Basketball Team Massacres Tufts But Can't Quite a Hundred

While fans stomped "We're number one," the Harvard basketball team tried to beat the clock and make it a 100-point night, but they couldn't quite do it.

It was the only thing the team couldn't do last night, as they crushed Tufts, 97-58, for their third win a row. Once again, the Crimson got double-figure performances from their sophomore forwards -- only this time there were four of them, with the return of Dan Martell from the injured list.

Harvard could not penetrate the Jumbo zone defense, so the game was close for a while. But the Crimson found the best remedy for a zone which prevents driving -- popping from the outside. All the starters were swishing jump shots from the corner, the top of the key, and sometimes further out than that. Ten minutes had gone by before the Crimson worked the ball to the inside for a hook shot by Chris Gallagher.

By halftime it was 52-31, but the 500 or so fans stayed on. They knew that Harvard had won, and they wanted to watch the boys popping and stuffing like pros. They wanted to argue amongst themselves whether the Crimson could beat a "real" team, like the Boston College five that will be here next Tuesday night.

The starting five came for the second half, eager to answer the unasked question. Harvard poured in 12 points in a row, and 18 of the first 19. It took the poor Jumbos seven minutes to score one basket.

Coach Floyd Wilson, who sat almost motionless throughout the massacre, began to substitute freely. Bench strength could be the key to the big season optimists talk about, and the second line continued to widen the lead.

By the time, the Tufts zone had collapsed, and the Crimson was scoring on drives, hook shots, jump shots, and tap-ins. Harvard ended up with a solid 48.8 per cent shooting percentage, to 33.3 per cent for the visitors.

Tufts center, Ron McRobbie, who had been averaged 23.5 points per game, was stifled by Harvard's aggressive man-to-man defense, and could only manage eight points.

In the freshman game, Harvard's Ernie Hardy scored 22 points in a 88-60 win. Hardy stars because he jumps higher than anyone else on the court -- so he can be a pivot man although he's only 6 ft. 4 in. HARVARD SCORING   FG  F  T Kanuth  7  4  18 Gallagher  8  0  16 Royer  5  1  11 Martell  5  0  10 Grate  4  1  9 Waichowski  3  2  8 Dressler  3  1  7 Johnson  2  2  6 Beller  0  4  4 McCullough  2  0  4 Griswold  1  0  2 Markowski  0  2  2