'Cliffe Hoopsters Outshoot Emmanuel, 76-35

The Radcliffe Basketball team maintained its perfect season record by devastating a short but spunky Emmanuel squad, 76-35, in a game held at the IAB Saturday.

The win was the second in a row for the Crimson team, which sports a host of new faces as well as a first-year coach, Carol Anne Kleinfelder.

"I'm optimistic, Kleinfelder said after the victory. "We've got a lot of young talent and yet we've shown that we can pull together faster than the other team."

The Radcliffe offense heated up slowly in Saturday's contest. Tough Emmanuel guard Martha Ryan, assisted by the hot hands of co-captain Diane Derose, kept the Crimson defense at bay for the first ten minutes of the game, staying two or three buckets ahead.

Then the Radcliffe passing game began to gell, as the taller hoopsters pressed their advantage. Led by the adept playmaking of Caren Curry and Wendy Carle, the Crimson narrowed the scoring gap until with less than ten minutes left in the half, sophomore forward Hildy Meyers tied the score at 14-14.

From there it was all Radcliffe. Every time the hapless Emmanuel offense tried spark a fast break, the Crimson defense was there to make them look silly. First Hildy Meyers grabbed a steal, followed by two Ellen Hart conversions, and a steal by freshman Loretta Christiansen.

Throughout the half the formalized Radcliffe passing offense continued to dominate. A quick Wendy Carle pass to sophomore Susan Hewitt culminated in a fast layup and the team went ahead 33-18. After a few more well-coordinated passing plays, the half drew to a close with Radcliffe leading, 36-20.

During the second half it was more of the same. Due to a few substitutions by coach Kleinfelder, the Radcliffe offensive patterns began to shift, and the vaunted Crimson fast break came to the fore.

The result was a series of fiery Radcliffe scoring combinations, as the game began to go way beyond Emmanuel's reach. Wendy Carle, the game's leading scorer with 18 points, led the pack downcourt time after time. Add to that a few Myers-Hart sideshows, and the score was 47-26.

Meanwhile the defense got very stingy. Emphasizing the house specialty, a quick and flexible one-on-one, Emmanuel worked hard for the fifteen points it managed to eke out in the second half.