Cassandra-like prophecies proved right again Saturday night. Plummeting from the basketball Zenith that eluded it by so slim a margin in Tuesday's Columbia overtime heart stopper. Bill Barclay's up-and-down-again team dropped a disappointing 57 to 45 decision in Cornell's Barton Hall.

The Big Red's two stars Captain Bob Gale and lanky Ed Peterson, used their respective six-six and six-nine heights to the very best advantage, controlled both backboards most of the evening, and split 36 points evenly between them.

A Point a Minute

Cornell racked up a ten-point lead at the ten-minute mark, broadened it to 26-14 at the half, and won going away. Bill Prior, George Hauptfuhrer, and Steve Davis all were ousted with five fouls in the last eight minutes of the game, which aided the Crimson cause not one iota.

Only bright spot on a dismal Saturday night was Wait McCurdy, who continued his fine set-shot swishing and ended up the team's high scorer with 16 points.

The Summary: HARVARD (45)   G  F  P Hauptfuhrer, if  4  4  12 Rockwell  2  1  5 McCurdy, rf  7  2  16 Prior, c  1  2  4 Davis  0  0  0 Crosby, lg  0  0  0 Brady  2  0  4 Gannon, rg  1  0  2 Henry  1  0  2 Totals  18  9  45