Crimson superiority from the foul line won Bill Barclay's varsity basketball squad its season's opener against Brown, 52 to 50, at Providence Saturday night. The game, a sloppy contest all the way through, drew a capacity crowd of 2500.
Sophomore Ed Smith led in individual honors for the evening by racking up 14 points, but inadequate support from his teammates almost spelled rain for a Crimson outfit that Barclay had called "The most promising I've worked with here."
Ball Handling Costly
Twice in the evening, before the half and just before the final whistle, the Bruins cashed in on poor ball-handling and defense work by the Crimson. The first time, they made up a nine-point deficit, narrowing the half-time Crimson load to 23 to 30. A series of three field goals coming among a flurry of fouls Inter ended the game with Barclay's squad still clutching a two point margin.
Only when Smith and Pete Petrillo kept the ball in their control under the backboards did the Crimson look like it was playing to win. Petrillo handled the rebounds almost flawlessly and Smith tucked in several single foul shots neatly doubling their vaine.
Johnny Rockwell salvaged 18 import- ant points for the visitors to tie Chuck Whalen of Brown for runner-up honors. Frank Mahoney, top-heavy Brown center, was held to only 12 points by Ed Smith's fine guarding.
Occasional spells of poor passing, failure to sink closeup shots, and unpredictable defense work marred the team's debut.
Jumping to a quick 7 to 5 lead in the first five minutes, the Crimson never slipped behind despite the fact that Brown outscored them from the floor, 42 to 33. Taking advantage of 24 foul shots, Barclay's squad edged out the margin of victory by sinking 14 of their attempts.The summary:
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