Kentucky - 59 (Head Coach: Adolph Rupp) - [Final Rank 1st by AP]

Player	FG	FGA	FT	FTA	Reb	PF	Pts
Cliff Hagan	1	8	2	4	11	3	4
Shelby Linville	4	9	1	2	5	2	9
Bill Spivey	5	9	2	3	11	4	12
Bobby Watson	6	23	0	0	3	0	12
Frank Ramsey	4	12	5	5	12	5	13
Lucian Whitaker	2	4	0	0	2	1	4
Lou Tsioropoulos	1	5	1	2	4	2	3
Roger Layne	1	2	0	1	1	1	2
Totals	24	72	11	17	49	18	59

St. Johns - 43 (Head Coach: Frank McGuire) - [Final Rank 9th by AP and 9th by UPI]

Player	FG	FGA	FT	FTA	Reb	PF	Pts
Ray Dombrosky	1	5	2	3	5	4	4
Al McGuire (*)	2	7	1	4	2	3	5
Bob Zawoluk	6	24	3	5	10	3	15
Jack McMahon	2	16	3	3	5	1	7
Ronnie MacGilvray	4	11	2	4	11	2	10
Frank Mulzoff	0	4	0	0	4	3	0
Don Dunn	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Frank Giancontieri	1	3	0	0	1	0	2
Don Noonan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
John McAndrews	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tom O'Shea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hugh McCool	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	16	70	11	19	38	16	43

Kentucky Hard-Pressed to Conquer St. John's

NC State Bows Out to Illinois, 84 to 70, in Opening Contest

NEW YORK, March 22 - Medicine Man Frank McGuire of St. John's tried to cook up a death-dealing brew to dish out to the University of Kentucky Wildcats here tonight, but the effects of the Indian concoction wore off in the last five minutes of play and the Redmen bowed to the Chief Adolph Rupp's warriors, 59-43, before a crowd of 14,214 basketball fans in Madison Square Garden.

Meeting the Redmen in their own tepee for the second time this season, the Wildcats had far more trouble carrying off the scalps of their adversaries than the final score indicated. With just over five minutes of play remaining in this Eastern NCAA semi-final battle, the score was deadlocked at 43-43.

In the last wild minutes the Redmen couldn't score and the Wildcats, running like scared rabbits, were piling it on at the finish.

The victory sent the Kentuckians into the Eastern finals on the same floor Saturday night. Their opponents will be Illinois, the Big Ten champion, which withstood a second-half North Carolina State rally to trim the Wolfpack, 84-70, in tonight's opening game.

for the second straight game Bill Spivey spent much of the time on the bench. The Redmen chopped down the Georgia Pine early and when he accumulated three personal fouls in less than 10 minutes of play, Rupp called the big boy to the bench.

After blowing leads of eight and seven points in the first half, the Wildcats left the floor at intermission one point in arrears.

It took them only a couple of minutes to grab the lead in the second half and from that time on they never trailed, although the Redmen always were within easy striking distance until the closing Kentucky splurge.

St. John's, as expected, tried to beat the Wildcats by playing possession-type game and for a while it looked like the Redmen might succeed.

But Kentucky, after missing several chances to increase its narrow lead, seemed to take a new life after St. John's tied the score. With Frank Ramsey doing sterling rebound work and driving like a demon, the Cats literally ran over, around and through the St. John's defenses in the final minutes.

During the second half Kentucky hit a blistering 47 per cent of its shots compared to an erratic 21 per cent during the opening stanza. This gave the Cats a game mark of 33.3 on 24 fielders out o f72 shots. St. John's hit 21.4 during the first period and boosted this only slightly in the second half, making its final mark 22.8 on 16 hits in 70 tries.

Ramsey, although burdened with personal fouls most of the game, tied St. John's Bob Zawoluk for scoring honors, each with 15 points. In two regular-season games against Kentucky - one of them last year - Zawoluk had been held to three and six points, respectively.

Although immobilized much of the game, Spivey scored 12 points to tie Bobby Watson for runner-up honors for Kentucky. Watson hit six field goals, four of them long shots.

Lou Tsioropoulos and Roger Layne filled in capably for Spivey, while Skippy Whitaker also saw service in a relief role but was not as hot as he was when he took charge against Louisville Tuesday night.

Neither was Shelby Linville, but Shelby played a fine floor game and managed to rack up nine important points. Cliff Hagan was pretty well bottled up and tabbed only three.

Here's how the Cats' game-winning rally went: Kentucky was leading 43-39, with 10 minutes left. The teams battled for almost four minutes with neither scoring. Then Zawoluk looped in one for the Redmen and a few seconds later reserve Frank Giancontieri put the pro-St. John's crowd in an uproar by sinking a short shot to tie the score.

Linville came through with a clutch shot as the clock hit the five-minute mark. When Kentucky regained possession, it started a modified freeze, and with 3:15 left, Spivey broke loose for a crip. With 2:35 remaining, Ramsey dribbled the length of the floor and sank one that gave the Cats a six-point margin.

It was Watson's turn next, as the Wildcats, getting the rebounds when St. John's missed, found it easy to work the ball around and break in for baskets. Then Spivey got one just before Ramsey fouled out with 1:25 left.

A jump shot by Spivey, a crip by Whitaker and short push shot by Linville boosted the Cats' margin in the final minutes as St. John's completely collapsed.

Spivey was so closely guarded he got only nine shots during the game, five of which he made.

Twice during the first half Kentucky appeared to be drawing away, but each time something happened to stop the Wildcats and they finally went to the dressing room on the short end of a 24-23 score.

Once the Cats led by eight points - at 14-6 - and after the Redmen had cut this lead to 14-11, the Cats moved ahead again at 20-13 as Watson hit three long shots in a row.

Seven minutes remained in the period at that stage and during the remaining time the Wildcats were able to rack up only three points while St. John's tabbed 11.

Zawoluk, enjoying his best scoring night in three games against Kentucky, sent the Redmen on top with a free throw after 1:03 and Jack McMahon made it 3-0 with a jump shot a few seconds later. Spivey's one-hander broke the ice for the Cats at the 1:35 mark and a half minute later the Georgia Pine gave the Kentuckians their first lead by dumping in a pair of free throws.

Zawoluk tied it at 4-4 on the first of three personal fouls called on Spivey in the first nine and one-half minutes, but Linville sank a short shot and the Cats stayed in the lead until the waning seconds of the period.

With seven minutes left and the Cats ahead 20-13, Ronnie MacGilvray and Al McGuire broke through for crips to make it 20-17. Tsioropoulos replaced Spivey with 5:10 to play and Zawoluk put the Redmen only a point behind with an under-the-basket shot.

Linville connected from the corner to make it 22-19, but Zawoluk hit again for St. John's, this time from the foul circle. Tsioropoulos hit one of two free throws to make it 23-21 entering the final minute, but just before the horn sounded Ray Dombrosky eluded his guard and dropped in an easy crip to tie the score. He was fouled on the shot by Tsioropoulos and dropped his gratis heave through to give his team the lead for the first time since the opening two minutes.

In the opener, Illinois blew an 11-point halftime lead, fell behind by two point with seven and one-half minutes left to play, but came again in the last five minutes as North Carolina State's battling Wolfpack tired from its comeback efforts....

Cliff Hagan (#6) grabs a rebound in front of Shelby Linville

Lou Tsioropoulos (#16) battles St. John's Al McGuire (#18) and Fran Mulzoff (#17) for the ball, while Cliff Hagan looks on.

Ronnie MacGilvray (#15) scores as Bob Zawoluk (#30) holds off Bill Spivey

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