University of Virginia Library

Cavaliers To Face
Highly Rated Penn

Coach Bill Gibson's Virginia
basketball team travels north this
morning to chilly Philadelphia to
face highly touted Pennsylvania in
the last away game before the Big
Five Tournament over Christmas
recess. Rebounding off a near win
over a Duke squad, the Cavaliers
will be out to repeat the surprising
show they put on in Durham
Saturday night.

Gibson was "most pleased" with
the way the team played against the
Blue Devils this weekend. For the
first 30 minutes they were able to
stretch their performance of the
first half vs. Georgia Tech and keep
the big man, Scott McCandlish, out
of foul trouble. For the first time in
the young season the Cavaliers were
able to carry the lead into the
locker room at half half, 21-17, but
during the second period Duke's
pressing defense held Virginia
scoreless for nine minutes and
ruined the tempo of the Cavalier
game plan.

Mr. Gibson thought the team
did a fine job containing the Blue
Devil's three big men Randy
Denton, Rick Katherman, and Dick
DeVenzio, but it was the depth and
strength of the Duke bench that
eventually won it, 57-45. The
usually potent Denton was held to
only five points and Katherman to
two, with John Posen coming out
of reserve to can eleven.

Looking to Penn, Gibson went
on to say that this would be the
best Quaker basketball team in
many, many years. Tabbed as "the"
team to beat this year in the Ivy
League, they were ranked 17th in
the nation in the pre-season polls.

Virginia will almost surely use
the same patterned, slow-down
offence that they have used in the
last two games with little success.
Against Duke, Coach Gibson was
able hold DeVenzio to 10 points
with a zone box defense with a
one-on-one coverage on the high
. Most likely the Cavaliers will
use this against Penn this evening,
as lack of depth allows little more.
If the Cavalier can come up with a
win in Philadelphia, as the old song
goes, "this could be the start of
something big."