Harvard Cagers Drop Three

At least it felt good to get out of Cambridge for a few days. And when the Harvard basketball team sought solace after a 0-3 road trip that brought it to Tulsa, Okla., and Dayton, Ohio, that was about the only consolation it could scavenge.

Never has Harvard coach Tom "Satch" Sanders's characteristic understatement been more apt than when he spoke yesterday of his team's inability "to beat the host team."

The 91-84 overtime healing at the hands of Invitational host Oral Roberts, on December 27, deftly concealed a losing chain reaction that continued through a 69-53 loss to San Diego State in the tournament consolation match, and a later 77-64 Dayton pasting.

Maybe it would have been better if a hot-shooting Crimson guard hadn't canned one of those patent-pending 45-footers to drag Oral Roberts into the extra period.

The contest was decided almost immediately. The Titans jumped to an untouchable six-point margin after one minute of play. And when Arnie Needleman injured his ankle while trying to stave off the Oral onslaught, the Crimson spirit dissipated into the Oklahoma air.

Needleman Injured

Sanders echoed the voices of his players when he said that not having the services of Arnie Needleman, who had been averaging 18 to 19 points and had been playing the best on the team," diminished Crimson chances in the succeeding contests.

"We really missed Arnie," Bill Carey said yesterday. "With him we could have won either game we played after the Oral Roberts game."

The loss of the contest and Needleman obscured Lou Silver's game high of 38 points for the Crimson--including 22 points from the charity stripe.

The December 28 consolation match against the Aztecs of San Diego featured some 31.4 per cent shooting by the cold Crimson and some strong rebounding by the opposition.

With only three men breaking into double figures, and two of them, Silver and Brian Banks, hitting for game highs of 13 each, Harvard was relegated to bottom berth in the tourney.

Weak Defense

The Crimson failed to shake the Tulsa stigma, bringing weak defense and cold shooting into the University of Dayton arena.

Dayton led all the way in the December 30 contest by maintaining at least a five-point spread over the weary Crimson squad.

An evenly distributed scoring line-up--Silver and Banks's 16 and 13 points were the only bulges--failed to camouflage a porous defense. Four Flyers cracked double figures including a game high 23 by Tommy Davis as Dayton played lion-and-mouse with the Crimson.

Four days of practice ahead separate Harvard from the slightly ruffled Ivy favorite Penn. The Quakers came up on the short end of a 50-49 match against Princeton January 4. Sanders will try to iron out defensive problems and look for the return of a healthy Needleman to the IAB Friday night.