On Saturday night the Crimson varsity came within one basket of ending the longest winning streak in the country--Princeton's 17 games--when it lost 49 to 47 and generally outplayed the Tigers in the process.
The varsity, playing at New Jersey, started slowly, and the Tigers led ten to one after five minutes. But Norm Shepard shufiled his offense and the Crimson started scoring; its set plays began to click and it defended well. By the half, the quintet was playing its best ball of the season, and was only trailing by 26 to 21.
In the second half Captain Ed Smith, in good shape for the first time this year, opened up, and his teammates followed right behind. Smith scored six baskets in the second half, mainly by faking his man, six foot seven Foster Cooper, and then driving underneath the basket.
One Point Behind
At one time the Crimson was just one point behind--it never did catch up--but Princeton's two stars, Captain Mike Kearns and sophomore Dave Sisler, dropped in enough of their jump-shots to keep their team ahead.
With four minutes left in the game, Princeton was ahead 48 to 40. Smith made a basket and a foul shot and Forest Hansen scored a two-pointer while the Tigers could make but one free throw. With half a minute left in the game, Gerry Murphy pushed in a long shot from the corner, making the score 49 to 47.
Princeton brought the ball upcourt and attempted a freeze. Crimson guard Bill Hickey stole the ball, drove in for the tying layup, but the six foot four Sisler blocked the shot.
Harvard took the ball in from out of bounds and both Smith and John Stevenson were able to get off shots. One of Smith's was partially blocked, and neither his second nor Stevenson's went in.
Smith was going up for a last layup when he was hit by three Tigers and a jump ball called with three seconds left to play. However, the jump was never made, as officials ruled the final buzzer had gone off but had been obscured by the noise of the crowd.
Sisler and Kearns both scored 16 points to lead the winners. Cooper, adept at tap-ins, got nine. The Princeton defense was very tight, and succeeded in blocking many Crimson shots.
Because the game played at a fast pace and he was closely guarded by the agile Sisler, center Dick Lionette was replaced by John Stevenson for most of the second half. Smith took over the center position, and Stevenson played forward. This combination worked very well during the second half upsurge.
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