Penn Tops Cagers, 86-77; Tigers Play Here Tonight

The Crimson basketball team cut Penn's lead to five points with ten minutes remaining in last night's game in the IAB, and though Harvard struggled to narrow the gap, the Quakers held their own to top the Crimson, 86-77.

Just four weeks ago, Penn smashed Harvard, 103-71, in the Palestra, but last night the Crimson, using a tenacious man-to-man defense, played even with the Quakers the entire first half, and never showed signs of letting up in spite of a bad streak at the start of the second half.

Harvard, now 1-6 in the Ivy League and 7-12 overall, faces Princeton tonight at 8 p.m. in the LAB. If the Crimson performs as well tonight as it did last night, it has a good chance to upset the Tigers, who fell to Dartmouth, 70-69, last night in Hanover.

Early Harvard Lead

In the Penn contest, Harvard jumped to an early lead with 5'9" sephomore guard Matt Bozek, who tallied 16 of his game-leading 25 points in the first half, hitting five jump shots in the opening minutes.

Falling behind, 31-23, midway through the first half, the Crimson climbed back to tie the score at 39-39 on a series of short shots by forward Brian Newmark, who worked well underneath despite a height disadvantage to Quaker center Jim Wolf and finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Penn at the Half

Then Penn rattled of six quick points and led 45-39 at half-time. When Harvard came back on the floor it missed several fast-break scoring opportunities, and the Quakers pushed their lead to 14 points with a full-court zone press.,

Junior guard Dale Dover, who became the tenth leading scorer in Harvard basketball history with 14 tallies tonight, then scored a three-point play on a fast-break lay-up, Newmark tallied another lay-up, Bozek hit a jump shot, and the Crimson was back in the game.

During the final ten minutes, Harvard kept trying to narrow the margin, but a pair of short shots by Penn forward Corky Calhoun and five jump shots by reserve forward John Koller prevented the Crimson from pulling closer than ten or twelve points.

Crimson Hustle

"Our kids really hustled tonight," said Harvard coach Bob Harrison, "We missed a lot of lay-ups, and took a few long shots instead of passing for shorter ones but we never quit," he said.

When the Crimson takes on Princeton tonight, it may have to contend with the same scoring balance that Penn has. In the Tigers' 87-64 romp last month Harvard held Princeton's leading scorer, guard Jeff Petrie, to four points, but the Tigers' two forwards, Bill Sickler and Bob Ryder, ran up over 40 points between them.

"Those two guys killed us when we played them last time, " said Harrison, "but this time we hope to do a better job against them while containing Petrie and center John Hummer like we did last time."

Man-to-Man

Harrison plans to use a man-to-man defense against Princeton, and if the Crimson stops the Tigers' control offense, and at the same time runs its own last break offense effectively, Harvard has a chance of winning."

The Tigers, who have managed only three wins in the Ivy League this winter against four losses, lost Petrie last week because of a sprained ankle, and he won't be at full strength yet, though he will probably play.

Strong Rebounders

Under the boards, the Crimson, which has outrebounded nearly every team it's played, should be able to match Princeton's rebounding potential. 6'7" center Hummer paces the Tiger rebounders, but if the Crimson screens Hummer away from the boards as well as it kept Penn's big men from getting garbage baskets, it should be able to outrebound Pricenton.

Harvard might also have a psychological advantage. The Tigers may be 'down' after their narrow loss to the Big Green, while Harvard should be 'up' because of its respectable showing against Penn. At least, the Crimson has a good chance to win its first game, against Princeton in four years.