Gene Dressler -- with fewer than five seconds, remaining in his Crimson basketball career -- faked left, took two steps to the right, hesitated and banked a ten-foot jump shot off the board. The ball plunked through the hoop, giving Harvard a 71-69 win over Dartmouth in the IAB last night.

The 5 ft. 11 in. captain was mobbed by his teammates after his clutch basket, but the game was not over. Dartmouth called time and the fans had to sit through a two-second anti-climax that lasted about ten minutes.

After a respite of much more than a minute, the teams returned to action in the Dartmouth backcourt. A long inbound pass was knocked out by Dressler, and the clock -- strangely enough -- still read two seconds. After another time out, Dartmouth passed in again -- this time from halfcourt, and Joe Colgan missed a desperation jump shot at the buzzer.

Sixth Place

The win moved Harvard into sixth place in the final Ivy League standings, with a 4-10 record. Brown, which finished its season by losing to Yale on Tuesday was seventh at 3-11. And the Green Indians were last at 1-13. Dartmouth's only win was against the Crimson in Hanover.

With six minutes left in last night's contest, it looked like there would be no need for Dressler's heroics. Harvard held a whopping 69-58 lead, and Dartmouth's two big men -- John Duke and Gunnar Malm -- had fouled out.

Nothing Respectable

But then, Harvard did nothing respectable for four excruciating minutes. The team lost the hall three times, and missed two easy shots -- and it was 69-69 with two minutes remaining.

The Crimson stalled for 70 seconds before Chris Gallagher (17 points) drove in missed a lay up and then fouled, Dartmouth's Pete Dunlop. Dunlop missed the first on a one-and-one situation, setting the stage for Dressler's rie-breaker.

For most of the game, the Indians employed a zone defense, forcing Harvard into a standard offense with Gallagher at the low post. Against man-to-man defenses, the Crimson uses its rotating California offense. Harvard Dressler  14 Gallagher  17 Royer  14 Martell  11 Gustavson  8 Johnson  5 Beller  2 Total  71 Dartmouth Colgan  20 Sturgis  12 Malm  12 Duke  11 Felmoister  8 Mathias  3 Dunlop  2 Stableford  1 Total  69