Yale Basketball Team Downs Harvard, 84-78

Yale forward Ed Goldstone poured in a barrage of twisting layups, long jumpers, and clutch free throws late in the second half to spill a pressing Harvard team, 84-78, last night at the IAB.

It was almost a great upset for Harvard. Trailing for a while by 14 points and by seven at halftime, the Crimson scrambled back behind Chris Gallagher, Captain Gene Dressler, Jeff Grate, and Barth Rover to seize a one point lead with five minutes to go.

But then Goldstone started breaking past the pressing Harvard defense for garbage layups. The 6 ft. 4 in. junior dropped in 10 of his game-high 31 points in those final five minutes.

Down by six with 1:45 left, the Crimson fouled frantically while trying to get the ball back. But Goldstone and Eli captain Rick Johnson hit tense one-and-one free throw situations to push the lead to 10, and then the Elis simply played out the string.

One of Harvard's best efforts of the year flitted away just when it looked as if the Crimson might upset the Elis, who hold third place in the Ivy eague.

After a shoddy start, Harvard jumped back into the game virtually with the second half tip-off. Bob Johnson grabbed the ball and streaked in unmolested for a quick bucket to make it 37-32, Yale.

Then Jeff Grate, Gallagher - called Rabbit because of his tendency to hop around his room at 2 a.m. - Johnson, and Royer led a strike which cut the Yale lead down to two points with 16 minutes left.

The teams traded baskets, for the next two and a half minutes until Royer tied the score at 50-all. With the IAB crowd squirming and screaming with Eric Gustavson tapped in an errant shot, and Harson tapped in an errant shot, and Harvard was ahead for the first and next-to-last time of the night.

A little later, a Royer free throw put the Crimson up 65-64, but then Goldstone and exciting Yale guard Rick Stone took over.

Final statistics showed that Harvard outscored Yale from the floor, 34 baskets to 33. The Elis won the game from the foul stripe. Rabbit Gallagher pulled down 15 rebounds to lead both teams.

For Harvard, Dressler turned in an outstanding performance. The 5 ft. 11 in, senior scored in double figures and contributed assist after assist during the hectic Crimson surge. HARVARD SCORING   FG  FT  P Bob Beller  3  1  7 Chris Gallagher  7  1  15 Bob Kanuth  0  0  0 Barth Royer  7  2  16 Jeff Grate  5  3  13 Gene Dressler  4  2  10 Dan Martell  3  0  6 Bob Johnson  3  1  7 Eric Gustavson  2  0  4