Dec. 22, 1963 - Behind by 24-28 after the first quarter, the San Francisco Warriors outscored the Philadelphia 76ers by a 15-1 margin opening the second period and rode that splurge to a 118-104 victory at the Cow Palace today. Mighty Wilt Chamberlain took only one shot in the first period and was scoreless until 15½ minutes had elapsed, yet he wound up as the leading scorer with 40 points. The 76ers, playing their third game in as many days, started fast but couldn’t maintain the pace against a Warrior crew that poured in 33 points in the second period and 32 in the third. Getting excellent playmaking from Guy Rodgers and deadly shooting from both Chamberlain and Wayne Hightower, the home club built up a 14-point advantage in the third quarter and got it as high as 17 points in the closeout period. The easily acquired triumph was the Warriors’ sixth in their last eight games and kept them 3½ games behind Los Angeles in the NBA’s Western Division with a 16-14 record. In his 1963-64 role as Mr. All-Around, Chamberlain equaled his personal career high of 12 assists while hauling in 23 rebounds as Alex Hannum’s new-look Warriors continued to serve notice that they must be reckoned with this season. Although Rodgers relinquished assist honors to his big buddy, the clever little guard contributed heavily to the triumph with his ball-hawking and gave the gathering of 3,782 something to cheer about with a couple of spectacular sleight-of-hand feed passes that set up Chamberlain for stuff shots. In tonight’s preliminaries contest, St. Stephens of San Francisco defeated Sacred Heart of Saratoga, 21-9. The Harlem Magicians and New York Olympians staged a gag-filled exhibition that seemed to amuse the crowd.
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