BASKETBALL

Only that return game with Yale is left for the determined five of Coach Wes Fesler and Captain Bill Gray. Despite all the high hopes that had been raised for it, the team just happened to have an off night on Tuesday, hence the 38 to 25 licking they took from the Columbia Lions. But that Yale match, despite anything else, is going to be a hot game to watch, and may well prove so exciting that the Swimming Meet which follows it on that appetizing double header the HAA has cooked up for Saturday will turn out to be an anti-climax.

It Was All Bill Gray

Captain Bill Gray came to Cambridge yesterday morning something of a hero; for though he was on the losing team, he piled up 16 points to take the high scoring honors for the evening. He is really back in his old form, and even more; for everyone who saw that game says Bill played better against the Lions than he ever has before in his long and enviable career on the Varsity five.

Early in the first half Gray's eye came into violent contact with a Columbian's head during a scrimmage; and yesterday the results of this crash were clearly evident in the beautiful shiner the Harvard leader was carrying around with him. During that game it was more than just a black eye; he got a nasty cut as well. The Lions were not rid of him, however, for he was back in there after a couple of minutes and went driving in again and again through the Columbia defense.

The rest of team played way below their capabilities, and when you add to that the facts that Columbia was playing as good ball as they have all season and that the Crimson was plying on the other fellow's court, and on a slippery floor at that, you get the 38-25 score as the result. The ball handling was sloppy, passes were too low or missed entirely, the defense was far from impregnable. Harvard sunk the first goal, but from that time on the Light Blue was never headed.

With Dartmouth sitting prettily in second place, the best the Crimson can get now is a third, and that will be the stake in the game with the Elis. Columbia is also in the running, and if they do the expected and topple Cornell in their final League game, they will be in a third place tie with the Harvard-Yale winner. But the Big Red has been getting tougher all season, and Johnny O'Brien and his lads have no setup in store for them.

You Can't Pick the Favorite

Yale is going to be out for a sweet revenge in this clash in the Indoor Athletic Building Saturday night. On paper, Harvard should take the game comfortably, for if they won at New Haven, why shouldn't they have an easier time on the home court at the Indoor Athletic Building? But it is never easy for anyone, let alone a Harvard team, to win two straight from the Elis, and the old saying that you can't pick a favorite where Harvard meets Yale seems to hold true here, too.

Since that edging they took during the punch-drunk-prom weekend at New Haven the Elis have been going to town, and Georgetown and Penn State are among their more recent victims. Both of these schools have good clubs, and Penn State is right up in that Western league which numbers teams like Pitts among its members. Yale is no man's snap. That Senior triumvirate of Kelley, Beckwith and Miles is really going to town, and when they clash with Bill Gray, Red Lowman and company, another thrilling game is sure to result. It will be the climax of the entire season.

Yesterday, Wes Fesler wasn't planning to make any changes in the starting lineup with which he will welcome the Ells, though if the team hasn't gotten over their sloppiness, Dicker Grondahl and Dick Wills will probably see a lot of service. But there is little doubt that the Crimson will show the Blue team an exhibition of the best playing they've done all year. Harvard usually does that when they face Yale.