Squash Team Clobbers Yale, 6-3, Gaining Fifth Consecutive National Championship

Harvard's basketball team built up a 31-point lead in the first half, then barely hung on to defeat Yale, 87 to 82, Saturday in the IAB.

After the Elis had taken an early 4-3 lead, Harvard stunned the standing-room-only crowd by reeling off 17 straight points. And the Crimson kept going strong after that; they led 44-13 late in the period and left the court at halftime with a 27-point lead.

Harvard had been hitting 61 per cent of its shots during the half, set up plays well, and dominated rebounding completely. Yale had a classic case of the heebie-jeebies. They were throwing away passes, missing easy baskets, and even settling for 20-foot shots on their fast breaks.

Not surprisingly, Harvard couldn't sustain this torrid pace in the second half. The Crimson never really settled down; Yale was committing a rash of fouls, and Harvard didn't even get the opportunity to set up any plays. During the entire second half, in fact, the Crimson only attempted 18 shots. Unsettled by this drastic change in the style of the game. Harvard committed numerous ball-handling errors and was murdered under the boards.

Elis Cut Crimson Lead

Yale relentlessly picked away at Harvard's huge lead. With 16:32 to play they had cut the margin to 51-31, and with ten minutes left the Crimson's advantage was a relatively meagre 59-49.

With 2:48 to play, Yale's high scorer Ed Goldstone sank a pair of free throws which brought the Elis to within two points, 75 to 73. But at that point the Bulldogs rally ran out of gas. Their heavy fouling had taken its toll; five Yale players had fouled out of the game.

Barry Williams and Keith Sedlacek hit foul shots. John scott bucketed a dazzling underhand drive, and Sedlacek added a pair of free throws which brought Harvard's lead to a comfortable eight points.

Harvard's foul shooting was a decisive aspect of the game. The Crimson tied a school record by sinking 41 of 56 free throws, while Yale was 24-for-34.

Sedlacek was Harvard's high scorer with 24 points, and Gene Dressler collected 19. Barry Williams also turned in a fine performance for the Crimson, hauling down 15 rebounds and scoring 11 points. Two second stringers paced the Elis' attack; Goldstone scored 26 points and Bob McCallum tallied 14.

The upset gave Harvard a tie with Yale for fifth place in the Ivy League. Both squads have 5-8 records, and Harvard concludes its season Tuesday night against last-place Dartmouth.

In other League activity Saturday night, Cornell edged Penn, 81 to 76; Columbia beat Princeton, 67 to 62; and Brown topped Dartmouth, 76 to 66.