In a debut that showed more promise than prowess, the Varsity basketball team outdistanced a small, hard-fighting M.I.T. quinet, 58 to 33, before 1,200 specistors at the Indoor Athletic Building Saturday night.
College followers found that Coach Bill Barclay had instituted a should attack in his first appearance as a Varsity menior, and the undersized Techmen were able to pose a serious threat to Crimson supremacy only once, when the visitors moved to within five points of the Varsity, trailing 26 to 21 early in the second half.
Varsity Moves Ahead
But the taller Crimson quintet, paced by the shrewd floor-play of Captain Saul Mariashin and Leo Page's unerring one-handers from within fifteen feet of the hoops, moved out to a commanding lead shortly afterwards and coasted to victory as Barclay used most of his reserves.
That same height advantage, however, was not always in evidence, for the Varsity quintet seemed to have uncommon difficulty in recovering rebounds from its own backboard against the tinier Techmen. On defense, John Gantt turned in a good performance underneath the basket.
Using a tight attack that featured George Hauptfuhrer in the pivot slot on a variety of give-and-go plays, the Crimson squad was bolstered all the way be Mariaschin, who directed the attack competently. His acourate, deceptive passes set up a number of Crimson goals within the Tech foul-line, but too often they came as a surprise to his own teammates as well as the opposition whereupon the Varsity lost possession of the ball.
On defense, the Barclay forces resorted to a shifting, man-to-man that was neat, if not gaudy, and should improve with further competition.
For the M.I.T. delegation, the work of Doug Watson, pint-sized guard, was outstanding. Watson did an excelelnt job handling Mariaschin, and accounted for ten points of his own on offense. For the Varsity, Leo Page was top man with fifteen points, scored mostly in close. Page caged more than sixty percent of his shots.
For a club with a new coach and personnel who haven't played together for any length of time, the Varsity turned in a fairly good performance. Whether it will be good enough to thrive against Ivy League competitors, most of whom are regarded as topflight, remains to be seen.
The summary:
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