Coach M. L. Lagarde

Jimmy Casabat

Joe Murray

The second round schedule paired teams in the same order as the first round but with the visiting team hosting this time around.

• Friday, February 5: The Crusaders again defeated Redemptorist, this time at home, but, looking ahead to the rematch with De La Salle, by only 49-42. This game is interesting because co-captain Bobby Stechmann coached the team because Lagarde had a heart attack and watched from the stands. "Stechmann, who has been able to appear in but three early games for Lagarde, has his injured knee in a cast. Bobby re-injured the knee for the umpteenth time in the last Jesuit game on a drive-in for a crucial basket. The Aloysians are hopeful that he'll be ready for state."

Times-Picayune prep writer N. Charles Wicker: "Only a limited number of fans will be able to see Tuesday's basketball game between the De La Salle Cavaliers and the St. Aloysius Crusaders. The game will be played on the Crusaders' home court and only 400 followers of each team – students and adults – will have a chance to buy tickets. The bottleneck was caused when the two schools could not agree to move the game to a larger gymnasium. No tickets will be sold the night of the game at the gym." Letters to the Editor condemned the host school for playing in its own gym to gain an advantage and denying many fans an opportunity to see the clash.

New Orleans States prep writer Peter Finney summarized the critical contest like this:

Fighting with the gallantry of a courageous defending champion, St. Aloysius last night overcame physical adversity and blindness at the free throw line to climb back into the prep basketball picture. The Crusaders' scintillating 49-48 triumph over title-hungry De La Salle can take its place proudly alongside the schoolboy thrillers of the golden era when guys like Chollet, Caballero and Revon were on the prowl.
Seldom has drama reached such a tremendous crescendo as it did Tuesday in the final four minutes on the Saints' court. Aloysius was leading, 47-42, when three foul shots by Pete Gaudin made it 47-45. Jerry Glaser dropped a charity toss for the Saints but Henry Exterstein hit a FG and it was 48-47 with 3:10 left. De La Salle took time.
Back came Joe Murray who had spent most of the second half sitting next to coach Mel Lagarde because of four personals. With 1:55 to go, Charles Reinerth fouled Murray and Joe sank one of two – the crucial 49th point.
Twenty seconds later, De La Salle's George Flynn was at the FT line through the courtesy of Joe Trapani. With a chance to tie it up, George made and missed one – and that's how it ended. But not exactly.
Flynn then fouled Trapani. Joe muffed both of them. A second after Gaudin bumped Trapani and Joe did the same thing. The overflow crowd was near hysteria.
With less than a half-minute left, Trapani fouled Reinerth. Charley couldn't connect on another toss. Before the final buzzer touched off a mild demonstration, De La Salle found time to miss three attempts from the floor.
Aloysius won without the services of all-prepper Bobby Stechmann whose leg injury is likely to keep him on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

Trailing now by one game, SA still needed help if they were to catch the Cavs.

Bobby Stechmann

Murray Scores vs De La Salle

Joe Trapani

Casabat Scores at St. Aloysius Gym

 

Jerry Glaser

Unfortunately, the Crusaders suffered a predictable letdown following the euphoric victory over the Cavaliers.

• Thursday, February 11: Playing in their new gym on St. Claude Avenue, Nicholls threw up a zone defense and dared the Crusaders to hit from outside. When they didn't, the Rebels took a surprisingly easy 44-30 victory. The Knights failed to reach double digits in any period. Lloyd Guidry led all scorers with 21, playing the entire contest as did the other four starters. Lagarde's team fell right back to two behind DLS.
• Saturday, February 13: SA bounced back with a 56-48 triumph at McDonogh. Tony Marinello hit 13 and Latino, 12. Once again, Stechmann did not play.
• Tuesday, February 16: Jesuit, without an adequate gym, met the Crusaders at Holy Cross and captured a 51-45 victory. Casabat canned 14 and Glaser 11. The Cavs, who had resumed their winning ways following the defeat at Rampart and Esplanade, clinched a tie for first by dismantling Easton 70-45. The Saints' string of consecutive city crowns since 1947 was in grave jeopardy.
• Saturday, February 20: SA returned to Holy Cross to defeat the Tigers 56-50. However, De La Salle had clinched the school's first city championship by defeating HC the previous Thursday.
• Tuesday, February 23: As in Round One, Fortier and St. Aloysius met with second place on the line. The winner of this game at Fortier would clinch a spot in the South Louisiana playoff. Casabat fired in 22 and Murray 12 as the Saders upended the Tarpons 54-45. In the opening game, the Baby Crusaders under first-year coach Bobby Nuss clinched their 11th straight JV city crown.
• Thursday, February 25: Both De La Salle and Aloysius moved up their final league games one day to allow the coaches to scout their probable playoff opponents. In a 3 pm game at St. Aloysius Gym, Easton again defeated the Crusaders. Lagarde started an all-senior lineup in their last home game. The Eagles led 41-29 at the end of Q3. A furious 20-9 final period left the Saders one point short, 50-49. Marinello and Murray each tallied 10. Meanwhile, Pete Gaudin set a city season scoring mark when he scorched Fortier for 36 in a 58-53 triumph. Pete's 303 points broke the record of SA's Dick Brennan (1947-51) by three.

