Basketballers Lose Thriller to Yale, 51-44; Team Elects Finegan as Next Year's Captain

An inspired Yale surge in the final six minutes of play took an apparent victory fight out of Crimson hands at New Haven last night. The Harvard Varsity finally dropped the contest, their last of the season, by 51-44.

In a locker room meeting following the game, John Christopher Finegan of Winthrop House and Gloucester was elected captain of next year's Harvard hoopsters. Finegan has been one of Coach Wes Fesler's most valuable players this season in his right guard slot. This is Fesler's last game as Crimson mentor.

Crimson Ahead at Half

The halfway mark saw the Crimson on the top end of a 26-24 total paced by forward Joe Romano's 13 points. By gun time, Romano accumulated 16 tallies to take high scoring honors for the night.

After the rest period the Elis rushed ahead until they held a 35-29 lead. Foul shots by Fenigan and current captain Frannie Simpson narrowed the margin to three points and Ed Buckley and Bill Wobber led the final attack which gave Harvard a 40-36 ascendancy.

It was then that the Blues turned on the steam and ran up their winning total in the battle's dying minutes. An effective freezing of the ball prevented retaliation by the visitors and insured the Yale victory.

Romano was the game's individual star leading a vicious offensive in the opening minutes. His 8 points in the initial 12 minutes gave the Crimson hoopmen a 12-4 lead which Yale slowly worked up to 14-14 deadlock. Captain Johnny Cobb of the Elis paced the victors as they kept up a next-and-neck battle until the half whistle.

The summary: YALE   G  F  P Cobb, r.f.  5  1  11 Ingley, l.f.  3  2  8 Zilly, cfl  6  1  13 Seelbach, r.g.  1  3  5 Wightman, r.g.  0  2  2 Anderson, l.g.  0  2  2 Vogt,  5  0  10 Totals  20  11  51 HARVARD   G  F  P Simpson, r.f.  2  2  6 Webber, r.f.  1  1  3 Romano, l.f.  7  2  16 Scully, l.f.  0  0  0 Peabody, c.  1  0  2 Rothschild, c.  2  0  2 Janes, l.g.  1  0  2 Buckley, l.g.  4  0  8 McSweeney, r.g.  1  0  2 Finegan, r.g.  1  1  3 Totals  20  6  44