Cagers Play at Penn Tonight For Share of Ivy League Title

For one of the few times in its basketball history, Harvard tonight has a genuine shot at winning a share in the Ivy League title.

The Crimson, 7-1 in League play, travels to the Polestar for a 7 p.m. concest against defending champion Penn. 8-0 in the Ivies. That game should determine the Ivy champion(s).

"This is definitely the biggest game I've ever played at Harvard," captain Dale Dover said yesterday. "And we're up for some good competition-we've got the biggest psyche since I've been here,"

Harvard, riding a seven-game winning streak, will need all the psyche it can get. The Quakers are ranked fourth in the nation, are 20-0 on the season, and have a 38-game winning streak over two seasons.

A Long List

Penn's list of accomplishments this winter is even longer, but the Crimson's attitude seems to be that that list won't make much difference tonight. "They can't rely on the past-they're going to have to produce," Dover said yesterday.

Harvard coach Bob Harrison has made some adjustments so that his team will be prepared for the Penn offensive patterns that gave the Crimson trouble six weeks ago. The squad, he said yesterday, is ready for the Quakers' stall, which worked so effectively in Penn's 81.62 victory over Harvard in January.

"I can't predict how effective our plans will be, but this time we do have something ready so that we won't be caught off guard," Harrison said yesterday.

In the last game, Penn shot a miserable 25 per cent from the floor in the first half, and the Crimson led by six at half-time. But in the second half, the Quakers played the best they had all year, shooting 62 per cent from the floor and out-scoring Harvard by 23 points.

One of the Crimson's problems in that game was its poor shooting, which prevented it from taking advantage of Penn's difficulties. However, since that game, Harvard has been playing a more consistent and confident shooting game, so that this time it should be able to capitalize on a Quaker cold-shooting spell.

Penn is a well-disciplined team that has stood up to its challenges this winter-it overcame a seven-point deficit with two-and-a-half minutes left against Princeton to win in overtime.

So the Crimson will have to play solid basketball, with a combination of outstanding individual play and team cohesiveness. It has shown glimpses of that in its last games, and will have to play that way against Penn.

One additional factor that might help the Crimson is the way it will match up to Penn. The Quaker guards, Steve Dilsky (5' 10") and Dave Wohl (6' 0")-averaging 13 and 16 points a game respectively, will give up several inches in height to the Crimson's guards Dale Dover (6' 2") and James Brown (6' 5").