The two New Orleans playoff representatives would now face the top two teams from the Southeast District: #2 Aloysius against #1 Istrouma and #1 De La Salle vs #2 Baton Rouge. A coin flip gave the Southeast District home court.

Casabat joined De La Salle's Gaudin and Exsterstein, Marco Tumminello of Jesuit, and Ray McCain of Fortier on the Item's All Prep Team. Joe Murray made the all district team chosen by the Louisiana Sportswriters' Association.

Because of the Mardi Gras break, the press as well as the four schools involved had a week to prepare for the AA playoff doubleheader in Baton Rouge.

• The Baton Rouge High gym was chosen because it sat 2300. The two New Orleans schools were given 350 tickets to sell. Students paid 50 cents, adults $1.
• Even though Istrouma had defeated their crosstown rivals in the playoff for the district crown, many considered Pete Burge's 18-3 Bulldogs the better club. They were led by All-State F Reggie Barrick and G Jimmy Taylor, the team's top scorer who was also an outstanding RB on the gridiron. Baton Rouge had eliminated De La Salle from the playoffs in 1953 before losing to SA in the finals.
• 21-8 Istrouma boasted the tallest team in the state. All of Coach Tom McCoin's Redskin starters towered above six feet, topped by 6-5 C Don Oatley. Nevertheless, the Crusaders had edged the Tribe 53-51 early in the season in Baton Rouge.

An overflow crowd gathered on Friday, March 5 for the South Louisiana AA playoff games. The winners would advance to play the survivors of the Southwest Louisiana-North Louisiana bi-district playoff.

• In the 7:30 opener, De La Salle outscored Baton Rouge 14-2 in Q3 to take a 40-32 lead. However, the Bulldogs held the Cavs to only two points in the last stanza while sinking 14 themselves to win 44-42 and knock Johnny Altobello's club out of the playoffs for the second year in a row. Gaudin, as usual, led all scorers with 22 despite sitting out a fourth of the game with foul trouble. Barick's 16 and Taylor's 15 set the pace for BR. LSU star Bob Pettit attended his alma mater's victory a night before the Tigers faced Tulane in the Crescent City.
• In the nightcap, while the leaking roof held up the game nine times, the Crusaders, "playing as well and more collected than they have all season," jumped out 19-12 after Q1 and 31-20 at the half. Stretching the lead to 41-25 after three periods, SA cruised to a 51-34 victory. Latino led with 14 while Murray tallied 11 and Casabat, 10.

So both district runner-ups claimed victories. Under LHSAA rules, the four teams met again in a doubleheader in New Orleans. Baton Rouge and St. Aloysius played to determine seeding for the Final Four in Shreveport the next weekend. Istrouma and De La Salle were forced to play a meaningless consolation game. Tulane Gym was secured for Monday evening, March 8.

• De La Salle took out its frustration on Istrouma in the opener, 70-48. The Cavs finished the season 16-2.
• Baton Rouge had succumbed to the Stechmann-led Crusaders 54-50 at the beginning of the season. The rematch produced a different result. The Bulldogs jumped out to a fast start, leading 16-7 after Q1. The Knights fought back to trail only 39-34 entering the final period. However, a 19-11 edge in Q4 propelled BR to a 58-45 victory. Taylor tied Latino with 18 atop the scoring board. Casabat hit for 11.

