B.C. Wins Beanpot Eagles Edge Harvard Five, 73-71

With four seconds left in last night's game in the Boston Garden, B.C. captain Jimmy O'Brien made a ten-foot jump shot from the baseline, and the Eagles edged Harvard, 73-71, for the Beanpot Championship.

The Crimson had the ball with two minutes remaining, the score tied, 71-71, and stalled to force the Eagles out of their zone and into a man-for-man defense in order to get the last shot. But O'Brien intercepted a Harvard pass, dribbled to let time run out, and scored the final basket.

"I didn't get as good a shot as I'd wanted to get." said O'Brien after the game. "Dale [Dover] was with me all the way, and I just threw it up there and it went in," he explained.

Overcomes Deficit

The Crimson overcame a 12-point half-time deficit to lie the score with nine minutes left in the game, but then couldn't capitalize on four straight B.C. missed shots to break the game open.

The crucial mistakes, however, were made during the first half, when time and again the Eagles worked a simple pick-and-roll. Harvard tried to switch men on the pick by center Pete Schmid, who led all scorers with 21 points, and when he rolled to the basket, his man had moved out to guard O'Brien and he was open for a lay-up.

"We played bad defense on those plays," said Harvard head coach Bob Harrison after the game. "We practice to slide through on picks, but we didn't do it. I don't know what happened," he said.

During the first half, Harvard fell behind early because of Schmid-O'Brien team-work. The Crimson's own offense sputtered, failing to drive for the basket and work for the good shot.

At the start of the second half, the Crimson pecked away at the B.C. lead, even though it blew two three-on-one fast breaks and turned the ball over several times. The Eagles hit a cold shooting spell, and sophomore guard James Brown hit a hot streak of seven straight points to put Harvard back in the game.

Brown and senior forward Hal Calbom, who hit eight-of-ten from the floor, paced the Crimson with 16 points each. Floyd Lewis dominated the boards for the third straight game, nabbing 15 rebounds (47 in three games).

"This was the biggest win of the year for us," said B.C. head coach Chuck Daly after the game. "They're a good team, and I'm glad we caught them at this time in the season," he added.