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Show UTES THRILL ' UTAH FANS WITH VICTORY New York Fans Give Utah Team Support; Gardner Outstanding Tourney Player Enthusiastic Utah fans are still praising the University of Utah basketball champs who upset the "unbeatable" Kentucky "all-America" team, 49-45, in Madison Square Garden Monday night, to win the championship of the National Na-tional Invitation Basketball Tournament. Tour-nament. Unheralded and picked as the "underdog" in every game of the big meet, the Utes came through with flying colors to win every contest and set them up as the most amazing hoopsters in the nation. na-tion. Not only did the Utah club win for itself and the coach high honors and glory, but the popularity popular-ity in which some 18,468 fans cheered for the Westerners, certainly cer-tainly boosted the prestige of Utah as a basketball state and gave it one of the biggest boosts by way of publicity, for its Centennial year. Only six players battled against , the star-studded Kentucky squad, who nas two All-Americans pius some of the best individual stars in the nation on its team. In the title game, Kentucky was three deep in most of its team positions. Utah controlled the game from early in the first quarter, although the gap was closed to within two points in the final seconds of play before big Vern Gardner dunked in a goal to put the game on ice for the Utes. Gardner, who hails from Afton, Wyo., was named the outstanding player in the tournament, with Arnold Ferrin and Wat Misaka being be-ing named second and fourth for the honor. Coach Vadal Peterson, the hero coach of the hour, said: "It has been a wonderful thrill to win again (they won the NCAA title in 1944) in New York, and a great experience to have such a fine bunch of boys to work with. Give them all the glory. They deserve de-serve it and more, too." |