Harvard's hapless basketball team came closer to winning a game Saturday night than in 13 previous attempts, but a desperation stab by Cornell's Tom Turner in the final three seconds of play brought the walls tumbling down on the Crimson for the fourteenth consecutive time--the Ithacans won, 50 to 48.

It was the work of substitute Walt McCurdy that kept Harvard in the contest until the final seconds. McCurdy, who took scoring honors for both teams with 19 points, tied the game up, 48 to 48, in the last half minute.

At least one Harvard quintet managed to win, Saturday, as the freshman team downed Andover, 42 to 29. John Stevenson led the '52 five with 12 points.

The varsity summaries: HARVARD (48)   g  f  t Rockwell, if  2  3  7 Crosby  0  0  0 Bramhall, rf  1  0  2 McCurdy  9  1  19 Prior, c  4  1  9 Smith  1  0  2 Gannon, lg  2  1 Petrillo  0  1  1 Covey, rg  0  3  3 Davis  0  0  0 Totals  19  10  48