Throwback Thursday – Guilford Wins 1973 NAIA National Men’s Basketball Tournament
from www.guilfordquakers.com:
Great photo of the 1973 Guilford College Men’s basketball team, when you Click On above….
Story By Bill Sharp, a member of the Kansas City Star’s Sports Staff
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (3/17/73) – The Guilford College Quakers of Greensboro, N.C. became the first unseeded school ever to win the N.A.I.A. Basketball Tournament last night as they spilled Maryland-Eastern Shore, 99-96, before a crowd of 9,368 in the Municipal Auditorium.
Guilford played solid defense and cut off the floor-length passes to Tyrone Johnson and Rubin Collins that had been such a key factor in the four previous Eastern Shore victories of this tournament.
Lloyd Free, the versatile freshman guard from Brooklyn, and M.L. Carr, the 6-6 forward, were the key men as Guilford racked up its fifth victory of the week. Free, who showed no hesitancy in driving against rangy Eastern Shore, scored 30 points and locked up the Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament. Carr tallied 23 points and pulled off 16 rebounds.
Winding up with a 29-5 record, Guilford came on like wildfire in the second half after forging a slim, 2-point intermission lead, only its third of the period.
Free personally put the Quakers into a 57-50 lead in the first three minutes of the second half as he scored on a layup, drove on the baseline for a bucket, and then, after hitting a baseline jump shot with 17:36 to go, completed a 3-point play by sinking a foul shot.
Greg Jackson, the other Guilford guard from Brooklyn, hit a layup with 16:53 to go to make it, 59-50. Eastern Shore had one last gasp left as it moved to within four points at the 3:56 mark when Collins stole the ball and scored to make it a 76-72 game.
Free answered with a layup and a free throw that put the Quakers back on top by seven at 79-72 with 3:25 to go. Guilford boosted its lead to 12 points at 88-76 with 6:07 to go on a three-point play by Carr. From there it was just a matter of Maryland Eastern Shore making it a little closer.
The big factor in the victory was the fact that Guilford forced forward Talvin Skinner, Johnson, and 6-10 Joe Pace to foul out. Eastern Shore picked up 28 personals that enabled Guilford to parade to the foul line for a 29-of-36 free-throw shooting performance.
Eastern Shore had a better percentage from the field, but Guilford had something more.
Free hit 10-of-13 from the foul line and 10-of-21 field-goal attempts. Carr put in 10-of-22 from the field as Guilford finished with 35-of-73 from the floor for 44.9 percent. Eastern Shore, which was outrebounded by Guilford, 50-46, managed 47.3 percent field-goal accuracy on 44 connections in 93 attempts.
Collins and Johnson were the top Maryland scorers with 23 points and 20, respectively. From the line, Maryland Eastern Shore got only 12 free-throw opportunities and hit eight.
Teddy East, the 6-foot-2 Guilford forward, added balance for the Quakers as he totaled 18 points, hitting 10-of-12 from the free-throw line. Jackson scored 13 points.
In the first half, Guilford led only three times– by scores of 2-0, 4-2, and 50-48 at the half.
With Carr scoring 16 points and Free tallying 10 for the half, the Quakers came on in the closing 6 minutes, 41 seconds of the period. They scored 23 points in that stretch to take the intermission lead. Ray Massengill brought the Quakers even at 48-all with a layup with 39 seconds to go and then Free hit a 25-foot shot with two seconds to go to give Guilford its halftime edge.
Maryland Eastern Shore outscored the Quakers from the floor, 44-38, in the period, but a 12-of-14 showing at the free-throw line by Guilford offset this.
Guilford put in 19-of-43 field goal attempts for the half-44.2 percent. The Hawks shot at a 48.9 percent clip–21-of-45–as Johnson led his team with 12 points and Collins scored 10.
NAIA Box
Guilford (99)
Pts.
M.L. Carr 23
Teddy East 18
Ray Massengill 8
Lloyd Free 30
Greg Jackson 13
Steve Hankins 7
Maryland Eastern Shore (96)
Pts.
Talvin Skinner 15
Tyrone Johnson 20
Joe Pace 10
Rubin Collins 23
Gordon 8
Cannon 0
Nelson 16
Casey 2
Stanton 0
Graham 2
My dad graduated from Guilford in ’64. He took my brother and I to all the football and basketball games. I attended basketball camp with Coach Jenson, ML Carr, Bob Kaufman and Lloyd Free. Really cool.