Tigers Topple Crimson Cagers, 65-53

In an "instant replay" of Friday's loss to Penn, the Harvard basketball team roared back from a halftime deficit only to fold and lose to Princeton Saturday night, 65-53.

Harvard's second-half comeback and the play of Steve Selinger and Tony Jenkins provided the only excitement in an otherwise dull game. A poorly played opening 20 minutes and a Princeton stall that closed the game helped to extinguish interest in the IAB crowd.

Captain Jenkins, a 6 ft. 8 in. forward, collected 14 points and became the sixth Crimson player to score 1000 career points. With 1006 points to his credit, Jenkins could surpass the number five and four men on the all-time Harvard scorer's list: Gary Borchard (1028) and Bill Dennis (1074).

Selinger, a 6 ft. 1 in. junior guard, produced his varsity career high of 14 points and sparked the Harvard five. Selinger shot 7-13 from the floor.

Sloppy Clubs

About 1160 spectators saw ragged and sloppy play in the first half by both ballclubs. Harvard as a team shot 34.6 per cent from the floor while Princeton was not much better, hitting at a 42.3 per cent clip.

A comeback for Tom Sanders's cagers, behind 23-18 at the half, seemed possible. Friday night against Penn the Crimson had erased a 17-point deficit to tie the game mid-way through the second half.

Lou Silver, held scoreless in the first half and plagued by a recent scoring slump, helped in a Harvard spree that duplicated Friday night's surge.

After intermission, a three-point play by the 6 ft. 7 in. junior brought the Crimson within two, 37-35, at 13:59. Silver then canned a long jumpshot to tie the score.

Pulling Away

But the Tigers, behind senior substitute Joe Vavricka and Mickey Steurer, pulled away, just as Penn had the night before when the Crimson threatened. At the end, the Tigers went into a stall and Sanders's squad, reduced to fouling deliberately, saw the final point-spread balloon to 65-53.

Princeton's record improved to 13-10 overall and the Tigers stayed alive in the Ivy League race as a dark horse entry by moving to 7-3. Harvard is virtually out of the race with a 6-4 league record. But games remain with Cornell, Columbia, Yale and Brown, and the Crimson figure to improve on last year's 7-7 Ivy mark. The Crimson five stand 8-12 for the season.

Vavricka dropped in 15 points for the night and Steurer, a sophomore guard, finished with 16. Steurer, a super-smooth ballhandler and floor leader for the Tigers, shot 8-14 from the floor and took up the slack caused by the loss of classmate Armond Hill. Hill, a backcourt superstar, was recently declared academically ineligible for the remainder of the season.

Len Adams and Bill Carey provided board strength underneath for the Crimson in the loss. Carey copped game-rebounding honors with 10 caroms and Adams played hardnosed defense against the taller Tigers.

The overall shooting statistics told the story as Princeton hit on 52.8 per cent of its shots while the Crimson could muster only a 42.9 per cent mark.