South Mountaineer Volume 16, Issue 21

              Skaters Clinch Middle Atlantic League Title
(Story on Page 2)
i
Vol. 16 — No. 21
FEBRUARY 26, 1974
BETHLEHEM, PA.
Stunning Victory For Cagers
Lehiqh 88,
MAR 8    1374
Engineers Victorious
In Overtime Thriller
Eight points behind with only
1:44 of an overtime period
remaining, Lehigh's freshman-
dominated varsity basketball
squad registered a stunning 88-87
victory over arch-rival Lafayette
last Wednesday before 1,500
screaming spectators in Grace
Hall.
It was the final home appearance of the season for the
young Engineers and they gave
their loyal supporters something
to remember with a brilliant
performance against what appeared to be impossible odds.
Lafayette, already assured of a
spot in the MAC playoffs but
needing a triumph to nail down
first place and gain an important
first-round bye, tumbled to its
eighth loss in 23 starts. It was
only the third victory in 23 tries
for Lehigh.
In their last 1973-74 contest the
Engineers (3-21) fell before
Rider, 71-65, in a doubleheader at
Princeton. The Tigers whipped
Brown in the nightcap.
Freshman Dick Packer, whose
father Tony coached Lehigh
basketball and baseball teams
for many years before moving
into a supervisory post with the
University's Buildings and
Grounds department, sank the
winning field goal against
Lafayette with only two seconds
remaining. It capped a blistering
show by the reserve guard who
came off the bench in the second
half and contributed 16 points.
The decisive field goal was his
seventh in 10 shots, all from long
range, and he converted his only
two free throws.
Philadelphia Flyer hockey fans
would've loved this one.
Lehigh fought the taller, more-
experienced Leopards every inch
of the way during a typical
Engineer-Leopard pairing
conducted on a no-holds-barred
basis. Norm Liedtke, Lehigh's
only senior, and Henry Home of
Lafayette were ejected in the
first half for fighting.
Four Lehigh cagers and one
Lafayette player were asked to
leave the game via the personal
foul route. Each team drew a
technical foul as tempers boiled
over from time to time on the
floor and at the benches. At least
one other exchange of punches
was shrugged off in the heat of
battle.
Home, a 6-6, 185-pound junior,
and Liedtke, a 5-9, 170-pound
senior, went at each other with
six minutes remaining in the first
half. Home had been knocked
down from behind by a teammate, unintentionally, and he
figured Leidtke wae at fault.
Liedtke, a chunky, hard-nosed
little veteran with three years of
varsity football to his credit,
accepted the challenge. He
ripped into Home, knocked him
backward and was flailing away
when other players intervened.
Both were ejected, depriving the
Engineers of their most-
experienced floor leader and the
Leopards of a tall, dangerous
rebounder and shooter. "He
threw the first punch," Liedtke
contends.
The brief brawl appeared to
ignite the Lehigh squad. It also
seemed to unsettle the Leopards.
Lafayette clung to a 39-33
halftime lead but Lehigh kept
clawing the scratching from
behind, once by 10 points, to
finally go ahead briefly at 75-74.
The regulation game ended with
the teams deadlocked at 76.
In overtime Lafayette scored
the first eight points, leading 84-
76 with only 1:44 left, when the
Engineers suddenly got off the
floor one more time behind the
fantastic shooting of Packer who
had been sent into action when
(Continued on Page 2)
effe 87
DICK PACKER
..kills Leopards
Incredible?
Lehigh basketball teams
dumped Lafayette three
times in four games this
winter, splitting varsity
competition and sweeping
both junior varsity tests.
Incredible?
Not really, except to
anyone who'd be surprised
if Lafayette defeated
Lehigh wrestling teams
three times in four tries.
Coeds Win
Lois Biamon and Sharon
Shegina remained undefeated in
the dive this season as Lehigh's
girls swimming team topped
visiting Widener, 47-30.
Linda Trevisan of Widener was
the meet's only triple winner
while Ginny Thompson captured
a pair of events for Lehigh.
11
One of Greatest Thrills"
Says Coach Tom Pugliese
"The way our young men
played against Lafayette
gave me one of the biggest
thrills of my life," says
Lehigh basketball coach
Tom Pugliese.
"I can't say enough
about them, every one of
them, they all figured in
the victory. I've been proud
of them all season because
they never quit, never
stopped working hard,
always gave it all they had.
The Lafayette game was
something they deserved.
"We're just one or two
players away from having
a real tough ball club. We
know the students are
behind us, they showed that
last Wednesday. None of us
will ever forget the support
we got from the stands,
especially in that overtime
period.
"I think we'll look back
to Feb. 20,1974, as the night
our basketball program
came of age at Lehigh."
