Cagers Win Easy Victory Over Elis

Harvard's Jim Fitzsimmons and Floyd Lewis combined for twelve points during a three-minute stretch midway through the first half to boost the Crimson into a 12-point lead and an eventual 88-72 victory over Yale Saturday in the IAB.

Tonight Harvard puts its six-game winning streak on the line when it meets Oral Roberts, ranked twentieth in the nation, for an 8 p.m. contest in the IAB.

Oral Roberts University, founded a few years ago by evangelist Oral Roberts--a basketball fanatic--joined the major college division of the NCAA just this year, and its basketball team has climbed into the nation's top twenty teams with a 22-1 record.

"They are going to come out running." Harvard head coach Bob Harrison said Saturday," and I think we'll be able to run with them. This game is important to us because if we can beat them, we'll regain some of our lost prestige."

The Crimson will have to stop Richard Fuqua, the nation's second leading scorer with a 35-point average, and Eddie Woods, ORU's 6-7 sophomore center, if it expects to make any headway against Oral Roberts' high-scoring offense, which leads the nation in scoring with an average of 103 points a game.

Friday night Oral Roberts defeated B.U., 87-78, in one of its lowest scoring games in the last two months. In that game Fuqua poured in 29 points, and Woods grabbed 21 rebounds and blocked 12 shots while scoring 19 points.

Harvard's win over Yale, marked at points by the Crimson's effective fast break, indicated that Harvard should be able to challenge Oral Roberts' game.

Against Yale (and Brown the Previous night), the Crimson also cut down on its turnovers and fouls, both trouble spots in previous contests. Its defense and rebounding, which held Brown and Yale to just 56 and 69 shots this weekend while garnering 86 and 83 shots for itself, are also improved.

The Crimson moved to a 46-36 half-time advantage against the Elis Saturday, and in the second half, with Brian Newmark leading the way, Harvard stretched its lead to 72-57 with seven minutes left in the game.

Newmark hit on seven-of-nine from the field and tallied 16 points in 20 minutes playing time. Fitzsimmons led all scorers with 21, and upped his Harvard season scoring mark to 561.

James Brown, starting in his second straight game, tallied 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

In the freshman preliminary, Harvard's freshman team defeated Yale, 88-78, for its ninth win of the season against eight losses.