Cambridge Captures State Hoop Title

A year ago, it was the wonder team of Massachusetts schoolboy basketball, led straight to the state title by a seven-ft. sophomore center and a hotshot guard.

This season, stung by charges of illegal recruiting, the Warriors of Cambridge Rindge and Latin were the sport's bad boys, not only on the parquet floors, but in district court.

There are some similarities, though. Seven-footer Pat Ewing, this season a junior, still gives orders in the lane. Another hotshot (Karl Hobbs) deals passes like marked cards from the backcourt.

And the biggest, most pleasant similarity of all: the state championship plaque will spend another year in the Rindge and Latin trophy case.

Wrest in Peace

Cambridge wrested the state schoolboy championship from Worcester North, 72-64, Saturday afternoon before 4000 in Worcester's Hart Center.

Ewing collected 24 points and 12 rebounds in the game, despite sitting out much of the second half in foul trouble. Hobbs, a controversial transfer guard, tossed in 14. The lesser-known trio of Kevin Headley, Steven Gittens and Ladon Adair kept the pressure on Worcester with scrappy performances late in the game.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, however, provided the toughest test. Charging that Warrior coach Mike Jarvis recruited one player, and questioning the eligibility of several others, the association tried to shut Rindge and Latin out of the tournament.

Hold Everything

A last-minute court decision staying the MIAA action allowed the powerful Cambridge squad to enter the playoffs. And from there, as one Rindge player said after the game, "We were in our element."