'Cliffe Basketball Squad Tops Emmanuel, Tufts, in Tourney

An awesome scoring display by the Radcliffe basketball squad powered them to first place in the Division Two tournament of the Massachusetts Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Saturday.

The team pumped in 79 points, a season high, to defeat Emmanuel, 79-68, and followed up by destroying Tufts, 77-61, in the finals.

Emmanuel center Matti Calhoun scored 18 points over a sloppy defense in the first hair to give Emmanuel 38-34 bulge, but Radcliffe roared back behind Denise Thal (19 points(, Captain Jeannie Guyton (17), and Kathy Fulton (13) to steal the game.

The defense tightened up in the second half and teamwork and aggressiveness began to pay off. But the tea, ran into foul trouble, as two players fouled out of the game, and four others wound up with four fouls apiece,

The first half of the Tufts game was quite different. Radcliffe jumped out to quick ten-point lead, never threatened by the same Tufts team it had beaten earlier this year. Thal (21 points), Fulton (19), and Guyton (15) paced a well-balanced attack that Tufts could not stop.

Fulton played a tremendous game in the finals. Her defensive rebounding provided the fast break of Thal and Lissa Muscatine with many opportunities they converted into baskets.

Fulton also played well at the high post in the Crimson offense, always managing to find the open shots.

Thal led the offense in both games with a seemingly uncanny ability to make the tough shots. She and Fullton were both named to the all-tournament team after the game.

The contest, the last of the season for the Radcliffe cagers, closed out the team's record at 9-5.

Coach John McCarthy called the Tufts game "the best game we've ever played."