Basketball Quintet Drops Title Game

The Crimson basketball team won two early round games and then lost the championship of the Washington University Invitation Tournament to Valparaiso, 68-66, Dec. 30. The six-team tournament was held in St. Louis during the Christmas holiday.

Playing in Pittsburgh on its way East last night Harvard defeated Carnegie Tech 72-64, to increase its season record to seven wins and three losses.

Coach Floyd Wilson's quintet scored victories over Whenton, 93-63, and DePauw, 88-56, on successive nights to reach the final round against the Indiana school, which annually gives a good account of itself against some of the best teams in the Midwest. Denny Lynch, who was also high scorer against DePauw, led the Crimson in the final game with 16 points.

Pete Kelley, probably the best sixty man in the Ivy League led Harvard scorers with 50 points in the three games and was named to the all-tournament team. 'Kelley' a junior cornerman has been used as a fireman in strategic spots by Wilson all season, and led the Crimson to three straight victories before the Holidays.

The opening game against Wheaton, whose major claim to athletic fame is that it is in Red Grange's home town, seemed to be an easy win for the Eastern as they led 42-32 at half-time. How ever, a Wheaton rally cut the margin to four, 35-31, with three minutes to play before the Crimson righted itself. Captain Gary Borchard led the scoring with 23 points, highest for any Harvard player in the tournament. Three other players, Kelley with 19, Gene Augustine with 14 and Joe Deering with 10 also were in double figures.

The semi-final victory over De Pauw must rank as one of the Crimson's best performances in many a year. The Indiana school had just returned from a trip to the West Coast, where it lost by only small margins to national powers USC and UCLA. Previously, DePauw, had defeated Butler, conqueror of a very strong Bradley team.

Using a slowed-down attack, which evidently confused the Midwest team, the Crimson scored almost at will in winning by 32 points. Lynch's 17 points were high for the game as four team mates also reached double figures.

Statistics for the tournament show how balanced the Crimson attack has been in recent games. Behind Kelley's 50 points Borchard was second with 46 for the three games; Lynch scored 45, nearing 31, and Bill Denner 27.

After dropping its opening games to Williams and University of Connection, Harvard won six in a row before running afoul at Valparaiso.