12/4/1943

Wildcats Sink Navy Cadets In Hot Encounter

Free - Scoring Battle Is Taken By U.A. With Genung In Lead

In a furious basketball battle in which the Navy Aviation Cadets used every type of strategy at their command, the Navy went down fighting hard before the University of Arizona's Wildcats Saturday night at the Tucson high school gym by a count of 52 to 36. The Wildcats fired the first guns, so to speak, drawing the initial blood, and never once during the engagement was the Navy V-5 able to overtake them.

The Wildcats looked good in their first encounter of the season, despite some spotty playing. The same might be said of the Cadets, whose playing was particularly good for an opening game and whose essential weakness seemed to be largely In not so accurate basket shooting.

Gennng Top Gunner

Using a fast-breaking style of play, the Wildcats had little trouble finding the way to the basket. George Genung led the boys with l8 points, Dapper Dick Dermody netted 13, and Babe Hall coming up next with 12 points.

Johnny Dasovich, Bill Atwell and O'Neill of the Navy divided scoring honors for the Cadets with nine points apiece.

Tlm Ballantyne was eased out of the game via the personal foul route In the second half. He had been doing a good job as center for the Wildcats.

The Cadets put on a highly creditable performance, especially in view of the limited opportunities they have for practice. While they took quite a beating in the first half, they steadied in the latter portion and played the Wildcats nearly even, losing the second half by 23 to 21 after dropping the first half by 29 to 15.

With the U. of A. starting the scoring, the Navy trailed throughout the battle. The Cadets had difficulty penetrating the college men's defense, especially in the early portion of the game.

Davis–Monthan Next

Coach Fred Enke's squad gave promise of being able to turn this into a victorious season. The next game for the Wildcats will be on Friday, Dec. 17, when they will be host at the high school gym to the Davis–Monthan cagers. The following night they will take on the Marana five.