Penn Five Favored to Hand Varsity 15th Defeat Tonight

The Associated Press could be right, belatedly, tonight. After the Boston University game last week, the AP erroneously reported that the Crimson basketball team had lost 15 straight games. Tonight, with 14 consecutive defeats behind it, Harvard plays Penn in a contest starting at 8:30 p.m. in the indoor Athletic Building.

Time is rapidly ticking out on the Crimson quintet. With only four games remaining on the schedule, the team has yet to win an Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League contest. Tonight's opponents have an EIBL record of five and four.

Lineup Unchanged

Barclay will stick to the same lineup that he used against Cornell Saturday. This puts John Rockwell and Bob Bramhall up at forward, Bill Prior at center, and Chip Gannon and Dick Covey back at the guard slots.

The lineup will be pretty fluid, however. Walt McCurdy, who kept Harvard in the game up to the last three seconds against Cornell with his 19 points, will probably see more action tonight than in previous contests. If Walt is as hot tonight as he was Saturday, the Block-house could conceivably be the site of an upset.

Stopped Lavelli

As it is, the Quakers stand as the favorites. Besides owning the number four spot in league competition, they have been one of the few teams able to sit on Tony Lavelli and defeat Yale.

This is the second time this season that the two teams have met. Last month, in a game in Philadelphia, Penn built up a huge half-time lead and then staved off a late Harvard rally to win, 76 to 71.