Rising to the challenge of a smooth-playing and vastly improved Chelsea Naval Hospital squad, the Varsity quintet fought hard to gain its eighteenth victory of the season at the Indoor Athletic Building Tuesday evening. The final score of 77 to 54 belies the closeness that marked the first three quarters of one of the best-played games of the year.

Teams Matched Evenly

Two teams could not have been more evenly matched than were the Crimson and the Sailors as they battled to a 30 to 28 half-time lead for Harvard, a lead based on the slender margin of three extra foul shots. But a revised defense in the second half put the clamps on Chelsea scoring and enabled the Stahlmen to forge ahead to their twelfth straight victory.

In contrast to the wild-shooting, fire-horse brand of ball that marked the first meeting between the two teams, Tuesday's game featured excellent ball-handling, accurate marksmanship, and--despite the high score--good defensive play by two teams that played very similar basketball.