Harvard's basketball team won its first Ivy League game last night. The quintet crumpled Columbia, 82-73, inspired by the slick passing and near-perfect foul shooting of third-string guard Ric Gustavson.
Watching Barth Royer popping from the outside, Jeff Grate frequently stealing the ball and driving down the middle, and Gustavson making 11 out of 12 from the line in the second half, the small gathering of IAB fans wondered, "What has this team been doing until now?"
From the opening tap, it was clear that Harvard would not suffer any kind of trouncing. But most of the first half was simply a matter of which team played less sloppily. The Crimson escaped with a 30-28 edge at intermission, thanks to the shooting of Chris Gallagher and the driving of Grate and captain Gene Dressler.
In the second half, coach Floyd Wilson decided to go with Grate and sophomore Gustavson in the backcourt, benching his captain. Although the Lions managed to move ahead for a minute, Harvard regained the lead with 16 minutes left and never lost it.
Wilson's maneuver paid a fat dividend in the final ten minutes, as Gustavson wore the visitors down with his radar passing. As Columbia grew desperate, they were forced to foul the 6 ft. 3 in. guard, and Gustavson responded by making both shots in a one-and-one situation time after time.
When your team has lost seven in a row, you cannot help thinking that something has got to go wrong. It looked for a while like foul trouble might destroy Harvard's domination late in the game, as Gallagher, Kanuth, and Grate all picked up their fourth personal fouls within the span of 90 seconds.
With 13 minutes remaining to play, Wilson sent in Dan Martell and Bob Johnson for his foul-plagued forwards, and left Grate in the lineup. Like everything else Wilson did last night, this worked out well.
Harvard's man-to-man defense contained the Lions all evening, especially choking off their attempts to drive inside. Only guard Roger Walaszek was effective for Columbia-the 6 ft. 3 in. sophomore guard had seven buckets and 12 foul shots for 26 points.
Tonight, at 8 p.m. the flying Crimson five continues its four-game home stand against the Big Red of Cornell.
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