come from behind. That pres�sure told on the Wildcats. Once again it was the fancy work of Robinson, the black haired parson, who sparked the great drive to win. Baylor's playing preacher, shot two dazzling goals to give the Bears a 53-49 lead. That was the end of K-State. In the final six minutes of play only one Wildcat field goal rustled the cords.

Baylor changed tactics in those final minutes to give a masterful dis�play of speedy and accurate ball control and broke away at the 16-minute mark. With the title slipping away, K-State began pressing and committed frequent fouls which enabled Baylor to build up a comfortable margin.

National Championship and Consolation

New York (AP)- Kentucky and Holy Cross won in NCAA basketball finals here Tuesday night. Kentucky took the championship with a 58 to 42 win over Baylor and Holy Cross defeated Kansas State 60 to 54 in the consolation.

The smart, sharpshooting boys from the blue grass country succeed Holy Cross' Crusaders. Kentucky and Baylor may meet again since both are participants in the Olympic tryouts opening at the Garden Saturday.

The Kentuckian's won the eastern NCAA title by defeating Holy Cross here Saturday night while Baylor, champion of the Southwest conference, was annexing the western division at Kansas City with a final win over Kansas State.

Adolph Rupp's Southeastern Conference champions stepped off to an early 13-1 lead and were never headed, leading 29-16 at the half.

Baylor, scoreless for the first five minutes, pulled up to 44-35 after intermission but the Wildcats staged another spurt and won breezing.

The East continued its domination over the West as Holy Cross, 1947's NCAA titlists, stood off a stout second half rally by Kansas State to defeat the Big Seven champions, 60-54, in the consolation game. The Crusaders, fast and slick, led by George Kaftan and Bob Cousy, sped off to a commanding lead in the first half before the Kansans could quell their obvious Garden jitters. Coach Alvin (Doggie) Julian, although substituting freely in the opening stanza, watched his 1947 champions race to a 20-9 lead at one stage in the opening half

For 15 minutes it appeared like a romp for Holy Cross. After going ahead in the opening minutes of the game, the Crusaders gradually increased their margin and with one minute of the first half remaining, led by 16 points, 34-18, and piled up a 36-24 half-time advantage. It was mainly the work of Howie Shannon that kept the Wildcats in the running. He scored 10 points in the opening stanza.

The second half was a different story. Opening with a rush, the Wildcats tallied five straight points by Harold Howey, Rick Harmon and Jack Dean to cut Holy Cross' advantage to seven points. Shortly after a pair of Holy Cross baskets the K-Staters, spearheaded by Shannon, Dean and 6 ft. 5 in. Clarence Brannum, splurged for 11 consecutive points that tied the contest at 40-all after nine minutes. A free throw by Dean tied the score for the first and only time.

The Kansas State rally eventually pulled up to 50-47, but the Crusaders outlasted the late spurt. With a partisan Holy Cross crowd screaming for points, the Crusaders heeded the call and countered with three dazzling baskets that wrapped up the game, although State pressured until the bitter end. The Wildcats three times came within within two points.

Kaftan and set-shot artist Frank Oftring scored 11 points each for the Crusaders, but both were short of Kansas State's fine marksman, Shannon, who rang in 17. Dean added five.

Kaftan and Cousy contributed valuable floor performances, as backboard retrievers and play makers.

The American Olympic basketball committee will meet Friday to decide how it will select the 14 members of the team which will represent the United States in the 1948 Olympics.

Lou Wilke, chairman of the committee, said the only thing certain was that the team will consist of 14 players and that seven members will be chosen from the college ranks and seven from the independents.

Wilkes also said the coach of the winning team in the Olympic tryouts which starts Saturday will be named the Olympic coach.

All eight entrants in the Olympic basketball eliminations will be on exhibitions at Madison Square Garden Saturday.