Skaters Win Again, But Hoopsters Falter

It's still too early to say that Harvard's long-suffering basketball fans are in for another joyless season. But there are some ominous signs, such as the Crimson's 81-78 loss to Springfield on Saturday.

Springfield wasn't a better team than Harvard. The Crimson shot reasonably well--42 per cent from the field--and scored as many points there as Springfield--58. Harvard also out-rebounded the Maroon by 13 rebounds.

But when the going got tough, Harvard's troops didn't get going--they fell flat. Under Springfield's second-half full-court press, Harvard handed over its seven-point lead, and by the middle of the fourth quarter, the Maroon was up by 13.

The flustered Crimson gave up the ball 23 times on turnovers, compared to Springfield's 14. They also gave Springfield eight more shots at the foul line than they took themselves.

And it was at the foul-line that Harvard got beaten. Springfield took advantage of its 36 trips to the line to provide the three-point winning margin.

Harvard's efforts weren't without their brights spots, however. Sophomore guard Dale Dover potted 38 points--13 for 21 from the field and 12 for 15 from the line--to account for nearly half of Harvard's scoring.

And 6'5" Ernie Hardy brought 19 rebounds off the boards to lead all rebounders.

But aside from Captain Bob Kanuth's 16 points, Harvard had nothing else to boast of on offense or defense. Particularly disappointing were the performances of Chris Gallagher and Paul Waickowski. Gallagher--last year a consistent scorer and third leading rebounder in the Ivies--scored only two points and had only two rebounds. He has scored only eight points in Harvard's first three games.

Tallest Blanked

Waickowski, the Crimson's tallest man at 6'9" didn't break into either the scoring or the rebounding columns.

Harvard did manage an exciting comeback in the last period. Trailing by 13 with seven minutes to play, the Crimson fought back to within one before Springfield sunk both free throws on a one-and-one situation to put the game on ice. Harvard's Scoring: Dover  38 Johnson  7 Kanuth  16 Gallagher  2 Hardy  5 Gustafson  4 Janszewski  6 Yates  0 Waickowski  0