Kirkland Basketball Team Places First; Eliot Second

With a 15-1 record the Kirkland House 'A' basketball team captured first place in the House standings for the second year in a row. Kirkland helped out Eliot House (13-3) for the title, and last week defeated Yale's intramural champion, Trumbull College, 68-61.

The Deacons were led by junior guard Dave Taft, who averaged 18 pints per game, and by center John Leshy, who accounted for most of the rebounds. There seniors, Jim Weaver, Allen Quint, and John cox, and the Junior. Roger Noback, completed the six-man squad.

The team coached by tutor Ken Deitch, played "come-from-behind" basketball. Usually behind at the half, they employed a tenacious full-court press to stop their opponents. Much of their scoring was on fast-breaks, but Weaver. Taft and Quint were also strong on out-side shots.

Their best games were against Trumbull College, and Leverett House. They sneaked past Leverett House by a two pint margin, in the closing minutes of the game.

Their one defeat came at the hands of the Eliot House Elephants. In the last game of the season for the two teams, Eliot House trounced the Deacons with a fifteen-point margin. In their first encounter, Kirkland won by two points in overtime.

The Elephants, who bettered last year's fifth place, were still erratic. they had no outstanding stars and chalked up most of their victories on full team efforts. will Clarke, player coach, and Buzz Baker helped in much of the scoring by setting up fast breaks, 6-7 center John Mickets did most of the rebounding, while Jarobin Gilbert and Bill Bopp hit on the jump shots.

beaten by Leverett in their second meeting, the Elephants received their most ignominious defeat from eighth-place Dudley House.

Leverett and Winthrop took third place with a 10-6 record. The Bunnies were coached by player Bob Russman. Three of their top players, Steve Ekadahl. Don Arbuckle and Larry O'Brien are sophomores. In the beginning of the year they had trouble getting together, but they look very strong for the future.

The Puritans had a small, but strong team. Led by guards John Hawkins and Howie Burkholder, the coach, and by forward Andy Lewis, they were rough opponents for all the top teams. Their outside shooting was strong but they were sometimes weak on the foul line.

Quiney House finished fifth with a 7-9 record. But their 'B' team made up for this by ting Leverett for first place. The 'B' team seemed to have more hustle than the 'a', though the 'A' team had such strong players as Frank Ulcickas and Dave Losk.

The four bottom teams were: Adams (6-10), Dunster (5-11), Dudley (3-12) and Lowell (1-14).

The 'A' league was much better this year and the race was much tighter. Every team could have won. Dundley upset Eliot: Winthrop never lost a game by more than four points. Kirkland ended up on top because of their organization and Dave Taft.