Midwest Regional Semifinal

DALLAS, Tex., March 15 (AP)- Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain was too much for Southern Methodist tonight and Kansas beat the Methodists 73-65 in an overtime to reach the finals of the Western Regional NCAA basketball tournament.

The giant Negro, who uses his 7-foot stature and 11-foot jumping reach to keep the other side from scoring while he crams the ball through the netting, flipped in 36 points in leading the Nation's No, 2 team into tomorrow night's finals against Oklahoma City University. Oklahoma City earlier had beaten St. Louis 75-68.

Southern Methodist maid a great game of it and through the second half the score was tied six times while the lead changed hands 13 times.

With 5:08 left, however, SMU lost its great center, Jim Krebs, via the foul route. From there on the Methodists attempted to stall and take only the sure shots. SMU was leading 57-55 with 3:30 to go when the giant Chamberlain laid one in the basket to tie it up. But Ned Duncan, SMU guard was fouled by Maurice King of the Jayhawks und he sank both free throws to put SMU back ahead again.

Gene Elstun weaved through and landed on a jump shot from near the free throw line to tie it up with only 32 seconds left, so the game went into overtime (video).

Chamberlain hooked one in to put Kansas ahead but Bob McGregor followed suit for SMU to tie it up again. Then the bottom fell out for the Methodists. King put in a jump shot and Bob Billings sank two free throws. Next, Chamberlain crammed in a field goal, King got two free throws and Chamberlain again landed on a field goal and SMU didn�t have any more fight left (video).

The game grew a trifle rough in the late stage and once Bobby Mills of SMU and John Parker of the Jayhawks almost came to blows. Mills was trying to wrestle the ball away from Chamberlain, Parker interceded.

Chamberlain's rebounding, blocking of shots and feeding of the ball brought the approval of the huge crowd. There was just no way to guard the Stilt and no way to keep him from scoring. The All-America center plucked 22 rebounds.

Krebs handled Chamberlain fairly well and scored 18 points mostly with his lazy hook shot. SMU tried a sinking defense on Chamberlain but most times he would just bullet a pass off to Ron Loneski or Elstun in the unprotected zone for a field goal.

The tall Oklahoma City Chiefs controlled the backboards and were never behind in beating St. Louis.

The Chiefs jumped to 3-0 lead and St. Louis never could get past them although three times tying the score. Twice Oklahoma City held a 9-point lead.

The Billikins pulled to a 64-64 deadlock with 3:10 left but Lyndon Lee sank two free throws to bring the Chiefs back ahead and St. Louis couldn't score again until the last 25 seconds. Meanwhile, Lee, Roger Holoway and Cecil Magana were drifting through for layups.

Both teams used man for man defenses and it was a running game.

Midwest Regional Final

Wilt Chamberlain, Maurice King and Lew Johnson, sparked Kansas into the NCAA semifinals Saturday night with a last half surge that buried Oklahoma City University, 81-61.

While Wilt the Stilt wound up the night with 30 points to run his two game total to 66, it was Johnson's first half rebounding and King's speedy driving and long-range sharp shooting that turned a close game into a runaway (video).

Oklahoma City, keeping Chamberlain fairly well bottled up in the first half when he got only nine points, trailed only 27-24 at halftime, but King picked up five quick points to open the second half and from then on it was all Kansas as Coach Dick Harp's Jayhawks went into the championship tournament for the fifth time.

The crowd of 7,600 in SMU�s new coliseum was definitely anti-Kansas from the start of the final contest and the game had to be halted at one time while an appeal was made for the crowd to stop throwing trash onto the floor and booing the officials.

But, in the end the Jayhawks were clearly the masters of the situation and were beating Oklahoma City at its own speed game.  OCU's Hub Reed, a 6-10 junior who effectively kept Chamberlain from getting his favorite �stuff �em� shots in the first half, turned in a spectacular performance in a losing cause with 26 points.

Earlier, Southern Methodist breezed to third place with a 78-68 verdict over St. Louis with big Jim Krebs scoring 33 points.

The National Semifinal

KANSAS CITY, March 22 (AP)- Fantastic Wilt Chamberlain stuffed in 32 points to give Kansas an easy 80 to 56 victory over San Francisco University tonight, winning the Jayhawks a spot in the National Collegiate (NCAA) basketball finals tomorrow night against North Carolina.

