The Future Looks Bright

Ivy League men's basketball fans got glimpses of both the past and the future in Harvard's 83-81 win over Yale at Briggs Cage last night.

The past, as in Harvard Co-Captain Mike Gielen, who nailed his 1000th career point on a short jumper two minutes into the second half. Gielen not only finished the game with 14 points, but also dished out eight assists from his point guard position without committing a turnover.

"Gielen played great," Harvard Coach Peter Roby said. "Eight assists and zero turnovers. You can't play any better than that. I don't care how many points you score."

The past, as in Neil Phillips, the Crimson's other co-captain, who has been hampered by a leg injury, and is coming off three consecutive poor performances. Phillips pumped in 13 points and dished out five assists, with only one turnover. Phillips is now only 47 points short of joining his teammate in the 1000-point club.

"[Getting 1000 points] is great," Gielen said, "but it's not a reflection of what I'm doing, but what the team is doing. I can't score 1000 points without a guy like Neil next to me."

"Give me a championship, and I'll settle for 999," Phillips said.

The past, as in Yale's only senior starter, Mike Ryan, who scored 12 points from the outside and dwarfed Gielen the entire game, holding him to just three second-half points.

But the past was overshadowed by the future last night. If the seniors were playing sweet music on the court last night, the freshmen and sophomores were the maestros of the symphony.

Harvard sophomore Ralph James, who has struggled at times this season, played his best game of the year, pumping in a season-high 26 points on 9-for-17 shooting from the field and 7-for-7 from the line.

Freshman Ron Mitchell dominated the glass for the Crimson, pulling down nine rebounds and scoring 16 points from the inside, while sophomore Dana Smith dished out three assists and was perfect from the line (4-for-4) in the game's waning moments.

Young Yale

Eli Coach Dick Kuchen's squad lists 13 sopho- mores and freshmen on its roster, includingfour starters. Who says you need experience inthis game?

Freshman Ed Petersen, 11th in the nation infoul-shooting at 89.9 percent, is staking hisclaim for Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors, ifMitchell will let him.

The 6-ft., 0-in. guard poured in 31 points on11-for-15 shooting from the field and 5-for-5 fromthe line. Petersen was 4-for-5 from three-pointrange.

Although Petersen's heroics were impressive, itwas Yale sophomore Dean Campbell who almostsingle-handedly beat the Crimson in the last threeminutes of the game.

With Harvard leading, 74-69, Campbell put in amissed foul shot and converted the three-pointplay. With the Elis trailing, 77-72, Campbell hita short jumper underneath and then strippedPhillips and layed in the ball to cut theCrimson's lead to one, 77-76. Campbell's drivewith one minute remaining put Yale ahead by apoint.

The Eli forward, still recovering from a recentknee injury, finished with 21 points and 12rebounds.

Sophomore Travis McCready and freshman CaseyCammann played well enough for Yale to dominatethe inside game. Cammann scored 11 points andpulled down three offensive rebounds.

Both the Elis and the Crimson may be in thethick of an Ivy League race this year, but afterlast night's game, few Harvard fans will besurprised if next year's matchup finds these teamsat the top of the standings, playing for an IvyLeague championship.

"[Roby's] done a great job in building a teamthat plays very hard," Kuchen said. "We're a youngbasketball team, but we're trying to ingrain thatin most of our sophomores and freshmen."

"[Yale's] going to be murder for the rest ofthe year and in the future," Roby said