BASKETBALL

Pennsylvania 81, Dartmouth 67 After dropping contests to Harvard and Yale, the Green traveled to Philadelphia just before midterm examinations and absorbed another beating, this time from the Red and Blue of Pennsylvania. This contest was not so one-sided as it appears from the score, for the Green was trailing by only six points with a scant four minutes remaining, only to have Penn put on the pressure and win going away. The heroic efforts of Billy Biggs did much to keep Dartmouth in the game, with the veteran junior accounting for 19 points, 18 of them from the floor. Dick O'Neill was close behind him with 17 and Jim Ballard was third high-scorer for Dartmouth with 11 points from his pivot position. As was the case in the Pennsylvania football game this fall when Reds Bagnell set a new passing record Dartmouth had the dubious distinction of serving as the foil for another Red and Blue mark. This one came when Beck, the sophomore center of Penn, set a new scoring record of 36 points for his evening's work. Dartmouth would much prefer, thank you, not to be a party to that sort of thing.

Columbia 59, Dartmouth 43 Columbia came to town just before Carnival, as the only major undefeated basketball team in the country and one of the half-dozen current leading contenders for the mythical national championship. Despite all that Coach Julian's sincere but inept operatives could do about it, the visitors played just well enough to win and coasted to an easy victory. So unrewarding were the initial efforts of the Green during the first half, indeed, that the Lions at one point led by the score of 18-2, with the local boys unable to amass a single basket during the first ten or twelve minutes. After that, however, the Dartmouth team briefly caught fire and ran the score up to 26-20 (Columbia leading) at the end of the first half. The same dearth of scoring was apparent at the start of the second stanza, however, and the Light Blue promptly went to work to put the game away. The losing battle was marked by the valiant efforts of Kent Calhoun, who was the high scorer for the Green with 13 points and who sparked the only abortive rally put on by the home forces.

Princeton 66, Dartmouth 58 The patient efforts of Coach Doggie Julian and the never-say-die spirit of his charges almost paid off this time, with the Green very nearly pulling one of the upsets of the season and beating mighty Princeton (even as it almost did in football last fall in the hurricane). Entering the contest, as has been their unhappy role in practically every game this season, decided underdogs, Dartmouth fought the Tigers right down to the line and almost pulled the affair out of the fire. For once, the Green got off to a good start in the first half, during most of which they were able to connect with a much higher percentage of their shots than the visitors. The score at the end of the half was 35-29 in favor of Princeton. In the second half, the pupils of Coach Julian doggedly stuck close to the heels of the visitors, and even went out ahead on several occasions, as the score progressed through the 40s and early 50s. In the final moments of the contest, however, the offensive efforts of Princeton's Dick Kazmaier, who proved Dartmouth's nemesis on the gridiron last fall, paid out in the shape of six quick points by the versatile halfback. This broke the back of the valiant Green, and Princeton pulled away at the very end to win by a comfortable margin. Billy Biggs was again the chief defender of a lost cause, with 19 points, the same personal score he amassed against Pennsylvania two weeks before. The second high scorer for the Green was Kent Calhoun, with 13 points. All in all, this game was full of the old college try and, if the boys couldn't quite win it, they never stopped trying.