Celtic Pride: Cowens, Florida State Edge Parish, Centenary

Our tournament of the last 26 teams added to the Value Add Basketball Game, each including one of the greatest 75 players of all time, kicked off with Dave Cowens (12 points, 8 rebounds, 6 steals and 6 blocked shots) edging Robert Parish (12 points, 10 rebounds) 69-64.

We give Cowens the slight individual edge in the game as well, because he is a rare center who is excellent at steals and came up with six crucial ones that might have been the difference in the game.

Because the two Celtics' Hall of Fame Centers both boosted a -6 defense and guarded each other, their dunk ranges were lowered to 51-50 (no automatic dunks) as they were each so hard to score on, while the rest of both teams were weak defenders and thus were able to score on each other - particularly the two power forwards.

It as a back and forth game, with Centenary taking a 42-32 lead with 17:28 (29 possessions left) to play. but then Florida State responded with lockdown defense to only allow one basket in the next 15 possessions to take a 53-44 lead.

Parish did lead one last run when he scored twice, and then grabbed and offensive rebound and passed to Barry McLeod for a bucket to tie it 62-62 before Florida State's point guard Jeff Hogan led a final surge.

Florida State advances to play the No. 1 seed Michigan - the Fab 5.

 

Pos	Centenary (LA) 1976	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Bobby White	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	2
2-SG	John Pitts	3	0	1	1	2	2	1	1	2
3-SF	Nate Bland	7	0	3	1	1	6	0	2	1
4-PF	Barry McLeod	15	0	7	1	1	2	0	0	2
5-C	Robert Parish	12	0	5	2	2	10	2	4	2
Pos	Bench Visitors	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Ricardo Brown	4	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	1
2-SG	Al Barnes	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	1
3-SF	Walter Louis	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
4-PF	LeRoy Hoggs	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
5-C	Cal Smith	13	0	6	1	3	5	0	0	3
	19 Turnovers	64	0	29	6	9	32	5	7	16
Pos	Florida St. 1968	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Jeff Hogan	14	0	5	4	4	3	2	0	1
2-SG	Darrel Stewart	4	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	2
3-SF	Jan Gies	9	1	3	0	0	4	0	0	1
4-PF	Dick Danford	12	0	6	0	0	6	0	1	2
5-C	Dave Cowens	12	0	5	2	3	8	6	6	2
Pos	Bench Home	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl
1-PG	Randy Cable	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1
2-SG	Bob Depathy	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	1
3-SF	Carl Reynolds	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1
4-PF	Dale Klay	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	2
5-C	Dave Ross	4	0	0	4	5	1	0	0	1
	16 Turnovers	69	1	28	10	12	30	10	7	14