Five Goes to Annapolis For Key Game Tonight

Bill Barclay's varsity basketball team shoved off from South Station last night convinced that tonight's 8:30 p.m. game with Navy at Annapolis may determine the whole course of the season.

Chip Gannon put it this way: "If we beat Navy and then take Dartmouth next Wednesday, we'll be one of the toughest teams to beat in New England. Last year, we lost a lot of tough overtime games at the beginning and this broke the squad's morale."

To stop the Middies tonight, Barclay will send out the same group that started against Northeastern Wednesday. Johnny Rockwell will jump center, flanked by Ed Smith and Pete Petrillo. Cliff Crosby, who finally started hitting Wednesday, and Dick Covey will be at the guards.

Eight First-Stringers

"These men are only part of what I consider the first string," Barclay explained last night. "We really have two sets of first string guards, Crosby-Covey and Gannon-McCurdy, and a pair of first team centers, Rockwell and Bill Prior."

He said he thought the varsity's performance against Northeastern was an improvement over the Brown showing.

Unscouted

As for the Middies, all Barclay knows is what the observed from a boxscore of Wednesday's Navy-Penn Military College game. Ben Carnevale's "greenest Naval Academy team in years" opened its season with an easy 48-30 win. Klinite, the center, was high man with five field goals and four free throws. The name Mullaney was also prominent in the scoring column, with eight points beside it. "All we know bout him is that he's Joe Mullaney's brother and he stands six-two," Coach Barclay said.

If he operates the way his brother plays for Holy Cross, the Crimson may be in for a long night.