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The team that was going to bring about the renaissance in Harvard basketball ends its season tonight, with the millenium still eons away.
Harvard's quintet hosts Yale in the IAB at 8 p.m., and no matter what happens, the Crimson will probably wind up in the second division of the Ivy League for the 18th consecutive year. Harvard stands in fifth place in the League with a 5-8 record, while the Elis hold down fourth with a 6-6 mark.
Tonight's contest will mark the end of the varsity careers of Merle McClung and captain Leo Scully. McClung's three years on the quintet have been truly illustrious; last year he was the first string All-Ivy center. Though he is having a somewhat disappointing season this year, McClung needs only six points tonight to become the fifth Harvard player ever to score more than 900 points in his career.
Another landmark in Harvard hoop history will be passed tonight every time junior Keith Sedlacek scores a basket. Sedlacek established an all-time season scoring record of 458 points last Saturday, and should bloat that total against the Elis tonight. He will also become the first Crimson player ever to average more than 20 points in his a season.
Harvard played Yale in New Haven last Friday, and suffered a 68-51 loss to the Bulldogs which cost the Crimson its chance for a first division finish. The two teams were tied, 32 to 32, at the half, but Yale ripped apart Harvard's man-to-man defense early in the second half and won easily.
Yale's top player is their hotshot senior guard, Bob Trupin. The Elis have a slight height advantage over Harvard with their front line of 6-4 Rick Johnson, 6-5 Don Tayler, and 6-5 Tom McCaffrey. But the key to Yale's win over Harvard last weekend was the defensive play of guard Herb Broadfoot. The 6-0 junior crowded Sedlacek incessantly, preventing him from getting off his lighting-fast jump shot and holding him to a paltry nine points.
If the Crimson hopes to end its season with a victory tonight, Sedlacek will have to elude Broadfoot's defensive web. It isn't enough if only Sedlacek has a hot night. McClung, Barry Williams, and Gene Dressler will have to share some of the offensive burden, or Harvard is going to lose. That's the lesson the Crimson quintet has been learning all season.
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