Hugo Daily News 1958

**Goodland, Fort Towson, Hugo Win County Tournament Championships**

**By GENE NESBIT**

*(Staff Writer)*

FORT TOWSON—Goodland, Fort Towson and Hugo had new hardware in their trophy cases today following Saturday night victories in the finals of the county tournament here.

Goodland climaxed a courageous uphill climb with a spine-tingling 42-40 victory over Fort Towson for the "B" boys crown and successfully defended its title in that division.

Fort Towson rolled past Grant with unexpected ease, 47-17, to sack up the girls trophy.

And Hugo, which had stamped itself as a definite contender for the "A" boys title with an upset win over defending champion Grant earlier in the tournament, completed its determined effort to go all the way with a dramatic, 37-36 victory over a Fort Towson team that had already beaten the Buffaloes twice this season.

The jubilant Buffaloes celebrated the occasion by hoisting their coach, Harold Owen, to their shoulders and carrying him to the dressing room after the game.

The game was a tossup until the final seconds. That's when Fort Towson got off a last shot in a desperate attempt for a tie after a missed free throw, with four seconds to play, had denied them of a 37-37 score and an overtime.

The frantic last second shot bounced off the backboard and Hugo was home free with its first county tournament title in years.

Goodland's "B" appeared doomed to defeat when it fell 16 points behind Fort Towson in the second quarter and trailed by 12 at halftime.

Fort Towson led by six with 3½ minutes left, but at the two minute mark it was 40-40.

Fifteen seconds later, Houston Hicks was fouled and calmly pumped in two pressurized free throws to give Goodland a 42-40 lead it held the rest of the game with the help of some stalling tactics.

There was still some tense action left, though. With 15 seconds to play Fort Towson got off a shot that missed and Goodland came down with the rebound.

With four seconds remaining Goodland's Junior Ludlow was fouled. He missed his free throw and Fort Towson grabbed the rebound, hurried the ball downcourt, and managed to get off a shot from just inside the center line. The ball bounced off the rim as the final buzzer sounded.

James Williams was high scorer for Goodland with 13 points. Ludlow had 12. Hathaway David collected 14 points as Fort Towson's high scorer. Robert Still hit 10 points for Fort Towson.

The middle game of the finals card was between the Fort Towson and Grant girls, with Grant the defending champion.

Fort Towson, paced by Barbara Winters who went on a 28 point scoring spree, was never in trouble. Grant trailed 6-0 before it could score its only basket of the first quarter. Fort Towson was ahead 14-2 when the second quarter began, and led 29-9 at halftime. After three quarters Grant was behind by 25 — 38 to 13—and Fort Towson went on to win by a 30 point margin, 47-17.

Judy Pharis added 14 points to Barbara Winters' 28 as the two scored 42 of Fort Towson's 47 points. Kathleen Baggerly, Sue Garner and Ellen Key handled most of the duty at the guard positions for Fort Towson.

With that contest over the stage was set for the dramatic Hugo-Fort Towson "A" boys battle.

There wasn't much scoring in the first half. After the lead had changed hands three times and the score had been tied twice, Hugo found itself ahead 7-4 at the end of the first quarter. The Buffaloes, in the second quarter, held leads of 8-4, 9-4, 9-5, 9-6, 9-8, 11-8, 12-8, 12-10 and 12-11 before Fort Towson tied the score at 12-all on two free throws by Robert McLemore 2:45 before halftime. Hugo went back ahead, 14-12, but Fort Towson tied it again at 14-14 on a basket by Billy Harkins, and with 1:05 to go Hugo fell behind by two — 16 to 14—and trailed by four—18 to 14—at halftime, as Harkins hit two more field goals.

Fort Towson was ahead all of the third quarter, twice by five points, and led by three — 28 to 25 — going into the fourth period.

In the final quarter Fort Towson held leads of 29-25, 31-25, 31-27, 33-27, 33-29, and 33-31 before the Buffaloes, on a basket by Jackie Frost, knotted the count at 33-all with 3:45 to play.

Orville David connected with a free throw seconds later to shoot Fort Towson ahead again, 34-33, but Frost drilled a two pointer to give Hugo a 35-34 advantage with 2:35 to play.

Jerry Glass, with 1:15 to go, put Hugo ahead by three with a bucket off a pivot shot and Fort Towson made it 37-36 on a final basketball by McLemore.

There was a minute and 9 seconds to play when McLemore tallied and from there on in the game really got frantic.

There were jump ball situations with 30, 8 and 6 seconds to play as both teams scrambled for the ball, Hugo wanting to get possession and run out the clock and Fort Towson wanting another shot at the basket.

With four seconds to go Frost fouled Freddie Bentley, subbing for Harkins who went out of the game on five fouls with 2:15 to play in the third quarter after scoring nine points.

Bentley's free throw missed the mark and Ed Risenhoover grabbed the rebound for Hugo. In the scramble under the boards there was a tie ball and a jump was called. Another scramble followed the jump and "Happy Jack" McClanahan came up with the ball for Fort Towson and shot it goalward with one second to play. He was forced to shoot hurriedly, however, and the unaimed ball missed the mark as the final buzzer sounded.

Hugo's scoring was well divided. Top man was Jerry Glass who scored 9 points and had a big hand in the Buffaloes controlling the rebounds. Risenhoover, who also did a good job with the rebounds, scored eight points for Hugo and Charles Parks and Frost scored 7 each. Jay Jarmes contributed four points to the Hugo cause. Parks and Jarmes both fouled out of the game, Parks with 5:35 to go and Jarmes with 3:15 left.

Orville David tallied 13 points to lead Fort Towson's scoring. Billy Harkins had 9, McLemore 7, McClanahan 4 and Roy Rose 3.