Basketball's Week

It wasn't much consolation for a poor season, but Baylor was happy anyway. The seventh-place Bears thwarted Texas ' inside shooters with a lane-clogging defense and handed the Longhorns their only Southwest Conference defeat, 55-48. There was some solace for Rice, too. The Owls beat Texas A&M 73-70 to tie the Aggies for second.

Arizona State , warming up for the NCAA , had a sticky time with Arizona . The Sun Devils were slowed by some slight but nagging injuries and could hardly cope with Arizona 's determined defense. They just did win, 58-53. The top three:

1. ARIZONA STATE (24-2)
2. TEXAS (19-6)
3. TEXAS WESTERN (19-7)

THE WEST

The Big Six race, unpredictable all year, ended in a tie between UCLA and Stanford (see page 60), but the West Coast AC came up with a winner. San Francisco , after twice fighting off Santa Clara 's rallying Broncos , finally won 62-61 on Dave Lee's free throw with two seconds to play. Idaho 's audacious Vandals entertained some hope when they headed for Seattle last weekend, but they soon learned the hard facts of basketball life on the road. First Washington beat them 58-50. Then Seattle , with Eddie Miles outscoring the fabled Gus Johnson , 33 points to 30, defeated them 95-88. Oregon State ended its regular season with two wins over Oregon , 65-61 and 71-65. The top three:

1. SEATTLE (21-5)
2. UCLA (19-7)
3. OREGON STATE (19-7)