Quintet Faces Springfield at Garden

On December 18, 1947 Bill Barelay's varsity basketball team downed Tufts by a score of 53 to 42 in Medford. That was its second and last easy game for almost two months. Since then it has been a long, hard grind through five states and eleven, games. Tonight at 8:45 o'clock the Crimson will have a third breather--the last one on the schedule.

Springfield College will be the attraction on this evening's bill of fare, and it should prove no great problem for a team accustomed by this date tentronger stuff.

Springfield is the Y.M.C.A. College whos forte is training of teachers of athletics. But it is a small school, and, at least in the major sports, seldom does much to keep Ivy League coaches awake nights.

This year's Gymnast squad has played a lengthy, tough schedule, whose 23 games have carried it across the continent and Eack in a none-too-happy Christmas time jaunt.

Altogether, Springfield has compiled an 8 and 15 record, which is about the same as the Crimson's, at least if you want to consider things percentage-wise. But those eight wins include victories over the usually impotent regional opposition, such as Clark University.

Most recent of these triumphs, however, has been of a distinctly non-New England nature. It was a 55 to 38 decision last week over a quintet representing the University of Ecuador.

Strangely enough, Barclay's team has most often looked its best while losing. Saturday's night's contest with Army--at least the second half of it--was just one such occasion.

Three Marathon Losses

But the overtime jinx that had plagued Harvard in the Michigan State and Columbia games sneaked in again for a third time, and another two-point loss went down in the record books.

Walt McCurdy regained a flash of his mid-season mastery to help knot Saturday's photofinish tilt, and Bill Prior and John Rockwell looked better than ever. They'll need to be. After tonight it will be all work, all Ivy League. Probably Starting Lineups HARVARD  SPRINGFIELD Hauptfuhrer  lf  Hazon Rockwell  rf  Burke Prior  c  Kubachka Brady  lg  Barker Gannon  rg  Sullivan