The varsity basketball team managed to turn an expected easy victory into a close game for a while last night, but the Crimson finally won its first game of the season, pulling away from Wesleyan, 68 to 61. The quintet had more and stronger substitutes than the Cardinals, who lost two of their best men of five personal fouls in the second half.

Bill Dennis again led the Crimson in scoring, with 22 points, but the spectacular junior also contributed a good share of the rebounding and defensive work. In the final four minutes of the game, with the Crimson uneasily leading by less than three points, Dennis put on one of his patented fancy dribbling exhibitions to run out the time.

Coach Norm Shepard started his three sophomores, Harry Sacks, Paul Shaw, and Roger Bulger, but finished up the game with the more experienced team of Dennis, Captain Dick Lionette, Bob Gremp, Ed Condon, and Ed Krinsky after the Cardinals began pressing.

Sacks Scores 20

In the first two periods Sacks netted half of his total 20 points to help Dennis in the scoring. The latter made five out of his first six field goal attempts in the first quarter, mostly on jump shots.

All this came after Wesleyan took a 2 to 0 lead in the first minute of the game. The Cardinals never headed the Crimson again, though the score was tied once, 57-all, with two minutes left to play. The Crimson led, 15 to 9, 30 to 25, and 49 to 43, at the ends of the quarters.

The Crimson's field goal shooting this game was a respectable 34 percent, with Snacks netting half his shots. The varsity's defense also worked effectively to block the much shorter Wesleyan players from rebounding and shooting near the defensive boards.

In the preliminary game, the Yardlings defeated Wesleyan's freshmen, 57 to 48. The Crimson's scoring was evenly distributed with Harold Downey, Warren Kantrowitz, and Jim Nolen all scoring in double figures. Bob Bowman, Howard Adler, and John Van Doren also played well