BASKETBALL

If any of Dartmouth's winter teams was overevaluated at the season's outset it was probably basketball. George Blaney's forces, playing one of the toughest schedules in the history of Dartmouth basketball, had to encounter teams such as Marquette and Penn along the way (ranked 2-3 in both final wire service polls) and finished with a 10-16 record that included a 5-9 mark in the Ivy League, good for a share of fifth place with Brown.

It was an improbable season, brightened substantially by the work of junior forward Paul Erland, who paced the Ivy League scoring race with more points than anyone ever with the exception of Princeton's Bill Bradley from 1963 to 1965 and Columbia's Chet Forte in 1957. He was the top votegetter in the coaches' All-Ivy voting.

Erland, from Nashville, Tenn., shattered Steve Spahn's season scoring record with 618 points and a 23.8 average and needs only 45 points next season to break Spann's career mark of 1 206 points.

He led Dartmouth scorers in 16 games and set a record with 44 points against Holy Cross. He was in typical form on the final weekend of the season when the Indians were surprised by Yale 93-80 (Dartmouth had won the first meeting 88-65) and then retaliated in the finale by trimming Brown 98-91 (the Bruins had won the earlier game in overtime, 75-74).

Against Yale, Erland had 29 points. At Brown he had 27. The weekend before, when the Indians chopped Cornell 99-88 and then avenged another one-point loss by stopping Columbia 78-73 (the first time in eight years that Dartmouth had downed the Lions), Erland scored 20 and 25 points.

James Brown wasn't far behind. The soph guard was sixth in Ivy scoring with a 19.2-point average and finished with overall effort of 18.9. The flashy guard triggered the final win at Brown with a sizzling 30 points. In the ten games that Erland wasn't high scorer, Brown was.

It was a season that saw the Indians operate predominantly with sophomores and juniors. Bill Jacobson, the 6-6 reserve center who played his heart out at Brown (14 rebounds), and guard Jerry O'Brien were the only seniors who played. Captain John Ryzewic had a thoroughly frustrating season as a progression of leg and foot injuries combined with a mild case of mono to limit him to six brief appearances.