CAGERS DROP 49-34 BATTLE TO ITHACANS

Sporting a brighter shade of Red than the Crimson could offer, a tall, rugged, fast-breaking Cornell team that finally seems to have hit its stride outclassed the Varsity basketball team Saturday night in the Indoor Athletic Building with Harvard bowing 49-34 in their first League start of the season.

A capacity crowd saw that looked like a close game when the score was tied up at seven-all in the first few minutes, turn into a Cornell controlled contest. The Big Red forged ahead on some two-pointers by Sophomore Dick Giles, who made a total of 18 points before the evening was over, and kept a solid lead of at least eight markets until the final whistle.

Burditt Stopped

Bunks Burditt, the Varsity's high-scoring captain, was successfully bottled up by big, close-guarding Cornell players and made only three field goals; but the inability of the Harvard guards to pass into Bunks not only for pivot shots but also for setting up scoring plays damaged the whole Crimson attack.

Cornell's speed and fast-breaking tactics kept the Harvard defense back on its heels most of the time, and when the Varsity defenders couldn't shift fast enough, the Ithacans got in for lay-up shots.

Crimson Below Par

Most observers felt that the home team played one of its poorer games Saturday night. The fast pace kept up by Cornell seemed to throw Harvard off stride; and capitalizing on Crimson mistakes and with all-Eastern Intercollegiate League forward, Sam Hunter, gobbling up rebounds from the backboards, they won handily.

Dean Hennessey, starting at forward for the second game in a row, played a fine game, chalking up nine points. Coach Earl Brown started Hugh Hyde at forward for a change, but he dropped him back to guard after a short time.

A record of 7 out of 18 foul shots didn't help the Crimson cause any, and Brown will be out to develop some consistency in this department among his team as well as to find that evasive scoring spark needed for the coming League games.

One consoling factor was to be found in Cornell's 55-27 trouncing of Yale on Friday night, their first win after dropping six close decisions.

In a preliminary to the Varsity game, Newport Naval Training Station beat Boston Coast Guard 58 to 51 in a contest between two non-Harvard teams.   fg  ft  pts Hyde, rf  1  1  8 Richards  0  0  0 Hennessey, lf  4  1  9 Dillon  0  0  0 Sorlien  0  1  1 Axon  0  0  0 Burditt, c  3  4  10 Forster  1  0  2 Lutze, rg  0  0  0 Bixler  1  0  2 Keene  0  0  0 Moley  0  0  0 Fansler, lg  3  1  7   13  6  34