NEW YORK CITY, January 10--A surprising basketball team that refused to be licked before it started came through in the clutches to sink a favored Columbia five here last night, 40 to 35, in a game in which the lead changed hands no less than twelve times, and thus it opened successfully its 1939-40 Eastern Intercollegiate League season.
Behind 35 to 31 with only six minutes to go the Crimson forces rallied to stop the much vaunted speedy Lion offense and to forge into the lead to win in a thrilling finish.
Buckley Leads Team
It was big Ed Buckley, starting after a long sojourn on the second five, who paced the visitors to their well earned victory. The scrappy guard sank six set shots to disrupt the Blue and White defense, and to these he added two fouls for a 14 point total.
The Harvard team took advantage of the breaks, and when there were none it proceeded to outplay the Lions, man for man. Coach Wes Fesler had given the squad a new offensive system in the Tuesday practice, and its use was one of the deciding factors last night.
Finegan Next
Next to Buckley in the Harvard scoring was Bud Finegan with eight points, and right behind him was Captain Charley Lutz with six. Ed Rothschild and Chet Legg both came through with five markers.
The Columbia shooting was off last night, and the five starters did all of the scoring. Albie Myers and John Naylor tied for the lead with nine apiece, but it was Naylor who was the outstanding player on the home five all through the evening.
Game Starts Slowly
The game started off slowly as the score see-sawed between the two teams. Columbia was working fast off the backboard, while the Crimson seemed to lack confidence, and worked the ball down to the basket to no avail.
With seven minutes gone the score stood 7 to 3 in favor of the Blue team, and from there it went to 10 to 5. At this point, Buckley got to work, and tightened the score up until the Lions had only a one point margin with four minutes to go in the 20-minute half. and then Rothschild put the Crimson into the lead momentarily. A flurry of scoring closed the half with a 19 to 19 tie.
The second half also started slowly, but the Harvard team set up shots for Finegan, Buckley, and Lutz, and the result was a five point lead, which the Lions proceeded to erase. Then Columbia exhausted itself in running up its score, only to stop at 35.
The lineups:
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