Hoopsters Battle With Springfield

The Harvard basketball team has not had a great week. Wednesday night, they lost to Navy, 70-58. Thursday afternoon, just before practice, two year letterman Barth Royer revealed that doctors had forbidden him to play for the rest of the season. And tonight, the Crimson faces one of New England's better small college teams, Springfield, in the second contest of a four-game road trip.

Coach Bob Harrison didn't have any one reason for his team's disappointing showing at Annapolis. He stressed that the Middies were psychologically ready for the game--the season opener played before "6000 screaming Midshipmen."

Further, Harrison acknowledged that Navy, although smaller as a team, had beaten Harvard off the backboards. "We just weren't as sharp as we could have been," he said. Not that Harvard was overwhelmed. "The point spread throughout was from one to five," the coach explained, "but we never could get the big play to get the lead. Then we made some mistakes which gave them the impetus and they built up the score."

Harrison made these comments before practice Thursday, minutes after he learned of Royer's condition. The 6-6 senior, perhaps the best-shooting big man in recent Harvard history, had a knee operation over the summer. The doctors have been draining fluid constantly ever since and now advise that future exertion could produce permanent arthritis.

Royer had problems with the knee last year, missing most of the team's schedule. But the scoring touch which produced 13 points a game, second on the club, will be greatly missed.

At Springfield tonight, Harvard faces a team something like Navy, small but fast. Earlier this week Springfield trounced Bridgeport by 18 points; last year in the NCAA College Division Regionals, Bridgeport had trounced Springfield by 20.

Close One

The Maroon was 17-9 last year and lost only one starter. Two guards--one a sophomore--do most of the scoring: Waterman and Clark. The Maroon captain, Ehler, leads the team in rebounding and tallied 21 points in the opener against Bridgeport. They play a man-to-man defense and a 1-2-2 offense--similar to Harvard's. It should be a close game, unless the Maroon is tired, playing its third game in four nights.