New Haven, March 10--Yale's strategy of centering its second-half attack around sophomore star Johnny Lee paid rich dividends tonight. The 6 foot 3 inch redhead scored 41 points, 30 in that period to lead the Eli five to a convincing 99 to 73 victory over the varsity here.

Lee's performance, second best in Yale history, gave him a league-leading total of 337 points breaking the previous record of 308, held by Ernie Beck of Penn. Lee's season total and his league average of 24.1 points per game both constitute Yale records.

Opening the second half with a 38-33 edge, the Eli strategy became apparent--feed Lee--a plan vocally approved by the partisan, record-conscious crowd.

To counter this move, the Crimson went into a zone defense, although Bob Barnett's close guarding had held Lee to only 11 points in the first half. But Barnett, with four personals on him, fouled out at 4:20 of the second half.

Lee was then unstoppable. Scoring on an assortment of jump shots and layups, he hit on 42 percent of his shots, 13 for 31, and added 15 of 18 free throws to give him the record.

Captain Ed Robinson nearly controlled both boards, pulling down 32 rebounds, 18 in the second half, although taken out midway in that period. He also scored 24 points.

The shooting of Bob Hastings and the rebounding of Ike Canty kept the first half score close. But in the second half, Hastings picked up his fourth personal rendering him virtually useless.

Hastings eventually led the Crimson scorers with 21 points, followed closely by Dick Hurley whose 14 points in the second half gave him a total of 20. Canty was third high for the varsity with 14.