Hoopsters Upset Blues In Final Home Contest

The Harvard basketball team played out of its mind for Floyd Wilson Saturday night at the IAB to bring the retiring coach a 98-89 victory over Yale in the last home game of his 14 year career.

For the first time this season Harvard put it all together. Jeff Grate and Eric Gustafson kept Yale honest with their long shots while Chris Gallagher and Bobby Johnson worked over the third-place Elis underneath. And the man-to-man defense was superb.

A large crowd turned out to see Wilson's final coaching appearance and his boys were psyched to the sky. Senior Jim Griswold made his first start and, symbolically, perhaps, got Harvard rolling with a slick tip in.

The teams felt each other out for the first five minutes. Yale took a one point lead at 10-9 and experienced Harvard fans were ready to head for the exits. But for once this was to be Floyd Wilson's night.

Grate hit a jumper off a Johnson pass and then Gustafson threw in three long bombs--one from the top of the key and then one from each corner, giving Harvard a four point lead.

With Johnson switching beautifully on defense and Gallagher and Kanuth dominating the backboards, Harvard gradually widened its lead to 12 five minutes from the end of the half. Kanuth led the surge with two of his favorite high-arching sets.

Then suddenly Johnson picked up three fouls and had to leave the game. Wilson switched to a zone defense and the Elis began to chip away. Guard Rick Stoner dropped three 20 footers and captain Ed Goldstone banked a pair of layups. Gustavson scored two more jumpers and Grate a pretty layup, but by the half Yale had cut the lead to two, 36-34.

Back in the lineup at the start of the second half Johnson ignited a quick burst by stealing the ball from the Eli's Bob McCallum.

Gallagher turned a Gustavson pass into a three point play. Grate hit successive hanging jump shots, the second after swiping an errant Yale pass. Then Kanuth found Johnson alone under the basket for another hoop. Harvard led 45-34, and although no one would have believed it then, the game was over.

Yale never got closer than seven again as Johnson, Harvard captain Bobby Beller, Gustavson and Gallagher kept up the offensive pressure.

Defensively it was Johnson and Kanuth who stood out. In the first Harvard-Yale game this season, in New Haven, Frank Wisneski tore the Crimson apart with solid long-range shooting. But Saturday Johnson put the lid on, holding "Wizzer" to six points.

The 6-4 Kanuth--for the umpteenth time this year--was matched against a giant. But playing his rugged, pushing defense Kanuth held the 6-9 John Winston to 10 points, many of them late in the game.