December 5, 1974
Quakers Win
Fourth Straight
by Steve Beck
Guilfordian Sports Editor
SALISBURY - Looking more
and more like the team to beat
this season in the Carolinas
Conference, Guilford streng
thened its hold on the top CC
spot with a 83-74 win over
Catawba College last night.
Lloyd Free lead the Quakers
with 23 points.
Although it wasn't until the
second that Guilford finally
took complete charge of the
game, the Quakers controlled
the game except for the first
ten minutes.
At the beginning of the
game Catawba looked like it
might blow Guilford out of the
gym. Utilizing balanced score
the Indians took leads of 8-0
and 10-2 before the Quakes
could start playing.
Paul Drechsler's jumper
with 8:08 gave Guilford its
first lead of the night at 22-21,
moving on to an five point
edge later and a 40-37
halftime margin.
Only once in the second half
did Guilford loose its
composure. With 13:50 Free
picked up his fourth personel
foul and coach Jack Jensen
placed his ail-American on the
bench. With Free out.
Catawba picked at the
Guilford lead until the
Quakers had another five
point lead at 8:47 after leading
by 11.
The clutch play of seniors
Steve Hankins and Ray
Massengill, Billy Highsmith,
and Drechsler then inabled
Guilford to take a 13 point lead
with 6:14 left. Free returned to
the lineup and immediately hit
on a jumper which gave
Guilford its largest buldge of
the night a 74-60 with 3:58
left. Late Indian shots
produced the nine point win
margin at the end. Guilford hit
six out of eight free throw
during the last two minutes.
Besides Free, four other
Quakers scored in double
figures. Highsmith and Sam
Kennedy each had 14 points
while Hankins added 12 and
Massengill 10.
The Guilfordian
Wishes Its Readers
A Safe And Happy
Holiday Season
MHH r
Ray Massengill puts it up against Mars Hill.
Quaker Basketball
by David Scott
The Guilford College basketball team opened up its' 1974-75
season with three games in four days and came out of them with
two wins. The Quakers lost their opener to nationally ranked
Gardner-Webb, on Friday night, 103-96, in the opening game of
the Milligan Tip-Off Tournament. The next night they outscored
Cumberland College in the consolation, 82-81. Monday night,
they edged Mars Hill, 85-84.
Quaker take Third Place...
There is usually alot to be found out about a team in its'
opening game. A good one usually tries to iron out its'
preseason kinks in the opener, but ususally against a weaker
team so it can correct its' mistakes while still going one up in the
win column.
But Guilford got itself in a little deep this year; they decided
to open with Gardner-Webb, the team that the Quakers were
supposed to meet in February for the District title. The Quakers
ironed out alot of problems...2B turnovers worth, and were
bitten by the Bulldogs, 103-96.
Mistakes were the name of this game. The Quakers had a bad
habit of passing the ball to the nearest available G-W player
everytime they had a chance to turn the game around. But alot
of credit has to be given to Guilford, they were down by as many
as 16 points in the first half and 14 in the second and still made
G-W do alot of sweating.
Lloyd Free, Guilford's All-Everything, had 33 points on the
night. Billy Highsmith had 22 and Sam Kennedy 21.
John Turner popped in 26 points for the Bulldogs, while John
Searight had 22. It was Searright who in the end, was Guilford's
undoing.
It was hard to tell who was going to take control at the outset.
But after Guilford took a 7-6 lead, Gardner-Webb asserted its'
muscle under the boards and jumped out to a 32-16 lead with 8
minutes remaining. But the Quakers then scored 14
unanswered points to narrow it to 2. The Bulldogs fended
Guilford off for the rest of the half, to take a 49-43 lead at the
intermission.
The first 2'A minutes of the second half lost the game for
Guilford. Billy Highsmith finally scored with 18:30 left in the
The Guilfordian
game, but when he looked up to the scoreboard, it read 57-45 in
favor of G-W. The Quakes couldn't get it all back. But don't let
anyone tell you that they didn't try.