DeStito, Tom Sculley,
Frick Set Marks;
EIWA Tourney Next
Lehigh wrestlers, tuning up for
this weekend's EIWA Tournament at the Naval Academy,
registered routine victories over
Columbia, 38-5, and Rutgers, 27-
12.
In junior varsity competition
the Engineers' hopes for a perfect season were exploded by
Stevens Trade of Lancaster, Pa.,
19-13. The team retaliated with a
33-3 rout of the Rutgers jayvees.
Coach Thad Turner's varsity
goes into the record book as both
the "winningest" and "losingest"
team in Lehigh mat history 14-7.
No squad ever won 14 dual meets
in one season, nor lost seven.
Coach Gerry Leeman's junior
varsity compiled an 8-1 record.
Eastern Tournament competition begins Friday (Mar. 1) at
the Naval Academy with
preliminary round action at 1
p.m. and quarter-finals at 7 p.m.
Saturday's (Mar. 2) schedule
has semi-finals at 12:30 p.m. and
finals at 8 p.m. Consolation
finals, for third place, are at 6:30.
Penn State, the defending
champion, is rated the team to
beat with Navy and Lehigh expected to provide the only serious
threats to the Nittany Lions who
tied the Midshipmen, 18-18, and
edged Lehigh, 18-15, in dual
meets.
In last weekend's warfare the
Engineers had no difficulty in
their back-to-back tests against
Columbia, Friday night in Grace
Hall, and Rutgers, Saturday
afternoon at New Brunswick, N.
J.
Veteran stars Mike Frick of
Hamburg, N. J., Terry DeStito of
Enola, Pa., and Tom Sculley each
racked up a pair of victories to
finish with 17 triumphs apiece,
most ever for an Engineer
grappler in one season. Frick set
the old mark of 15 last year.
Tom Sculley completed an
undefeated (17-0-1) dual campaign.
It was freshman 118-pounder
Bobby Sloand of Landing, N. J.,
however, who stole the spotlight.
The   former   N.   Y.   state
champion from Niagara
Wheatfields High School upset
Columbia's undefeated Sal
Lanuto, 16-14, and flattened
Rutgers' Gary Ungvare in 5:56.
Sloand, after somewhat of a
slow start, has rapidly developed
into a strong leadoff man. He
wound up with a dual mark of 11-
9-1 and was the only man on the
team to wrestle in all 21 meets.
Lanuto, who almost knocked
Frick out of the quarter-final
round of last season's Easterns
before dropping a 14-9 decision, is
an established veteran who might
have been seeded No. 1 in the
tournament except for his loss to
Sloand.
The little Lion was ahead of
Sloand in their whirlwind bout,
13-11, and had a time advantage
point in his favor, when the
Lehigh youngster came up with a
five-point maneuver on a
reversal and near-fall in the final
seconds.
Frick pinned West Reeves of
(Continued on Page 2)
LEHIGH 38, COLUMBIA 5
118—Bob Sloand, Lehigh, dec. Sal Lanuto, 16-
14.
126—Mike    Frick,    Lehigh,    pinned    West
Reeves in 2:38.
134—Pat Sculley, Lehigh, dec. Pete Zurflieh,
10-1.
142   Tom   Sculley,   Lehigh,   pinned   Larry
Trowbridge in 6:00.
150—Jeff Duke, Lehigh, dec. Jim Mullin, 8-1.
158—Barry Dixon, Lehigh, dec. Danny Yee,
7-1.
167—Glenn Grant, Lehigh, and Jamie Fee
drew, 2-2.
177—Terry   DeStito,   Lehigh,   pinned   Tom
Wagner in 4:20.
190—John    Waller,    Columbia,    dec.    Don
McCorkel, 10-1.
Hvy—George   Barkanic,   Lehigh,   won   by
forfeit.
Referee—Ted Martz
LEHIGH 27, RUTGERS 12
118—Bob   Sloand,    Lehigh,   pinned    Gary
Ungvare in 5:56.
126—Mike   Frick,   Lehigh,   dec.   Gerry
Nisivoccia, 5-1.
134—Bob Ciarrocki, Rutgers, dec. Tihamer
Toth-Feiel, 62.
142—Tom Sculley, Lehigh, dec. Scott Myers,
7-2.
150—Jeff Duke, Lehigh, dec. Phil Steiner, 7-
2.
158—Bob   Kiefer,   Rutgers,   pinned   Barry
Dixon in 2:41.
167—Glenn Grant, Lehigh, pinned Curt Roby
in 5:51.
177—Terry   DeStito,    Lehigh,   dec.    Steve
Bonsell, 5-2.
190—Don   McCorkel,    Lehigh,   dec.    Pete
Maddalena, 7-0.
Hvy—Bob  Morton,   Rutgers,  dec.   George
Barkanic, 6-1.
Referee—Jim Gilroy