Crimson Cagers Fall to Quakers in IAB, 75-68

Everything pointed to an upset win for Harvard last night: a loud band, a standing room only crowd, and a full press table, but the Crimson basketball team came up short and fell to Penn, 75-68, snapping their five game winning streak.

The loss nullified a 20-point, 12-rebound effort by Tony Jenkins and also negated solid play from Bill Carey, who scored 14 points, and Ken Wolfe, who chipped in with 12.

Down by ten points at the half, Tom Sanders's squad battled back to tie the score at 48-48 and 54-54 in the second half. With 9:38 left to play, the Crimson trailed by one, 58-57.

But Harvard fans in the overflow IAB crowd of 1468 were disappointed when Penn pulled away at that point. "We sort of ran out of steam after being down by the numbers we were," Sanders explained after the game. "It's tough to come back from 15 or 16 points," the softspoken rookie coach added, "the players are going to be pooped."

A key factor in the Quaker spurt was John Engles, a burly 6 ft. 8 in. sophomore who scored eight out of Penn's ten points in building a 68-64 lead with 3:24 to play. At that point the Quaker center, who scored 16 points, picked up his fifth personal foul and was forced to leave the game. "It was kind of nice for him to foul out," Sanders said wryly.

But for Harvard, Engle left too late. In the last few minutes a dribble stall and excellent foul shooting by the Quakers preserved their win.

Penn remains in first place in the Ivy League with an 8-1 record while Harvard slips to 6-3 in the league, 8-11 overall. Chuck Daly's Quakers stand 16-5 on the season and appear to be heading for another Ivy title.

Sanders told reporters after the game that 6 ft. 5 in. junior forward Larry Lewis, who scored 16 points for the Penn team "hurt us the most." Although the Crimson outrebounded the larger Quakers, 34-27, Sanders felt Lewis's scoring on lay-ups and tap-ins underneath was particularly damaging to Harvard.

Lou Silver, a 6 ft. 7 in. junior forward who has carried the Crimson for much of the season, was shackled by a tight Penn defense. Silver ended up with only eight points for the night and shot a miserable 3-16 from the floor.

The overflow crowd gave the Crimson five several standing ovations during the course of the game and during Harvard's second half comeback the IAB shook with noise. "Hey, it's always nice" Sanders commented on the loud crowd and added it "puts a lot of heat in the place."

In the game Harvard outshot the Quakers from the field 50.9 to 50 per cent. But from the free throw line Penn was more accurate, 84.6 per cent to the Crimson's 55.5 per cent.

Penn led 44-34 at the half on the strength of a spurt that saw the Quakers's last nine out of ten baskets come from inside. Ron Haigler scored 12 of his 14 points in the first 20 minutes and dominated offensive play.