Quintet Overtakes M.I.T., 61-56, With Rally in Last Four Minutes

Before a screaming I.A.B. crowd composed almost wholly of M.I.T. rooters, the varsity basketball team rallied in the final four minutes of play to defeat a wrought-up Engineer five, 61 to 56, Saturday night.

Gary Borchard and captain Bob Bowditch led the varsity's closing surge. Borchard came off the bench with four minutes left to tally six points and pass for a score, despite being saddled with four personal fouls. Bowditch hit for four straight points, on a long, long jump shot and a beautiful back-handed layup, to put the Crimson ahead for keeps, 53 to 52, at 17:40.

With four minutes to play, Borchard scored at the end of a fast break to make the score 49 to 49. M.I.T.'s red-headed guard, Jeff Paars, whose drives penetrated the Crimson defense all night, put the Engineers back in the lead, 51 to 49, and Tom Burns' foul shot gave the Techmen a three-point edge, 52 to 49, at 16:32.

Bowditch Sparks Win

Then Bowditch went to work. At 18:15, with the Crimson ahead, 53 to 52, M.I.T. switched to a man-for-man defense. Borchard promptly fed Joe Deering on a modified fast break, and 15 seconds later Bowditch engineered a steal and passed to Deering for the cripple that widened the varsity's margin to 57 to 52.

After M.I.T. center Dave Koch stole a Crimson pass, Bowditch blocked an opponent's shot, and Bill Danner and M.I.T.'s Phil Robinson crashed into the scorers' table as they fought for the bounding ball. At 19:26, Koch brought the Engineers within three, 57 to 54, with two foul shots.

An Engineer batted away a Crimson pass shortly thereafter, but Deering, the only player on either side who never once looked worried, calmly scooped up the ball. Borchard scored four points in the closing 30 seconds to ice the game.

Crimson Gets Early Lead

The varsity started out as if it were going to duplicate last year's 84-34 romp. After 10 minutes, Deering's second basket in a row put the count at Harvard 15, M.I.T. 8. But the varsity began falling all over itself, and the Engineers led at halftime, 25 to 23. The lead see-sawed back and forth until there were four minutes to play.

The varsity won by six points because it was about 20 points better on paper, and because M.I.T. managed to miss 13 free thows. M.I.T. nearly pulled it out because of the inspired play of Koch and Paars, who tied Borchard for game scoring honors with 15 points, and of guard Chuck Gamble, who got 10.