Sport: Up No. 9

Half a dozen times in 14 years, Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University had placed a team in basketball’s National Invitation Tournament. Half a dozen times the Dukes went home without the championship. Last week they tried again.

In the early rounds, the Dukes looked good—almost up to the late-season form that earned them top place in polls of coaches and sportswriters (TIME, March 1). After they had whipped a strong Niagara University team in the semifinals, the Dukes figured they were ready. Blocking their path to the title was only Holy Cross, which had won an upset victory over Western Kentucky in the other semifinal. In season-end polls of coaches and sportswriters, the Crusaders of Holy Cross ranked only a modest No. 9 in the U.S.

But the Crusaders showed up determined to prove that the experts had underrated them all season. Playing careful, controlled ball, they set up their plays neatly, fed the ball to burly (6 ft. 4 in., 205 Ibs.) Forward Togo Palazzi, who scored 20 points for the evening, wound up as the winner of the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award. Off the boards, spring-legged Center Tom Heinsohn (6 ft. 6 in.) consistently outjumped Duquesne’s defensive giants, Dick Ricketts (6 ft. 7½ in.) and Jim Tucker (6 ft. 7½ in.), and as he warmed up, Heinsohn began to score as well.

Except for a few minutes in the first half, the Dukes were never close. For the seventh time, they went home as also-rans, as Holy Cross, in its second trip to the tournament, won the invitation championship, 71-62.