Crimson Five Defeats Columbia, Loses to Cornell in Ivy Contests

The Crimson basketball team split its weekend home stand by losing to Cornell Saturday night, 68-62, after defeating Columbia 67-61 the previous evening for its first Ivy League victory of the season.

With a 1-2 record in League play, Harvard is tied for seventh place with Brown, a team that beat them by 20 points. Princeton is in first place with a 4-0 record, well ahead of second-place Cornell which has a 2-2 mark.

After leading the Lions 28-23 at half time and increasing their margin to as much as 13 points mid-way in the second half, the Crimson experienced some anxious moments before securing its victory.

With 2:15 to go, Columbia sophomore Fred Portnoy, who scored 15 points, missed the second of two free throws but tapped in the rebound to bring his team to within four points of a tie. But a pass from Bob Bowditch to Bill Danner through the Columbia press and a pair of fouls by Joe Deering made the Harvard fans in the small crowd stop thinking of the recent losses to Dartmouth and Brown, which came after late rallies by the opposition.

Crimson Takes Early Lead

The Crimson had raced to an early lead on the work of Bowditch and Pete Kelley, but fell behind with six minutes left in the first half on a jump shot by Columbia's Brikmanis. Gary Borchard scored a three-point play, his only points of the half against the hustling Portnoy, to help the Crimson to their half-time edge.

Felley led the team in points with 17 ant in rebounds with 12, doing a spirited job under the boards against the taller Lions, Borchard, who had led the Ivy League in points per game average before the game, was second with 14. Danner and Deering also hit double figures, with 12 and 11 respectively.

The loss to Cornell the next night followed the same pattern as most recent Harvard games. A hot-shooting first half enabled the Crimson to stay ahead of the Big Red, who had trouble making easy shots under the basket and converting free throws.

Once Cornell's attack began to click, however, they forged quickly back from a 28-2 deficit to take the lead for good with 14:30 remaining. The shooting and ball-handling of Ron Ivkovich and the rebounding of 6 ft., 1 in. jumping-jack Gerry Szachara were key factors in the drive.

The closest the Crimson came after that was 58-54 after a jump shot by Deering, but Szachara and Ivkovich each scored to crush the home team's chances with 2:45 to go.

Kelley Scores Another

Kelley again led the scorers, getting 17 for the second straight game and doing another hustling job in the rebounding department. Bowditch finished with 16 points, one more than Borchard. Cornell had five men in double figures, with husky Bill Baugh's 18 topping the list.

The big difference in the teams, coach Floyd Wilson said after the game, was that Cornell waited for good shots, while the Crimson was over-anxious, and took many poor shots, especially when no one was in position to rebound.