NEW HAVEN, March 12--"The home-court advantage" of New Haven's Payne Whitney Gymnasium proved just sufficient, by the narrowest possible margin, to enable Yale's basketball team to eke out a photo finish, one point revenge over the Crimson quintet Saturday night.

Three points in the last minute by the Bulldog's high-scoring Ted Anderson, followed by Harvard's failure to sink any of its four frantic shots in the last seven seconds, left the visiting Cantabs on the short end of a 56 to 55 score.

Luckless Bob Bramhall, Crimson substitute forward, was the villain and also almost the hero of the frenzied denouement. Trailing by a slight margin through most of the game, Harvard spurted ahead to a 55 to 53 load with three minutes to go. During the subsequent freeze attempt, Bramhall lost the ball in a wild shot at the Yale basket, and then fouled Anderson's successful lay-up to give the Elis their one-point advantage.

But with ten seconds remaining, Bramhall stole the ball back again, and the ensuing scufile gave possession to the Crimson under the Yale basket. Harvard's four remaining attempts failed, however; and the gam, the series, and the season were over. TOP IVY SCORERS   FG  F  P Rockwell, Harvard  73  43  189 Osbourn, Yale  60  57  177 Lyon, Penn  57  59  173 Smith, Harvard  69  32  170

FINAL LEAGUE STANDINGS   League  Games  All  Games Princeton  11  1  14  9 Columbia  9  3  22  7 Cornell  7  5  17  8 Yale  7  5  17  9 Penn  4  8  11  14 HARVARD  3  9  9  15 Dartmouth  1  11  8  17

Lanky Ed Smith led the Cantab's scoring parade with 18 points. He was closely followed by John Rockwell, whose 17 markers boosted his season's total to a record 428. They also gave him top honors in the Ivy League with 189 points; Yale's Jim Osbourn retained second place with 177 (including 13 in Saturday's game, followed by Pennsylvania's Herb Lyon with 173.

Anderson was the big man Saturday, however, with his total of 23 points. A wrenched knee suffered mid-way through the second half was all that kept his total from going much higher, though the injury wasn't serious enough to prevent his return for a devastating climax. Anderson's whirlwind drive under the basket typified the vastly superior speed of the Bulldog quintet--speed which should have insured a comfortable margin of victory but for Yale's poor shooting luck.

In addition to its excitement, which more than compensated for the sloppy playing of both teams; this game was noteworthy in marking the last appearance of Rockwell, Captain Bill Prior, Dick Covey, and Cliff Crosby of the starting Crimson five.

The summary: HARVARD (55)   G  F  P Rockwell, lf  8  1  17 Crosby, rf  0  0  0 Bramhall  0  0  0 Prior, c  2  1  5 Smith  8  2  18 Murphy, lg  2  0  4 Gabler  3  2  8 Covey, rg  1  1  3 Totals  24  7  55