Cagers Suffer Ivy Loss To Penn and Princeton

The Harvard basketball team lost its first two Ivy League games over the the weekend, but, perhaps more important, it may have also lost the services of captain Bop Kanuth for the rest of the season.

First at Pennsylvania, where Kanuth tried to operate with an undiagnosed and unpublicized foot injury, and then at Princeton. Harvard came within an eyelash of gaining the upper hand only to see promising bursts disappear in swarms of fouls or turnovers.

The Quakers took advantage of 31 Harvard mistakes in the game for an 81-74 victory. With five minutes left in the first half, the Crimson led 33-28. Then Penn switched from its man-for-man defense to a 1-2-2 zone, cut off Harvard's shots, and rode the gunning of hot-shooting sophomore guards Dave Wohl and Steve Bilsky to a small halftime lead.

Kanuth played the first period and then gave in to the pain of a practice-incurred wound. X-rays after the game revealed a bone fracture which ordinarily takes five to six weeks to heal.

Penn opened up a 20-point lead in the second half, but Harvard came fighting back to narrow the margin to six, two minutes from the end. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough steam in the rally and the Quakers won their first League game after losing to Princeton. Blisky and Wohl combined to hit 23 of 36 shots from the field.

That Harvard lost was not the fault of senior forward Chris Gallagher. Playing the best game of his career, "Rabbit" scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.

The next night, Gallagher and his rebounding partner, Ernie Hardy, earned three personal fouls in the first ten minutes against Princeton and thus committed themselves to a lot of bench time.

With three inexperienced men lining the forward wall--George Yates, an injured Paul Waickowski (at less than full efficiency with a hamstring pull) and Mike Janczewski--Harvard still managed to stay in the game.

Early in the second half, Harvard pulled within a point at 45-44 and brought the ball up court. A play failed and the Tigers converted a fast break basket and then stole the ensuing pass-in and scored again to smash the momentum and clinch the victory, 73-62.

Geoff Petrie led the Princeton scorers with 26 points. Dale Dover, who took only seven shots against Penn to score five points, and was guilty of several turnovers, came back to make 14 points. Eric Gustavson--in foul trouble most of the night--had 14 too.

Tonight Harvard plays at Tufts at 8 p.m. and Wednesday night, the Crimson finally returns to the LAB for an Ivy clash with Dartmouth. It should make a good Reading Period break--Harvard will win both these games.