Cagers End Skid, Wallop Cornell

The Harvard men's basketball team Saturday night snapped its longest losing streak in more than a year, and began jockeying for position in The Race for Second Place.

In its finest performance of the year, the Crimson halted a three-game skid by pummelling Cornell, 77-64, before 500 of the faithful at Briggs Athletic Center.

The shellacking of the Big Red--which walloped the Crimson by 21 just three weeks ago--all but ended Cornell's dreams of an Ivy title, and moved Harvard into a four-way tie for second place in the Ivy League.

So now, the chase is on.

For with just two games remaining to play and with Penn holding a two-game advantage. Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and--surprise--Columbia are all 7-5 and apparently gunning for second place in the wacky world of Ivy League hoops.

Penn would need to lose both games at Cornell and Columbia next weekend just to set up a playoff for the Ancient Eight crown and the accompanying NCAA berth.

So, all of a sudden, second place looks real good, and all of a sudden, so does the Harvard men's basketball team.

The Crimson club that fell apart with a last-second loss to Penn two weeks ago, and then suffered through a Columbian Sleepwalk Friday night, responded Saturday night with a performance that would have made you believe first place, not second, was on the line.

"Before the game," Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said, "I told the players that I wanted to see the team that had gone 8-0, the team that had beaten Penn and Princeton on the road, and had beaten Yale and Brown at home.

"I wanted them to show people exactly how good they can be."

And what a show it was.

It included Arne Duncan's flying tap-in that put Harvard up, 2-0. Keith Webster's 360-degree turn-around banker that extended the Crimson's lead to 30-18, and Joe Carrabino's perimeter hook shot that put the hosts on top by 10 with three minutes to play.

Threw in an aggressive zone-trap defense that surprised the visitors, resulting in 13 Cornell turnovers and nine Harvard steals, and you've got the Crimson's finest performance of the year.

"You saw a completely different club tonight," McLaughlin said. "They felt they were letting a lot of people down, including themselves."

"It was just a matter of pride," said Webster, whose stats read like a career highlight. The sophomore scored a career- high 22 points--connecting on four of six from the floor and 14 of 14 from the line--and recorded three assists and two steals.

That overshadowed the final home appearances of Carrabino and fellow senior Co-Captain Bob Ferry, both of whom broke out of long slumps with fine performances Saturday night.

Carrabino, Harvard's all time leading scorer, pumped in 25 points and frustrated Cornell's Ken Bantum all night. Ferry, meanwhile, deposited 16 and pulled down a season-high eight boards.

"We needed this one,' Carrabino said. "We were down because we weren't playing well, and we knew it. We decided if we were going to lose, we were going to lose playing at 100 percent."

The Crimson earned the victory despite a 580 performance from the floor by the visitors, and despite almost blowing yet another big lead.

After Harvard had opened up an 11-point advantage early in the second half. Cornell pulled to within two, 48-46, on John Bajusz's 19-ft. jumper with 7:40 remaining.

"You always worry with a team like Cornell," Carrabino said. "You know they're going to make a run at you, but the key is you can't let them over the hump."

Harvard never did, and that forced Cornell to send the hosts to the foul line.

From there, the nation's most accurate team connected on 29 of 22 overall, and 17 of 18 in the final five minutes.

That was the biggest difference from the last time the two clubs met, when Harvard visited the charity stripe just 10 times the entire game.

The other big difference was that first place was on the line three weeks ago. After Saturday night, it's now just The Race for Second Place.