The Tar Heels edged Michigan State 74-70 in three blistering overtime sessions in the first semi-final game.

Tonight's games, played before a screaming and at times delirious capacity crowd of 10,500 in Municipal Auditorium, set the stage for a championship meeting of the nation's two top basketball powers tomorrow.

North Carolina is the nation's No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll. Kansas was rated second to the Tar Heels practically all season.

In contrast to the opening semifinal, Kansas coasted by San Francisco, tournament champion the last two years.

The Dons got off to a fast start on field goals by Art Day and Hike Preaseau, but the Jayhawks turned on a furious fast break and owned a 9-8 lead after 4 � minutes and won going away.

Chamberlain had 15 points at halftime and was taken out of the game with 3:45 remaining. His points tonight brought his three game total for the NCAA tournament, including the regionals at Dallas last week, to 98 points.

The 7-foot Negro sophomore All-America from Philadelphia also was key man under the backboards with 11 rebounds and innumerable blocked shots. Twice he led Kansas fast breaks which brought roars from the enthused crowd (video).

The Jayhawks stayed hot all the way, making 34 of their 57 shots from the floor for an amazing 59.6 per cent. San Francisco, never in the game after the early moments, sank only 23 of 71 for a 32.4 percentage.

Mike Farmer, 6-7 junior from Richmond, Calif., kept Don hopes alive with 12 points the first half, but he was held to one field goal after the intermission.  Kansas dominated the rebounds 44-25.

Kansas coach Dick Harp used 12 players and 10 of them scored. Gene Elstun and Maurice King, senior forwards, proved to be Chamberlain's best helpers with 16 and 13 points respectively (video).

The Jayhawks lead mounted rapidly as the second half got under way. Chamberlain opened the period by dunking one through the basket and followed seconds later with a lay-up. He netted a free throw, then King and Elstun followed with quick goals to run the Kansas lead to 12 points, 46-34 after only 3:40 of play.

National Championship Game

KANSAS CITY (AP)- North Carolina defeated Kansas, 54-53, in three overtime periods tonight to win the National Collegiate basketball tournament. Joe Quigg won the game for the unbeaten Tar Heels with two foul shots in the final six seconds and then blocked a pass to Wilt Chamberlain to foil a Jayhawk scoring bid. Quigg's jumping one-hand block kept Chamberlain from attempting one desperate shot in the last five seconds of the third extra period. It was the first time a national championship game went into overtime. The Tar Heels' victory extended their unbeaten streak to thirty-two games.

The final, frantic fifteen minutes of play produced two heated incidents on the court. In the first one Pete Brennan of North Carolina clamped his arms around Chamberlain's waist and began to wrestle. The second occurred when Tommy Kearns of North Carolina swung aside Gene Elstun of Kansas.

The dramatic finish of the title game occurred after a tight battle that was close except for the opening ten minutes, when North Carolina racked up a 19-7 margin. It was North Carolina by 29-22 at the half and Kansas did not catch up until it took the lead at 36-35 with 16:40 left. Kansas was on top, 40-37, with ten minutes left and the score was 46-46 at the end of regulation play. The score was twice tied and the lead changed twice before the 46-46 deadlock.

The two teams scored only 2 points each in the first overtime. Chamberlain hit for Kansas and Bob Young, a substitute, tallied for North Carolina (video). The second overtime was scoreless (video). Kearns and Quigg then won the game for North Carolina, hitting for all the Tar Heel points in the third extra session. Kearns had a field goal and two free throws to match Chamberlain's overtime production. Elstun added another free throw to send Kansas ahead, 53-52, with twenty seconds left. Chamberlain blocked Kearns' shot but fouled Quigg, who hit for the 2 winning points. Kansas took time out with five seconds left and tried to feed the ball to Chamberlain, but Quigg made the game-saving block (video).

Chamberlain was the top scorer with 23 points. North Carolina's All-America, Lennie Rosenbluth, had 20. Rosenbluth fouled out with 1:45 remaining in standard playing time and did not play in the extra periods, which were mostly displays of stalling and ball control. The pattern of stalling began as soon as Kansas got its 3-point lead. North Carolina started slowing it down and Kansas followed suit. From ten minutes left in regulation time to five minutes, not a shot was fired. Both teams continued the stalling in the first two overtimes.

Third place in the championship went to San Francisco, the defending champion. The Dons defeated Michigan State, 68-60.