Inspired Brandeis Squad Topples Cagers, 95-88

In a word, the game was a disaster. The Crimson cagers, had they triad to play worse, would have been unable to do so. They were soundly thrashed by Brandeis at the IAB last night, and although the final score, 95-88, sounds reasonably class, the game itself was not.

To begin with, Harvard played without Arnie Needleman, its sharp-shooting guard, who was injured, and Doc Hines, who was in New York. Even without these starting performers, however, the Crimson should have had little difficulty with a Brandeis team over which it had a considerable height advantage.

Big Game

Secondly, even though the game was contested on Harvard's home court, the near-capacity crowd was predominantly composed of Brandeis followers, who had made the journey from Waltham to witness their team's "biggest" game of the season.

For the Crimson, this was to be a breather game. After least weekend's near miss against an excellent Brown team, and with Princeton and Penn lorking in the near future, this was to be the game where Harvard could relax and coast to its eighth victory. Unfortunately, Brandels had other ideas.

The Judges, as they and referred to by their ardent followers came storming into the IAB served up a verdict of guilty on a lackluster Crimson squad Harvard was guilty of sloppy passing style of play.

As a result, Brandeis was able so run up a comfortable halftime advantage of 13 points, a lead that it was able to maintain throughout the second half.

The Crimson tightened the margin somewhat as the game drew to a close, at one point coming within three points 91-88 but the Judges, having played inspired basketball the entire night, simply refused to wilt, and scored the game's final two baskets to clinch the victory.

Guard Mike Fahey was the chief justice for Brandels, as he led the team with 25 points. The high man in the game was Harvard's Bill Carey, who contributed a career record point output with 31.

Even when Harvard threatened to make a game out of it. Brandeis would immediately respond with a basket, never allowing the Crimson to gain the sustained momentum need by a team attempting to rebound from a 16-point deficit.

No Pointers

Only the driving lay-ups of Carey and the free throw shooting of Silver 111 of 121 allowed Harvard to remain within shouting distance. No other player was able to more than points, and particularly harmful to the Crimson cause was the fact that Mike Griffin could manage just two baskets in 13 attempts before fouling out late in the game.

Perhaps the sequence that best exemplifies the kind of night it was for Harvard occured late in the first half. Guard Joe Leondis was called for a technical foul when, while attempting to toss the ball back to the ref, it inadvertently landed on the head of one of the Brandeis Player.

On the bright side, it is probably best that the Crimson purge this game from its system before the arrival of Princeton and Penn. If Harvard plays this way them, its margin of defeat will be much greater than 7 points.