Arizona Wildcats 53

Kentucky Wildcats 79

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NEW YORK, Mar. 18. (Special).—The University of Arizona's Wildcats were en route home today after bowing out of the national intercollegiate basketball tournament in New York's Madison Square Garden Saturday night to a superior University of Kentucky team, 79-53.

The Wildcats, outclassed but not outfought, entered the game as 16-point underdogs but their plucky spirits established them as sentimental favorites for the record throng of 18,483 spectators who crammed every nook and corner of the Garden for the doubleheader. The second game of the evening saw a favored Syracuse team bowled over by scrappy Muhlenberg, 47-41.

Arizona, visibly nervous at the start of the game, trailed by a 16-1 margin at the end of the first six minutes of play and never could catch up. It was the first appearance in New York for Coach Fred Enke's team and the luck of the draw stacked them up against the Blue Grass basketeers which experts are predicting will walk away with the invitational crown.

Wallace Jones, rangy Kentucky center, plunked in the first free throw to start the scoring in the game and Freddie Enke pitched a charity in for Arizona to tie the score. After this the Southerners drew a "revernooers" bead on the bucket and poured in 15 successive points before Arizona could hit the rim.

Junior Crum replaced Tim Ballantyne in the Cat lineup and counted the westerner's first basket. Link Richmond found the range for four points and Crum counted again to bring the score to 16-9 from where the Kentuckians started rolling again, amassing a 43-22 lead at halftime.

A determined, fiery spirit brought Arizona back into the ball game in the opening minutes of the second half. Led by Richmond and Enke on offense and George Genung on defense, the Cats pulled the Garden assemblage out of their seats as they narrowed the margin to 52-41 after seven minutes of the second half had elapsed. The rally was short-lived, however, as the lads from the land of Blue Grass and brood mares wouldn't be denied, swishing the net from all angles for their ultimate convincing margin of victory.

Kentucky presented a well-balanced attack which featured evenly divided scoring. The two high point men for the game were Richmond and Enke with 21 and 18 points. Jones, Jack Parkinson, and Jack Tingle had 16, 14, and 13 points respectively to pace the winners.

The pressure of the first Garden appearance was evident from Arizona's foul shooting percentage, when the cats hit for 11 of 26 tries. Kentucky converted 21 out of 31. Coach Enke was high in praise of the Kentucky team and predicted that they wouldn't have too much trouble In winning the tournament. The southerners have only been beaten twice this year, by Notre Dame and Temple. Even in defeat, Arizona had some consolation in scoring the 53 points against Adolph Rupp's charges. Only two other teams have scored more points against Kentucky this year.

Enke expressed the desire after the game to come back to the Garden next year. "To make a better showing."

Between the halves of the Syracuse–Muhlenberg tussle, Arizona cagers were introduced individually and presented with engraved wrist watches for participating in the tournament.

The team left New York Sunday night and expect to arrive in Tucson via the Golden State Wednesday evening.