The Varsity basketball team will enter their first Eastern Intercollegiate League contest of the season as a slight favorite tonight at 8:30 o'clock in the Indoor Athletic Building against a Cornell outfit with a record of six defeats in six starts.

Cornell, however, holds a moral victory over the University of Rochester, which beat the Crimson 45 to 36. The Ithacans left the floor thinking that they had won this game only to learn in the dressing room that there was still six seconds left to play. Upon returning to the court. Rochester tied the score and won in an overtime period to preserve their 19 game winning streak.

Starting Lineup Uncertain

Coach Earl Brown is still experimenting, trying to find the snappiest combination; and in practice yesterday he moved Hugh Hyde to a forward position. Right now Dean Hennessey holds the edge in the battle for the other forward berth. Mike Fansler and Don Lutze will start at the guards if Hyde stays up in the front line.

The Big Red, who beat Harvard in last year's League opener, average six two, the height average of the Crimson; their big weakness is in lack of offensive power though.

Boston Coast Guard meets a Newport Naval Training Base team in a preliminary game at 6:45 o'clock.