A well-drilled Navy basketball team fought off a second half varsity rally Saturday night to win, 70 to 68, at the Garden. After a slow start-it trailed 36 to 29 at the half-Norm Shepard's squad pulled up to the Midshipmen, but them lost three chances to sew up the game.
John Rockwell was again high scorer for the varsity with 25 points, but he was handcuffed by a tight Navy defense in the first half. The Middies concentrated on close man-to-man guarding and their passing was fast and accurate they scored effectively from the outside. Two minutes from the start of the game they had picked up a seven point lead.
In the second half, the varsity began to cut through the Navy defense, and at the time led the visitors 65 to 64. During the last 80 seconds, Shepard's squad picked up the ball at join-court three times with one-point deficits, and lost the ball three times on fouls-one a charging call on Rockwell which was loudly disputed by the gallery.
Big Ed Smith, working from his usual post under the backboard, picked up 20 points to trail Rock well in scoring. Gerry Murphy, Jim Gable, and Bill Hickey started on the back line. Murphy's push shot from outside was effective against the concentrated Navy defense.
Navy's ball handling was fishy and competent. In contrast to Shepard's double pivot attack, Coach Ben Carmevale pan his team from 8 fast arias cross well out from the basket, taking advant age of both the spend and shooting of his captain, Dave Mullaney. Mullaney, who played for Holy Cross in an NCAA tournament two years age, was all over the court, leading Navy's scoring with 24 points.
The Harvard summaries:
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