Cagers Face Quakers Tonight Crimson Title Hopes Are on the Line

Tonight will be the test. All the press clippings, the five-game winning streak, the shot at the Ivy title, all of that will be on the line when Tom Sanders's cagers take on Penn at 8 p.m. in the IAB.

The last time the two teams clashed, January 12 in the Palestra, Penn eked out a 55-53 win on John Beecroft's last-second shot. But last Saturday's miracle in Marvel Gym, Brown's one-point win over the Quakers, gives Crimson title hopes a shot in the arm.

Sanders's hardcourt heartstoppers sport five straight wins over Northeastern, Yale, Columbia, Cornell and Dartmouth. In a seesaw battle on Tuesday night, Harvard pulled out a 72-63 home victory over the Big Green.

Along with Brown, Penn leads the Ivies with a 7-1 league record, and head coach Chuck Daly's perennial champions are 15-5 overall. Harvard, third in the league with a 6-2 record, stands 8-10 overall. So the Crimson five has its work cut out for it.

And even if the Harvard cagers should pull an upset and defeat the visiting squad from the City of Brotherly Love, they'll have to battle the Tigers of Princeton Saturday night at the IAB.

"We're playing agaanst the so-called steel of the league," Sanders said yesterday. "Optimism is nice, but we have to face the facts--Penn and Princeton are two of the top teams in the league."

But the softspoken rookie coach wasn't conceding anything. "Hey, listen, you can always dream," Sanders said.

Tonight the biggest problem facing Sanders will be Ron Haigler. An All-Everything 6-ft. 8-in. junior forward, Haigler averages 16.8 points a game and is leading rebounder for the Quakers, pulling down 10.8 a game. In the Palestra, Haigler burned the Crimson for 21 points. "He's quite a potent factor in their offense," Sanders said.

Hands Full

Tony Jenkins, Lou Silver, Bill Carey and Len Adams will have their hands full. Daly likes to use Haigler; John Engles, a 6-ft. 8-in. sophomore battering ram who drops in 11.8 points a game, Bob Bigelow, a 6-ft. 7-in. guard-forward; and Henry Johnson, a 6-ft. 11-in. resident of Tulsa, Okla., in various combinations.

If there is a weakness on the Penn squad, it is at the guard spot. Beecroft and Whitey Varga are suspect ballhandlers, a full-court press Sanders employed in Philadelphia bothered the methodical Quakers in the waning moments of the game.

Pressure Penn

If the score is close late in the game, and it very well may be, it is possible Sanders will pressure the Penn team. "At that particular time we have a habit of trying anything," Sanders said yesterday.

Recently, everything has worked for Sanders. His line-up change--inserting Carey and Steve Selinger as starters in mid-January--has paid off with a winning streak. If Sanders comes up with two wins this weekend, or even a split, Harvard's stock will rise.

And more importantly, if Sanders's cagers pass the test, the league title will be within reach.