Cornell Defeats Quintet, 54-47; Crimson Loses Fourth Straight

Cornell ran the varsity basketball team's losing streak to four games (longest of the season) by beating Harvard, 57 to 47, Saturday night at Ithaca. The loss keeps the Crimson in sixth place in the Ivy League, one notch above Dartmouth.

Both teams got off to a bumbling start, with the Crimson connecting on little over 12 percent of its shots in the first half and Cornell doing about as badly. But the Big Red managed to keep one jump ahead of the varsity, grabbing a 23 to 19 halftime lead.

Cornell's attack worked more effectively in the second half, and the winners pulled away to a 49 to 40 lead with five minutes left. Paul Gerwin led the Ithacans' offense with 18 points, scoring over half of his eight goals on sets. Under the basket, Walt Ashbaugh took charge by picking up 14 points on his jump shot and tap-ins.

With the usually high scoring John Rockwell successfully bottled up by Gerwin, Ed Smith had to bear most of the offensive work. He played one of his best all around games, particularly on his foul shooting (six out of eight).

Cliff Crosby played a fine outside game, sinking three of his four baskets on long set shots. Gerry Murphy, though not so effective as usual defensively, turned in a good floor performance, setting up most of the plays along with Bill Hickey.

Coach Norm Shepard, whose squad has four more League contests, hasn't written off the rest of the season. Last night he said "the team's shooting was off at Cornell, but it played a hard game and seems to be on the upswing from its recent slump."

The freshman basketball team beat Andover, 49 to 42, Saturday night on the latter's court. Captain Dick Lionette scored 14 points in leading his team to its tenth win in 13 starts.

The varsity summary:   G  F  P Crosby, rf  4  2  10 Rockwell, lf  3  1  7 F. Lionette  0  0  0 Gabler  0  1  1 Prior, c  0  2  2 Smith  4  6  14 Murphy, lg  2  2  6 Hickey, rg  3  1  7 Covey  0  0  0 Bramhall  0  0  0 Total  16  15  47