Hank Siemiontkowski (born 1950) is an American former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. A

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, he played for the

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association (Football Championship Sub ...

High school career

Born and raised in the

Port Richmond, Philadelphia Port Richmond is a neighbourhood, neighborhood in the River Wards, Philadelphia, River Wards section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is notable for its extremely large Polish people, Polish immigrant and Polish American community. The neighborhoo ...

, Siemiontkowski played for

Northeast Catholic High School Northeast Catholic High School opened in 1926 as Northeast Catholic High School for Boys, and was located at 1842 Torresdale Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was under the administration of the high school system of the Roman Catholic Arch ...

. He was a big part of the 1967 team which won the

Philadelphia Catholic League The Philadelphia Catholic League is a high school sports league composed (as of the 2012-13 year) of 18 Catholic High Schools in Philadelphia and the surrounding Pennsylvania suburbs. The league itself was founded in the summer of 1920 on the steps ...

over Bonner and City Championship over Overbrook, this was last city title for the school. He was voted the Catholic League Northern Division MVP in both 1967 & 1968. In 1968 he was part of the varsity squad suspended by coach Jack Friel for returning late to school after breakfast. The story made national headlines as the North junior varsity team then defeated Bishop McDevitt in the quarter finals of the Catholic League playoffs. Siemiontkowski graduated in 1968 with the highest single season scoring average in North Catholic school history at 22.6 PPG (later equalled by Joe Schoen in 1977).

College career

Siemiontkowski played collegiately with Villanova from 1969 to 1972. As a junior, he scored a career-high 31 points (also grabbing 15 rebounds) in an overtime win against

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

in the semifinals of the 1971 NCAA tournament. He scored 19 points in the Wildcats final loss to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He was named to the 1971 NCAA East Regional all-tournament team along with his teammate Howard Porter (Porter caused Villanova's season to be vacated from records as he had signed with an agent). He finished his career at Villanova with a 13.6 PPG average and is 12th all-time for the Wildcats in rebounding with 739 boards.

Professional career

He was chosen in the fourth round (50th pick) of the 1972 NBA draft by the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

, and by the

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in the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

draft in April 1972. He signed with the Cavaliers but was placed on waivers in October that year. He played for the Belgium Lions of the European Professional Basketball League in the first half of 1975. He played professionally until he was 46 in Finland, New Zealand and Sweden then settled in the small Swedish town of

Fritsla Fritsla is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in Mark Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 2,293 inhabitants in 2010. Notable natives *Arne Andersson (football player) *Lena Andersson (singer) *Yngve Brodd *Sten-Åke Ce ...

External links

Sports Reference profile

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siemiontkowski, Hank 1950 births Living people Basketball players from Philadelphia Cleveland Cavaliers draft picks New York Nets draft picks Small forwards Villanova Wildcats men's basketball players American men's basketball players