Basketball
Dartmouth's championship basketball team has played a total of nine games since last month's report, three of these being NCAA tourney games. After winning five straight Ivy contests starting at Carnival (as previously reported), Dartmouth continued its winning ways by defeating Brown 93-48, Penn 74-60, Yale 76-67, Harvard 86-71 and then clinched the Ivy title by beating Brown in overtime 90-79. In the final Ivy game of the season the Big Green lost at Cornell 81-71.
Of all games played, certainly the win over Brown which settled the Ivy crown and the NCAA games with West Virginia and Canisius were the most important. The Big Green won the Ivy title for the first time since 1946 by defeating Brown in a double overtime period at Providence on Saturday, March 3, while on that same evening Penn defeated second-place Columbia 60-58 to knock the Lions out of the competition.
The Brown game was an all-around team victory, featuring the smooth team coordination that enabled the Big Green to win ten contests in a row. The game was a wild, see-saw scramble which saw a total of eight players leaving the game on fouls. At half-time the Indians led 42-40, but the Bruins came back in the second half to pull away by as many as six points before Dartmouth closed in at the end to draw up to within two points.
Then with only 38 seconds remaining, Ron Judson fouled out, but the Brown player missed his two shots and Dartmouth took the ball. With 18 seconds to go, guard Larry Blades pushed through a basket from 20 feet out to tie the score 71-71.
In the first overtime period, both teams took only one shot to make it 73-73, but the Bruins again missed a foul shot and a chance for victory as the contest went into the second overtime. In this period the Indians really opened up after Dave Carruthers sank two free throws. Toby Julian and Hugh Erwin added other points and then, in the final two minutes, Donahoe, Carruthers, Blades and Julian all scored as Dartmouth pulled away to an 11-point lead. Jim Francis, the Indians' towering center, led in scoring with 21 points.
Playing against West Virginia in the first round of NCAA tourney play at New York, the Big Green once again had to come from behind and win in an overtime period 61-59. And again Jim Francis was outstanding from the pivot spot as, playing perhaps the best game of his career, he accounted for 25 Dartmouth points.
West Virginia led during most of the game, had a two-point lead at halftime and then ran up a 45-35 advantage early in the second half. However, the Indians kept pressing and with five minutes remaining in the game they were behind 58-55. Then Jim Francis tapped in two successive baskets to send Dartmouth out front 59-58, but a free throw by Virginia's Jody Gardner tied it up. The Big Green then went into a freeze, ..waiting for the last shot which Dave Carruthers took with fifteen seconds remaining. He missed and the game went into overtime.
After an opening scramble in the overtime, Dartmouth came up with the ball and, once again, Coach Julian sent his players into a freeze, this time for some four minutes. Then, with seconds remaining, guard Larry Blades took a shot which was blocked. Blades scooped up the ball again and took a quick one-handed jump shot which arched through for the victory just as the buzzer sounded.
Against Canisius three nights later in Philadelphia, the Big Green played good ball but the New Yorkers kept a slight lead throughout most of the contest and increased it during the final minutes of play to win 66-58. Forward Hank Nowak s deadly shots from outside broke up the Indians' zone defense as he accounted for 29 points, while Jim Francis was again high for Dartmouth with 19. Dartmouth tried to slow up Canisius but had difficulty, and with only Jim Francis and Dave Carruthers playing at their best (Ron Judson didn't score one field goal all evening), Dartmouth never seemed to get going.
Getting back to regular season play, the 1956 Dartmouth basketball team set two records with an all-time Dartmouth single season scoring total of 1,810 points for 26 games, and increased its own Ivy League scoring total for a single season with 1,050 points in 14 contests.
Individual scoring honors went to forward Ron Judson with a 14.9 point-per-game average for 26 games, while center Jim Francis had a 14.5 average. Forward Dave Carruthers was next with 10.2, Captain Toby Julian had a 7.2 average from his guard spot, and guard Gene Booth had a 6.2 average. Tom Donahoe, who played at both center and forward, averaged 5.2, guard Larry Blades 4.5, and guard Herb Markman 4.3, with the rest of the squad all averaging under three points per man.
The team as a whole averaged 69.6 points for each game, with a field goal percentage of .380 and a free throw average of .704.
But statistics can never tell the story of a magnificent Dartmouth team which came back from so many early season defeats, fought from behind in many games and played together as a smooth-working team unit to bring Dartmouth its first Ivy Championship in ten years and a new spirit in sports. Coach Doggie Julian, Captain Toby Julian and every member of the team deserve a loud "Wah Hoo Wah."
Alumni and their hockey-playing sons who performed at the annual Alumni-Varsity Gamein Hanover last month. Left to right, back row: Bob Smith '34, Don Crowther '34, EarlSeeley '39, Scott Parrot '45; third row: Hal Booma '30, Sam Snow '40, Willard McNeil '38;second row: Bruce McNeil, Dick Booma, Ted Hoehn, Duncan Crowther, Johnny Smith, BillAndres Jr., Bob MacPhail Jr., Bill Riley '46, John Koslowski '43, Diehl Jenkins, Jack Donahue'54; front row: Buzz Seeley, Steve Snow, Dave Snow, Jack Donahue Jr., Bill Riley Jr., TomKoslowski, Kent Parrot. Bob Egelhoff Jr. ('38) missed the picture.
