Basketball
Princeton 50, Dartmouth 48. Dartmouth opened the Ivy League season on January 11 before a capacity crowd in Alumni Gymnasium against the Tigers .of Princeton, who were also playing their initial league game. The late unpleasantness on the gridiron had given this first subsequent meeting of the two institutions an added excitement, among players and spectators alike. We hasten to add that everything went off very well, with the clients displaying a notable degree of sportsmanship and the players, with one brief (Princeton) exception, likewise on their best behavior. Both teams, indeed, were conscious of the emotional overtones of the game and played as though they were walking on eggs.
The contest itself was truly a heartbreaker for the Indians to lose, for they were ahead during virtually the entire encounter, only to have the Tigers draw even in the closing moments and score the winning basket in the last ten seconds. This was one we should have won by every criterion but the score, for Coach Julian's pupils had the situation apparently well in hand as early as the first quarter, when they ran up a convincing 10-point lead. The game was close all the way, with the score standing at 82-22 at the half. With only a couple of minutes left, the Green still had a three-point lead, only to have it vanish in the waning seconds. The Dartmouth scoring was pretty heavily concentrated in the two men who have been carrying the bulk of the load all year—namely, Fred Gieg and Billy Biggs. The latter was high scorer for Dartmouth with 15 points on five goals and five free throws, whereas Gieg was close behind with 14 points, all from the floor. The ankle injury of center Len Hedberg gave sophomore Paul Wisdom the starting assignment, to which he responded with 9 points. In more ways than one, this was a tense encounter, and one that was tough to lose.
Pennsylvania 73, Dartmouth 67. The following night, Pennsylvania brought its potential Ivy League champions to town and engaged the tired Indians in their second league game in two nights. The Green responded nobly to this challenge, and probably played better than they had the previous night against Princeton. The only difficulty was that Penn was a much better team than Princeton and the best we could muster was not quite good enough. Dartmouth made it close most of the way, until the visitors began to pull away in the final moments of the game. During the encounter, the Green kept launching rallies, which would almost bring them even with the Quakers, only to have the latter pull away again. When the visitors put in their great center, Ernie Beck, who had been sitting out the first half with a bad ankle, the end was in sight. In the second half, Beck scored 14 points, ankle and all, to pace the Red and Blue to victory.
Center Len Hedberg did not even dress for this game because of his injured ankle, but Paul Wisdom played the best game of his career as a replacement. Wisdom led the Green in scoring with 20 points, with light baskets from the floor and from free throws. Sophomore Pat Patterson also came through with the best performance of his short varsity career, with a total of 13 points. Freddy Gieg and Bill Biggs had (for them) off nights, with Gieg making only 12 points and Biggs 8. Several of the sophomores, indeed, gave a very good account of themselves, which situation looks good for the future. Make no mistake about it, however, Pennsylvania is a very good team.
Dartmouth 60, Harvard 59. Dartmouth's third bid for a league victory was successful at Harvard on January 15, but not until the boys put on a hair-raising, four-point surge near the end of an overtime period. At the end of regulation time the score stood at 56-all. In the extra stanza the Harvards jumped ahead to a 59-56 lead and things looked black, but Zack Boyages, rushed into action, immediately sank a set shot and it was 59-58. The Crimson's freezing act failed when the ball went out of bounds. With only six seconds left, the throw-in went to Biggs who drove in and arched up a one-handed shot that went through the net as the game ended.
Len Hedberg, who was sidelined for the Penn game, went limpingly into action at Cambridge but he was unable to play very long and Paul Wisdom again took over for the Green center and performed in fine fashion. Dartmouth had the better of the scoring in the first half, which ended with the Green ahead 33-28, but Lionette and Dennis of the Harvard five got rolling in the second half and it took some excellent defensive work by Rog Pierce to give Dartmouth the chance to pull off a win in overtime.
Dartmouth's play was not up to the standard of the Princeton and Penn contests, and only the old do-or-die spirit saved the day. Gieg led the Green scorers with 12 points, followed by Biggs and Wisdom with 11 each, and Pierce with 10. It was too close for comfort.
ACTION SHOTS OF THE DARTMOUTH-PRINCETON BASKETBALL GAME, won by the Tigers, 50-48, in the closing seconds. Above, Bill Biggs (22) making a one-handed push shot; also shown are Rog Pierce (10) and Princeton's Fred Tritschler (15) and Dave Sisler (11). Below, a scramble under the basket for a rebound involves Rog Pierce (10), Kent Calhoun (11) and Paul Wisdom (31) of Dartmouth, and Leslie DeVoe (14) and Foster Cooper (3) of Princeton.
