Harvard's basketball team, wearied by a long train ride to Princeton after their plane had been grounded by fog, suffered a 76-55 loss to the Tigers at Dillon Gym last night.

Princeton's All-American Bill Bradley, whose left leg was encased in tape, scored only 20 points, one less than the Crimson's Keith Sedlacek. It was the second time in three head-to-head meetings that Sedlacek has outscored the Nassau sensation. But that was just about the only bright spot of the night for Crimson supporters.

Harvard started out red hot, scoring its first four field goal attempts, and looked as if that enervating train ride hadn't had the slightest effect. After three minutes the score was tied 10-10, when Bradley swished a foul shot to put the Tigers in front. Then the roof fell in on Harvard.

The Tigers quickly pulled in front, 19-10, and left the court at halftime with a 39-20 advantage.

Harvard had one abortive little scoring outburst early in the second half before Princeton sewed the game up. In a three-minute span Sedlacek hit two 20-foot jumpers; Merle McClung sank a fall-away jumper; Barry Williams swished a foul shot; and Al Bornheimer scored on a long bomb, making the score a respectable 41-31. But in the next three minutes the Crimson, ruffled by a Tiger press, committed six ball-handling errors. Princeton quickly pulled in front 51-33, and after that the game degenerated into a sloppy, foul-plagued rout.

The victory kept Princeton in the thick of the Ivy League race with a 7-1 record. League-leading Cornell beat Yale last night for its eighth straight Ivy win yesterday, while Penn held onto third place with a 6-2 mark by defeating Dartmouth 76-56.

Tonight Harvard meets Penn at the Palestra in Philadelphia and even if the Crimson is well-rested for the contest, the outcome is likely to be as unfortunate as the Princeton game was. The Quakers have an excellent, well-balanced team led by their fantastic backcourt combination of Jeff Neuman and Stan Pawlak. Both are among the League's ten leading scorers, and both are terrific ball handlers. John Hellings, a 6-8 center, supplies the rebounding strength.