A shot that Free pulled out of his hip pocked made it 70-69
with 9:16 remaining. But the Bulldogs then ripped off 8
straight.
At 4:59, Free hit again to shorten the Bulldog lead to 2, 86-84.
But, then, those turnovers. Oh, those turnovers.
From then on G-W held the lead out, and the Quakers could
never get closer than 3. Everytime any threat occured, a clutch
Bulldog basket, ususally by Searright. just agoniangly would
ruin things. ,
So. the season began on the losing end. But if a good loss is
possible, this probably was onel A good team won, but a good
team lost. 28 turnovers sure Qin make a lot of difference.
The next night, the Quakers took on Cumberland, and it took
some clutch free throws by Llovd-Free and some help from
Someone Above to give Guilford its' first win of the season. The
victory earned the Quakers thirds place in the tournament.
Free hit 3 free shots in the last 1:13 to ice the win. But a last
second desperation shot from the foul line by Cumberland's
David Perkins bounced off. and only then could the Quakes
finally breath easy.
The Quakers had to come from behind to win, they were down
by 3 at the half, and were down by as many as 13 earlier on.
But with 16:00 minutes left in the game, they climbed even at
47 all, then a basket by Elton Gross put them ahead to stay. But
they could never ice the cake.
Gross scored 11 points down the stretch and he was the
Quaker's spark plug as Free was sitting out with foul trouble.
Then, with 1:40 left and the score tied at 79-79, Free was
fouled and he hit one out of his two charity tosses. The Indians
couldn't convert at their end, and with Free handling the ball,
he was fouled again with :5b remaining. This time he hit both of
them and that was all she wrote for Cumberland.
Free finished with 26 points (he had 61 for the tournament,
and was named the MVP), while Gross surprised everyone by
having 20 points. For Cumberland, Charles Henderson had a
game high 29 points, followed by Perkins' 25.
The Quakers did not play very well. They had 21 turnovers
this time, which was less than their 28 against Gardner-Webb,
but still far too many.
They also were either a hot team or a cold team for the first 25
minutes of the game. They went for stretches of 3'A and 4
minutes without scoring; but also, they scored 8 points with 22
seconds at one time.
A journey to the Mountains of Tennessee, proved that
Guilford has an exciting team, but Guilford has always had an
exciting team. Get that excitement channeled to the right places
and alot of teams are going to be left in the wake of it.
Return Home to Beat Mars Hill
Jack Jensen described the Quakers' performance against
Mars Hill as "between inept and fair". Perhaps the word he
was looking for was adequate, because the show that Guilford
put on Monday night was only adequate.
The Quakers defeated the supposed Conference doormat,
85-84. Guilford is now 2-1 overall, 1-0 in Conference play, and
1-1 in the District.
Steve Hankins, who according to Jensen "played his best
game in a long time", led the Quakers with 20 points. Lloyd
Free and Ray Massengill each had 15.
But, even if you think that Lloyd may have had a bad night (he
was 15 points off his season's average), he again showed
incredible cool in his free throw shooting as he won a game for
the second straight time. This time he was fouled while shooting
with 5 seconds remaining and Guilford down by one. Free, who
with the exception of Number 44 in Raleigh, may be the most
exciting player in this area, nonchalantly canned both shots,
and the game was over.
In the second half, it looked like the Quakers finally were
going to haul off and make it a rout. They led by 12 with 14:30
left, and all seemed to be going smoothly. But Mars Hill slowlv
started chopping at it. With 10:34 left, the Lions cut it 64-60.
And finally, they tied the game at 81 with 1:49 left. The teams
traded baskets and then time was called by Guilford with 1:15
left and the score at 83-83.
Guilford got the ball and worked for the last shot. Sam
Kennedy took a 15 footer, which missed, and then fouled Lion
Carlos Showers. Showers only made his first shot and
Massengill rebounded. The Quakers moved quickly downcourt,
and the stage was set for Free.
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