B.C. Five Buries Crimson, 99-81

Harvard gave it their almost all but the Boston College five was too big, too powerful, and too efficient, and the Crimson finally succumbed 99-81 in the stormy IAB.

For Harvard, there were stars -- like Chris Gallagher, Bob Kanuth and Gene Dressler -- and something of a goat in Barth Royer, but there was little of the teamwork and fast-breaking that characterized the first four games.

The overflow crowd had a chance to cheer the Crimson towards the upset of the year, when Harvard closed the gap to five points with seven minutes left. A jump shot by Bob Kanuth, a foul shot by Bob Johnson, and then a leaping follow-up by Johnson of a missed shot, and wow: it was 70-63. Bob Cousy called for a time out, and the fans applauded for a full minute.

Rally Dies

Gallagher scored on a tip-in, making it 70-65, but Harvard was spent. Steve Adelman broke the Crimson rally with two quick jump shots. Incredibly accurate from 15 feet out, Adelman killed Harvard with 32 points.

Harvard came close once more, closing the gap to six with 3:42 remaining, but -- sad to say -- even when it was close, the Eagles seemed to be in command.

It was just too much to ask. B.C. controlled the boards with Willie Wolters, Adelman. Terry Driscoll, and Jim Kassane. They didn't control them well enough to do as much fast-breaking as they would have liked, but they usually held Harvard to one shot at a time.

Adelman and Bill Evans were hot from the outside, Driscoll was destroying the Crimson from the inside, and Harvard was suffering from a problem they haven't had: lack of depth.

Jeff Grate had four fouls within minutes, so he couldn't do much for the rest of the half. And Royer, who appeared extremely nervous at the outset, never recovered. He blew a couple of easy shots inside and he didn't take his shot when he had it. As a result, Floyd Wilson was effectively working with only six men.

The man who made it a decent contest was captain Gene Dressler, who played one of the finest games of his career. Dressler constantly drove into the lane whenever his man gave him a millimeter, and he drew numerous fouls. In addition, he guarded his man beautifully. He dislocated his finger in the closing minute, but had it quickly snapped back into place.

Another bright spot was the outside shooting of Gallagher. Chris had been a big scorer in every game, so this is no surprise, but last night he swished four times from 12 feet out or more.

B.C., ranked 12th nationally in the UPI poll, is now 5-0. Harvard is 4-1.

The freshmen lost to the Eaglets, 79-72, despite a great shooting effort in the first half by Ron Glass. Scoring Harvard  FG  F  T Gallagher  10  2  22 Kanuth  6  5  17 Boyer  2  0  4 Grate  4  2  10 Dressler  5  4  14 Beller  0  2  2 Martell  4  0  8 Johnson  1  2  4 TOTAL  32  17  81   B.C. Wolters  3  3  9 Kissane  2  1  5 Adelman  14  4  32 Evans  5  5  15 Hice  2  2  6 Kvancz  5  1  11 Driscoll  8  5  21 TOTAL  39  21  99