B-Ballers Squeak Past Brandeis; Fitzsimmons Scores 35 Points

WALTHAM--With the Brandeis cheerleaders leading the cheers of the SRO crowd here tonight, the Brandeis squad pulled within four points with one minute remaining in the game. But the Crimson withstood the challenge to win, 125-117.

Harvard had moved to an 18-point lead four minutes into the second half, but Brandeis, which boasts a good shooting small team, pecked away at Harvard's zone defense and pulled within six several times and within six several times and within two at one point.

"Well, we found out one thing tonight. We don't know to play a zone over a long stretch." Harvard coach Bob Harrison said. "We didn't shift well and weren't really attacking the ball so our experiment backfired."

During the first half, the Crimson was never able to pull too far ahead of the hot-shooting Brandeis team. With seven minutes left in the half. Harvard behind Jim Fitzsimmons, who hit on 11-of-12 from the field in the half, went ahead 50-37.

Brandeis, though, narrowed Harvard's lead to three points just before the half one strong shooting by Major Williams, who tailed 28 for the night.

The Crimson stretched it to 67-57 at half-time, and at the start of the second half, went ahead by eighteen.

"We got hot then. We've got a good bunch of shooters, and we started hitting against their zone," Brandeis head coach Bob Brannum said. "We knew we'd have to shoot with them since we couldn't play them straight up, and we did."

Fitzsimmons finished the game with 35 points, on 16 field goals and three-of-four from the line. James Brown, who rallied the squad in the closing minutes with some key baskets, contributed 27, and Floyd Lewis added 17.

The Crimson could not put the game out of Brandeis reach. When it gained the momentum with a series of well-executed plays, it would turn it right back with a series of turnovers and poor shots. "We are still suffering from last weekend's letdown," Harrison said.

The Crimson meets Dartmouth in the IAB next Tuesday.