Although the teams have not really settled down to the pace and Princeton's highly regarded squad has yet to be heard from, six teams in the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League have been given due notice that Dartmouth is a formidable contender in the Big Green's fight to win its fourth straight league championship.

Winning two games during the week, including a victory over Cornell at Ithaca, Dartmouth pushed out into the league leadership with three victories and no defeats, as once-beaten Cornell slipped into the second notch. Adding, to the impressiveness of Dartmouth's early showing is the fact that two of the Green's three early victories have been scored on foreign floors. The ability to win away from home always has been the first requirement of a title-winning team in the testing competition of the Intercollegiate League.

Gus Broberg

Captain Gus Broberg leading the attack, Dartmouth met its first severe test away from home in the Saturday night triumph over Cornell at Ithaca. Dartmouth is now assured of retaining its advantage until the teams settle into the hand-to-hand fighting of the crowded February schedule. With mid-year examinations engaging the major attention of the athletes through the various campuses of the league, the schedules for the next two weeks are light and Dartmouth is not listed to start again until February 8.

This week's schedule is light, with two games on the card. Yale figures in both. Pennsylvania plays Yale in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium at New Haven on Wednesday night and Cornell has an opportunity to consolidate its hold on second place when the Red five meets Yale at Ithaca on Saturday night.

Columbia, breaking even in two away-from-home games against Cornell and Yale during the week, managed to land in a comfortable third-place position from which to launch its post-examination drive in February. It was by the narrowest of margins, however, that the Lions won their overtime 40-38 decision over Yale on Saturday night. Brightest feature of the night for the Light Blue was the brilliant scoring of Bill Hasslinger, rangy Junior center. Held to two points by Cornell earlier in the week when he went out on fouls midway in the first period, Hasslinger came back to chalk up 19 markers against Yale, showing much of the scoring ability he had flashed against Navy a week earlier. It begins to appear that Hasslinger may be Columbia's high-scoring successor to Albie Myers and an offensive rival of Dartmouth's Broberg and Cornell's Jim Bennett for league scoring honors.

Columbia vs. Harvard

Columbia is not scheduled for league action again until February 8 when Harvard invades Morningside Heights. Jim Olsen, Dartmouth's accomplished Sophomore center has also indicated that he will be a considerable help to the Green in the scoring of points, with a total of 30 in three games.

With Broberg, Olsen, Munroe, a Sophomore forward; Parmer, and Pearson, the Green appears to have balance and scoring power to go far. Winning this year, Dartmouth could tie the league record of four straight championships. Penn won four straight in 1918-19-20-21.

Meanwhile, the league awaits the debut of a Princeton squad which has shown in early-season non-league games that it must be reckoned as a definite championship contender.