Can the Rebound?
Spidersat Crucial Point in BasketballRace By STEVE GUBACK Sports writer, The Richmond Times-Dispatch efore Richmond began its 1957-58 basB ketball season, coach Les Hooker eyed a group of visiting scribes and announced that the key to the Spiders' season would be their rebounding. Hooker referred to backboard play, but by the time the season reached the midway point, it was obvious that rebounding had taken a larger and more significant meaning . With an 8-6 record at the examination break, what troubles the Spiders had could be traced to their rebounding - from two defeats . One was to nationally-ranked West Virginia, the other to Big Six rival William and Mary . Unlike the rubber ball, the Spiders had difficulty bouncing back. Those twin setbacks, the latter touching off a threegame skid, may have contributed indirectly to five of the Spiders' six losses. At that, Richmond 's 8-6 record wasn't far off what most impartial observers had expected. Early hopes were buoyed, perhaps a trifle too high, by a surprisingly stiff overtime hassle with West Virginia, then dashed by consecutive losses to W&M (7266), VMI (66-62) and George Washington ( 67-54). The Spiders' potential was somewhere in between. Because the calendar plays tricks during the winter, the basketball season is customarily divided into three brackets-the period before January 1, the period before exams, and the homestretch. Richmond's best basketball was played at the outsetthe come-close decision with West Virginia, also a runner-up finish in the Richmond Invitational Tourney . During the second stanza, the Spiders out-lasted Tech 74-73, and The Citadel , 54-50, but then hit their tailspin. The homestretch would decide Richmond's overall fate and Hooker, for one, still maintained bright hopes. "I think we'll come back and be okay," he prophesied . Using an experienced lineup consisting usually of Roy Peschel and Larry Rauppius at the forwards, Phil Morris and Butch Larnbiotte at the guards and Theryl Willis at pivot, Richmond at mid-season still appeared to be in position to capture its fourth Big Six title in the past six years and finish in the Southern Conference's upper-echelon. Peschel ( 11.9) a,nd Willis (11.2) were the high-scorers, Rauppius (9.1) the zone-breaker, Lambiotte (9.7) the drive-in threat, and Morris ( 10 .1) the takecharge guy. During the first portion of the season, no shot was quite as important to Richmond as one Morris took-and missed. It came in the final three seconds of the title game of the Richmond Invitational Tournament
against LaSalle with the score tied, 50-50, and the championship ready for wrapping . Richmond had called a time-out to plot its game-winning strategy, but when Morris broke toward the keyhole for the shot, the lane was blocked . He got off a long, onehanded jump that was partially deflected. In the overtime , LaSalle's Torn Garberina, a bench-warmer for three previous games, lifted the Explorers from behind by scoring seven of his team's nine points as LaSalle finally won the nerve tingler, 59-55. It was a heart-breaker for the Spiders, ranked 17th nationally at the time, to lose. They led 12-0 in the early minutes, still had an eight-point pull midway in the second half, and led by a three point margin with 3 :3 5 of regulation time remaining. Even in the overtime, the Spiders staked themselves to a four-point edge only to see LaSalle and its man, Gaberina, determinedly erase it. Peschel, rebounding strongly, bagged 18 points, including 11 of the final 16 Richmond scored, but unfortunately couldn 't hang on to the ball at crucial times in the late going. Having trouble with LaSalle's zone, the Spiders shot only 35 per cent and didn't have another double-figure man. For the third time in the four-year history of the Invitational , the Spiders finished with a runner-up trophy. It was a breakeven tour ney for Richmond two ways-financially and from the won-lost ledger- but Hooker clearly had hoped for profits on both fronts. In the first-round, the Spiders erased a 10point deficit in the last half to thump pre-
viously undefeated Penn , 72-65. Hero of this one was Willis , the 6-6 junior pivotrnan, who bagged eight straight points and 14 of Richmond's final 17 in a sizzling one-man clutch effort. The Spiders, shooting at their best despite an aggressive switching man-to-man Quaker defense, connected on 45.1 per cent of their shots and also put Rauppius (12) and Lambiott e ( 11) in double figures. Wil lis' 25-point total was the tourney's top onegame output. He finished up on the all-tourney first team, along with Rauppius, while Peschel and Larnbiotte were awarded secondteam berths. This seemed to indicate again the Spiders' fine overall balance, a trademark of most Hooker productions. During the early going, Richmond had four of its five starters-Lam biotte, Morris, Peschel and Willis-averaging in double-figures while Rauppius was only a shade behind. The Spiders also displayed some exceptional bench resources, particular! y 6-10 Terry Litchfield, a talented jump-shot artist who'll be a future standout, plus steady guards, Alan Cole and Red Booker, and forward Carl Slone. This overall balance made Richmond particularly difficult to defense. In the Spiders' first three games, Hooker had three different high scorers and when Lambiotte was idled by a siege of flu, Richmond still had enough to put up one of its all-time greatest court battles- the 76-74 overtime loss to West Virginia at Morgantown. (Continued on page 31)
EVERYBODY GETS IN THE ACT . This bit of action in the Spiders ' game with the Phillips ' Oilers in Richmond Arena is unusual in that all of the ten players were caught by photographer Harold Lafferty, '58, a member of the photographic staff of Richmond Newspapers, Inc. The Oilers, one of the nation 's best teams, won, but Les Hooker 's lads got valuable experience that enabled them to make a fast start against college opposition . Richmond players in the picture (white uniforms) are Captain Roy Peschel, 53; Butch Lambiotte (behind Oiler 23); Theryl Willis (center); Larry Rauppius, 41, and Phil Morris (behind Rauppius).
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