As a result, Baton Rouge claimed the South Louisiana championship and would face #2 Bossier City at Centenary College in Shreveport in the semifinals while #2 St. Aloysius drew North Louisiana champion Byrd.

Jimmy Taylor

 

 

 

Pete Latino

N. Charles Wicker's "What’s What in Prep Sports" article:

More people saw the New Orleans-Southeast district playoff games … in Baton Rouge a week ago last Friday and Baton Rouge-St. Aloysius and Istrouma–De La Salle Monday than attended any previous state tournament played on a state university campus. Close to 5000 fans took in the two nights of play and as a result, the schools will make money instead of standing a loss of between $400 and $600 to send a team to distant places like Ruston and Natchitoches where there is no local interest.

Wicker 3/28/54:

On the St. Aloysius Crusaders' recent trip to Shreveport for the state cage finals, Old Reb, their school bus, conked out 18 miles outside of Shreveport and drove a piston rod through the hood. A wrecker was called and just as the Saints were ready to start again it ran out of gas. It was the third mishap suffered by the Crimson and White cagers during the season. Their first trouble came when the car ran into a bus early in the season en route to Baton Rouge to play Istrouma. At first the Crimson and White was planning to go to Shreveport on the Kansas City Southern streamliner. But at the last minute changed plans. Looks like they would have saved money by taking the train.

As in the last game against Baton Rouge, M. L. Lagarde's cagers faced a team sparked by a football star. "Byrd’s sensational football player, Gene Newton, is rated the best floor player on the club. He is always hustling. The all-state footballer is especially dangerous stealing the ball out of a rival's hands." [I watched Newton QB Tulane while I was in high school.]

Here is the wire service account of the end of the game.

A last-ditch foul shot by an unknown Byrd substitute dumped St. Aloysius out of the state AA finals here as Doug Robertson's free pitch sent the Crusaders down to a 47-46 defeat. Robertson's foul shot – it was his only score of the night – came in the final six seconds … Lee Fontaine's tip-in squeezed Byrd in front 46-45. Trapani sank a FT with 14 seconds showing and it was tighter than a drum.

St. Aloysius actually blew the game in a sense. [Tony] Marinello allowed Robertson – a raw Jacket rookie – to pilfer the ball at midcourt and the latter, after awkwardly dribbling down court, missed an easy layup. Newton, right behind, sank the follow-up but it was canceled when a foul was called against Jimmy LaCava who slammed into Robertson. He missed the first toss but, with the pressure heavy, swished in the second and rode off court on a mass of shoulders.

The game had been a nip-and-tuck affair the entire way.

• Byrd led 8-7 after Q1 but SA poured in 13 in Q2 to take a 19-14 lead at the intermission.
• The Yellow Jackets essentially won the game in Q3 by outscoring the Knights 22-16 for a 36-35 edge heading into Q4.
• Marinello led the Crimson with 10 points, followed closely by Murray with 9 and Trapani and Latino with 8 apiece. C Fontaine contributed 15 for Byrd and G Newton, 13.

In the second game, Baton Rouge rode Taylor's 20 to a 56-49 victory over Bossier. So the Crusaders would play the Bearcats in the consolation contest Saturday night.

• It was not your usual high-scoring, no-defense third-place game. Aloysius led 11-9 after Q1 and 18-16 at the half. Bossier tied the game at 27 entering the final period. As befitted such a tight contest, regulation ended 35-35.
• Each team tallied two in the first OT. In the second extra period, SA shut out the Bearcats to win 41-37.
• Latino was the only player on either team in double figures with 13. Casabat and Murray each rang up 7.

Jimmy Taylor continued his inspired play in the finals, ringing up 22 to lead Baton Rouge to a 51-46 win over Byrd. The championship paired with the one in 1950, Bob Pettit's senior year, to form bookends around the Crusaders' three in between.

Without a doubt, the loss of Stechmann changed the entire season for the Crusaders. As Lagarde said after the regular season, "We lost the [prep] championship because we lost him." Still, SA finished 20-7 and reached the state semifinals. Little did anyone know that the school that dominated Louisiana basketball in the first decade after World War II would never bring another state crown to Esplanade and Rampart.

Joe Murray

 

Jimmy Casabat