Princeton's League-leading basketball team handed Harvard its fifth straight loss by heating the varsity 65 to 48 last night at the Garden. The Tigers had a 29 to 25 lead at halftime.

The Tigers' speed, foul shooting, and outside game figured heavily in the varsity's loss, but one of the big factors last night was the slump of the usually high scoring John Rockwell, who collected only three points. With Rockwell having an off night, Coach Frank Cappon was able to concentrate his defenses against pivot-men Ed Smith and Bill Prior.

During the first half the Crimson kept in the ball game with Gerry Murphy and Jim Gabler shooting over the Tiger defense from the outside and Ed Smith flipping in a couple of layups.

The varsity's man to man defense, except for its failure to stop the set shooting of Joe Holman, held together in the first half--though at the cost of giving the Tigers 16 foul attempts on which they scored 13 points. In the second half the defense crumbled badly, particularly under the basket.

Bernie Adams, high scorer with 18 points, tossed in five baskets from the inside mostly on lay-ups and tap-ins. HARVARD (48)   G  F  P Crosby, rf  1  0  2 Bramhall  3  1  7 Cohodes  0  0  0 Rockwell, lf  1  1  3 Smith  4  4  12 Gabler  2  3  7 Prior, c  1  0  2 Covey, rg  1  4  6 Hickey  0  0  0 Murphy, lg  3  3  9   16  16  48