'Cliffe Cagers Fall Short; Wellesley Ekes Out Win

The Radcliffe basketball team caught a bad case of the second-half scoring blues last night, allowing the Wellesley cagers to come back from a three-point deficit at halftime and eke out a seat-squirming 50-44 win at the IAB.

Radcliffe came out roaring at the outset of the game running off ten straight points after an initial Wellesley hoop. A tenacious trapping woman-to-woman defense and a well-coached moving offense caught Wellesley off guard.

But before the Crimson could nail the visitor's coffin shut and bring in the bench to lay fair Wellesley to rest, the suburbanites made their move. Slowly the lead was down to six and then to four. Radcliffe's press was no longer effective and the Crimson began losing out underneath the boards to the stronger Wellesley forwards.

A brief run before halftime was countered by the visitors and a very vocal Wellesley crowd sent its team into the locker room at intermission down only 28-25 with momentum in their favor.

Guards Denise Thal and Lissa Muscatine, keystones to the pressing defense, converted Wellesley turnovers into Radcliffe points as the backcourt tandem accounted for 17 of the Crimson's first-half total.

The second half, however, was a different story as Wellesley grabbed the lead three minutes into the action never to be headed again. The visitors were sporting a much tougher defense and their strength off the boards began to dominate play. Radcliffe's rebounding strength began to lag, and both Sue Williams and Cheryl Gelzer were saddled to the bench with four fouls early in the stanza.

"We haven't had the workouts we need," co-captain Williams said, "so we're not in top shape. But Wellesley was a lot better than last year, their offense had tough shooters and a nice fluid motion."

Well flow it did, as Wellesley guards Sharmon Brown (14 points) and Joan Ashley penetrated the Crimson defense with ease and forwards Lisa Griffen and Mary Young combined for 33 points, with Young alone hauling in 24 rebounds.

A Cliff Hanger

Although Wellesley seemed to hold the upper hand on the court the game remained a cliff hanger. When Gelzer reentered the game, blocked a breakaway layup, and finished it off at the other end of the floor for two, the game was tied at 36 all.

But with seven minutes to go the Crimson's strength up the middle, Gelzer, fouled out. Radcliffe's offense was forced outside, and the home-court hoopsters couldn't buy a basket. Some sloppy passing didn't help the cause either.

"It's hard to win when you miss as many as we did," coach Mark Haverland said. "We were simply ice cold in the second half."

Thal led the pack for the Crimson offense as she popped in 15 points. Gelzer also finished in double figures with ten, with Williams bagging eight points on downtown jumpers. Muscatine finished with six points and Kathy Fulton with five.

"No one played as well as they could," Haverland said, "but I was a little disappointed that some of the players weren't as seasoned as I expected, Wellesley showed a lot of poise."

The cagers journey to Cornell this weekend for the Ivy Tournament.