Improved Basketball Team Opposes Amherst Tonight

Even if Coach Norm Shepard's rapidly developing varsity basketball team lost some of its momentum during the exam period, it will still be a heavy favorite to open the spring semester with a victory over Amherst at 8:30 p.m. tonight on the I.A.B. court.

The red-hot pace that saw upsets over Princeton, Brandeis, and Yale in the Crimson's last three games will hardly be necessary to beat the Jeffs; the visitors were walloped by the varsity, 69 to 49, in the opening round of the Crimson tourney at Dartmouth, and that was long before Harvard reached its peak.

Its win over Amherst was one of eight during the Crimson's 13-game first semester schedule. Before the recent three-game winning streak, its other victims were Boston University, Wesleyan, Springfield, and Northeastern. The varsity lost to Brown, Cornell, Tufts, Columbia, and Dartmouth.

The loss to the Indian came in the semi-finals of the holiday tournament and did not count in the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League standings. Thus with a two-and-three record in conference play, the varsity is in fourth place behind Cornell, Pennsylvania, and Columbia. The third-place Lions have a one-game margin, while the Crimson is but a half-game ahead of the Elis and the Tigers, who share fifth and sixth.

Seniors Star

Explaining his team's improvement, Shepard says, "Our four seniors--captain Ed Krinsky, Bill Dennis, Ed Condon, and Ed Blodnick--have given the squad a lot of poise. They've been a losing group up till this year, but now when the pressure on the other club, instead of vice versa."

The juniors have also been valuable, of course. Harry Sacks leads the E.I.B.L. in scoring with an 18.4 average, and Dick Manning has been good under the boards.

sharing offensive honors with Sacks has been Bill Dennis, who has totalled about 13 points per game. Condon, meanwhile, has been the defensive standout; he also is tied for second in the league in assists.

In the New England sports writers' most recent weekly poll, the Crimson stood seventh.