NEW REGIONAL COVERAGE NORTH CENTRAL North Dakota
sOuth Dakota Minnesota Wisconsin
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STATE BY STATE
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another 91 points against Prairie Du Chien in the championship game, 91-70. Tom Weinkauf became first coach in Wisconsin history to win three consecutive state basketball titles when his Marathon crew nipped Oostburg 53-52 for their 74th win in 76 games and the Class C title. Oostburg, paced by 6-8 Brian Nyenhius, finished 25-1 on the season, while Paul
state draws thousands for the hockey finals, they still outdraw most state tournaments in basketball. Rated as one of the very best high school hockey players was Scott Lecy of Rochester (see Athletes of the Year), who scored two goals in the finals to cap an amazing three-year career with his team's 4-2 win over Edina East before 17,083 onlookers in the St. Paul Civic Center. You
NEW REGIONAL COVERAGE Seubert paved the way for the winners by hitting 12 points in the first quarter and finishing with 24. Winners of the Wisconsin girls tournament include Watertown in Class A, Cuba City in Class B, and Marshall in Class C, with Green Bay West, Omro and lolaScandinavia finishing runners-up respectively.
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wide-open affair in South Dakota, but the odds on favorite year after year has been Sioux Falls Lincoln. The Lincoln High track team, coached by Rich Greeno, has won seven of eight state titles since Greeno became coach in 1968; and his cross country team has won 79 co·nsecutive meets and seven straight state championships. Madison La Follette was described as a "Cinderella" team in the Wisconsin basketball tournament. From their record, a more accurate description might have been ... ho ... hum. When the cage finals began, La Follette was 12-8 and could do no better than fourth in the Big Eight Conference. After it was all over, that ho ... hum ... had turned into "No. I", as they ran off II straight points with 6:33 left in the third quarter to take a 38-28 lead and go on to register an impressive 65-48 victory over favored Eau Claire Memorial for the Class A title. It was almost the same in Class B, where Clintonville, ranked No. 4 at the start of the tourney, surprised No. !ranked Ladysmith in the semi-finals, 9174, with a torrid fast break led by all-state guard Mike Jirschele. Clintonville, who plays their majority of regular season games against Class A schools, then scored
Basketball Weekly (behind West Philadelphia, Pa.) in early March, the defending Ohio champs were averaging 98.0 points per game, and were billed as "the most exciting basketball team in Ohio history." "If you weren't for the other team in the state tournament, you couldn't help but be for Barberton," insisted one Ohio official. "That's how exciting they were to watch. This state has never seen anything like it. Their style of play is spectacular to watch. It's like organized chaos." Indeed it was, as head coach Jack Greynolds had installed a style of fullcourt, pressurized defense and blistering fast break offense which made coaches like Ralph Tasker in Hobbs, N.M., and Jackie Carr at Houston Wheatley, "Tx., legends in their own time. During the past three years, the Magics had posted records of 21-3, 26-0 and 25-1, and residents of Barberton changed the names of streets to those of players to honor their success. They also painted half the town purple, the school colors. But it was a Columbus school, Linden McKinley, which brought an end to all the "magic" in the state finals in Columbus, and Barberton's streak came to an end, 80-
be proud of the job Barberton did -p~tti-;;g Ohio high school basketball back on the map - in a state where football teams like Massillon and Cincinnati Moeller are household names in the winter. But right now the trophy belongs to Columbus Linden-McKinley, and it took one of the best teams in the U.S.A. to wrestle it away from the Magics. McKinley was such a team. If attendance reports are correct, Indiana landed the largest crowd of the season for state championship games. Exactly 17,490 fans, capacity for Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, looked on as Carmel upset East Chicago Washington (and All-American Drake Morris) for the championship of Indiana - all of Indiana. The Hoosier State doesn't mess around with classifications when it comes to basketball. If you win it all in Indiana you're the best of the lot. Two additional Indiana products which basketball fans have talked about all season include another All-America product, Ray Tolbert, the 6-9 center at Madison Heights Anderson who averaged 25.2 points per game, and 6-4 junior Dale White of Covington. White had an unbePREP I JUNE-JULY 1977