The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, February 28, 1973 :: University of Virginia Library

League champion Davidson
and Southern Conference
cellar-dweller VMI will open
this year's SC tournament with
a 1:30 p.m. mismatch
tomorrow afternoon in
Richmond's Coliseum.

Forward T.J. Pecorak, a
possibility for Player of the
Year honors in the SC, will
lead the Wildcats (9-1 in the
league, 17-8 overall) against the
Keydets, a team Virginia
emasculated, 85-59, earlier this
season.

VMI is 6-28 overall and
3-10 within the conference.

After Davidson whips VMI,
Furman (11-2, 17-8) will take
the floor in the second game of
the afternoon session to face
off against seventh-seeded
Appalachian State (3-8, 6-19).

Furman, the only SC team
to appear in the Top 20 this
season, fields the loop's tallest
squad and features 7-0 center
Fessor Leonard and 6-8
forward Russ Hunt, last
season's SC Player of the Year.

Furman and Davidson, the
two co-favorites for the
tourney championship and the
bid to the NCAA Eastern
Regionals that goes along with
it, have only met once this
year, Davidson winning 88-82
in Charlotte, N.C.

Opposing Furman will be
Coach Press Maravich's Apps,
winners of only two of their
first fifteen games. Four
freshmen and a sophomore are
now starting for the Apps in
this, their first season of
regularly-scheduled SC play.

A larger crowd than the few
thousand Spartans who will be
present for the afternoon
twin-bill is expected by
Coliseum officials when local
favorite Richmond and nearby
William & Mary both play in
the evening session.

Richmond (5-9, 8-15) will
be a heavy underdog in the
7:30 game against East
Carolina (7-7,12-13), last year's
tourney titlist.

Leading the hometown
Spiders will be remarkable
forward Aaron Steward, the
nation's fourth-leading scorer
with a 31 point per game
average. Stewart will vie with
Pecorak for Player of the Year
this season while Richmond
will also start guard Mike
Anastasio, Player of the Year
two seasons ago as a
sophomore.

East Carolina will display
the usual brand of ECU team.
They'll feature tough zone
defense, good outside shooting
and a critical lack of overall
team height. Leading scorer on
the Pirate squad is guard Earl
Quash, a graduate of
Alexandria's late, lamented
George Washington High
School.

William & Mary, like
Richmond, given a good
chance to win, will tangle in
the nightcap with The Citadel
(6-7, 11-14).

Forward Mike Arizin, guard
Ed Pfingst, and center Mark
Courage will lead the Indians
(5-6, 9-16) against the
Bulldogs, a team noted for a
tough, disciplined brand of
defense. The two teams split a
pair of games this year, W&M
winning in Williamsburg and
The Citadel triumphing in
Charleston. Both games were
close.

"This is a young team. We'll
usually start three freshmen, a
sophomore and a senior," was
the way W&M boss Ed
Ashnualt explained it earlier in
the year. "I'm going to point
these boys for our conference
tournament. We'll be tough by
then."

A date with an unnamed
independent opponent awaits
the tourney champ with a
game against the eventual ACC
titlist to follow. The site for
this first-round NCAA contest
will be decided later this week.

Not exactly good box
office, the SC tournament was
forced out of Charlotte
because of small crowds but
has been doing better in
Richmond. Tickets for all
games and sessions are
eminently available.