The Crimson basketball team withstood an invasion by a vociferous rooting section, 11 cheerleaders with polkadotted panties, and four freshmen who played the final five minutes to defeat Brandeis 71-57 at the IAB last night.

Coach Floyd Wilson's quintet displayed deadly shooting and an amazing ability to blow lay-ups, a few streaks of dazzling ball-handling and a talent for missing sure baskets by sloppy passes, and a tight, hustling defense, frequently fraught with dangerous lapses.

It is almost impossible to imagine one team doing so many contradictory things in one night, but this is the Harvard basketball team and all rules of normalcy are automatically suspended.

Recovering quickly from the startling sight of 11 scantily-clad, attractive cheer leaders and a cheering section the seemed intent on shouting the roof off the IAB, the Crimson quickly broke into a commanding lead.

Gary Borchard, the Crimson's slow-footed, sharp-shooting forward, who finished with 20 points, was hitting with almost monotonous regularity, and the first ten minutes presaged an easy romp for the home forces.

Joe Deering and Bob Bowditch teamed up in the backcourt to block the Judges' impotent offense. As Brandeis tried to force its way through the middle, it ran into a collapsing man to man that succeeded in clogging the driving lanes. These tactics harried the visitors into off-balance jump shots that for the most part never even came close.

Game Goes Wild

But in scoring his points Borchard also picked up fouls, and found himself on the bench after his third infraction. With the big scorer on the bench, Brandeis took heart and came roaring back into contention.

As the lead narrowed, all the Crimson's talents seemed to disappear. The sharp passing became wild, the tight defense became lazy and foul-prone, and the shooting was terrible.

Brandeis came to within eight points, 26-18, with three minutes left in the half, but captain Bowditch and Denny Lynch tallied four points apiece and the score rose to 37-27 at halftime.

As soon as the outcome was obvious, the floor took on the appearance of a JV game. Brandeis, because it has less than 750 men, is allowed to use freshmen, and coach Rudy Finderson went whole hog, tossing four of them into the fray for the final five minutes.

Not to be out-youthed, Wilson inserted his kiddie corps and had five sophomores playing at once. The battle was pretty inconclusive, as each team managed to blow as many lay-ups and throw away as many passes as its opponent.

A 14 point win is nice to have any time, but Wilson will have to correct many mistakes if the team is going to win any Ivy games. The most glaring errors appear to be a plodding, unimaginative offensive formation, poor defensive blocking out, and very sloppy passing, especially on fast breaks. The Crimson isn't always going to hit 41 per cent of its shots as it did last night, and the other parts of its game will have to improve.