- Monday, February 27 1928 -
Southern Conference Tournament (at Atlanta, GA)
Kentucky - 28 (Head Coach: John Mauer) - [Final Rank ]
Player | FG | FT | PF | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|
Irvine Jeffries | 6 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
Cecil Combs | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Paul McBrayer | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Lawrence McGinnis | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Paul Jenkins | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Hays Owens | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Totals | 12 | 4 | 9 | 28 |
Mississippi - 41 (Head Coach: Homer Hazel)
Player | FG | FT | PF | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cary Phillips | 7 | 1 | 2 | 15 |
Robert Selby | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
Robert Lee | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
Ary Phillips | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
DeWitt Laird | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
Totals | 17 | 7 | 5 | 41 |
Prior Game | | | Next Game |
Georgia 33 - 16 | | | Eastern Normal 35 - 10 |
Ole Miss Beats Wildcats by a 41 to 28 Score
Kentucky Does Not Play in Form, Loses Net Championship Hopes
ATLANTA, Ga, Feb. 28 - Curtains rang down on the championship hopes of the University of Kentucky here Monday night in he semi-finals of the annual Southern Conference basket ball tournament, the speedy Crimsons of Ole Miss - the University of Mississippi - pushing the Cats out of the spotlight and off the stage, 41 to 28.
The defeat was a bitter one for Kentucky. It would not have been so bad or at least it would have been borne more cheerfully, had Kentucky played in form. but it did not and that is the rub. It is irritating to be beaten by a team that would be inferior on seven nights out of eight.
The victory scored by Ole Miss was another notch in Mississippi's gun which it apparently keeps to fire each year with disastrous effect on Kentucky warriors. In 1926, another team from Mississippi - the Mississippi Aggies - conquered the Cats in the semifinals and on one or two other occasions Mississippi teams have decapitated Kentucky in conference tournaments.
The team Mississippi put on the floor Monday night literally burned up the pine boards with its phenomenal speed. Kentucky's guards, no slouches themselves for rapid movements, often were left in disastrous positions.
In Cary Phillips, Ole Miss has a youngster who not only broke past Kentucky's defense for easy shots, but copped them when he had to from long range. He was the thorn in the Cats' side, getting seven field goals and a free throw for 15 points. He was aided and abetted very efficiently by his twin brother, Ary Phillips, and by his running guard, Laird. Laird got nine points, but his defensive work was more brilliant than his attacks, his ability to jump high in the air enabling him many times to take the ball away from the Cats.
The Wildcats looked very tired and weary even before they took the floor to start the game, and after the first few minutes, when Ole Miss began to show its class by jumping off into a 9 to 4 lead. Kentucky fans were ready to give up hope. It was evident, painfully so, that Kentucky was not right.
Ole Miss threw a stubborn defense in the path of Kentucky's much feared sub-attack and by sending out its forwards to meet Jenkins and McGinnis far up the floor as hey got ready to start the attack, threw the Mauermens' offense off balance with the result that Kentucky muffed the ball with regularity.
Little but, Oh My!
The Mississippians are a smaller team than the Cats, but they took the ball off the back board three times oftener than the Cats. They controlled the tipoff in the same way and had possession of he ball the greater part of the game.
Kentucky looked nothing like the smooth working that set all Atlanta to talking last Friday and Saturday.
Jeffries did some phenomenal dribbling and shooting to lead the Wildcats' attack, but as a whole his work was below standard. Capt. Jenkins perhaps played the best game for he blue. He fought the Mississippians with everything he had but the same slump that gripped the rest of the team slowed him up considerably.
Ole Miss led at the end of the first half 15 to 10 and when lay was resumed, Kentucky flashed an attack that put them up within two points of the foes' lead. The sudden burst of good playing, however, was brief and in the final minutes of the game, the Cats seemed to give up hope. The Ole Miss ran up the score to a 13-point margin.
In the second semi-final game, Auburn hit its stride and downed the strongly favored Mississippi Aggies, 37 to 32. The tilt was a harum scarum affair, like an uprising in the violent ward of an insane asylum. Both teams raced up and down the floor until the fans had eyestrain watching them and each quintet shot from any old place. Auburn had the edge in shooting and owes its victory to that all important fundamental of basket ball success.