Shoddy Crimson Five Drops 63-46 Decision to Princeton

PRINCETON, N. J., March 9--Princeton's surging basketball team used Harvard as a ladder tonight to climb into a first place tie in the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League, as it drubbed a sloppy Crimson quintet, 63 to 46.

The onesided victory brought the Tiger's winning streak to six games and enabled them to overtake Yale, which lost to Columbia in another EIBL contest.

Crimson Squad Sluggish

Only for one instant in the whole game did Bill Barclay's suad show any signs of life. Behind, 18 to 4, at the eight minute mark, the Crimson suddenly caught fire, and on three set shots by Walt McCurdy, two hooks by John Rockwell, and a pair of fouls by Ed Smith, moved within two points of the home team. Two quick free throws borke the ice for the Tigers, and they moved to a 31 to 22 lead at the half.

Walt McCurdy, who replaced Bob Bramhall in the starting lineup, led the Harvard scoring with 11 points. Substitute center Cliff Currus took game honors for Princeton with 17 points. John Rockwell tallied nine.

The Crimson squad suffered most from poor ball handling, and they were thrown off their attack time and time again by interception. Captain Chip Gannon held high-scoring George Sella to 12 points in a fine exhibition of defensive work.

The Harvard summaries: HARVARD (48)   g  f  p Rockwell, rf  4  1  9 Crosby  1  0  2 Bramhall  1  0  2 McCurdy, if  5  1  11 Prior, c  0  0  0 Smith  3  2  8 Gannon, rg  3  0  6 Davis  0  3  3 Covey, lg  0  3  3 Petrillo  1  0  2 Totals  18  10  46