Dartmouth's varsity basketball team exploded for 13 straight points midway through the second half Saturday night in Hanover against weak rebounding and poor shooting by the Crimson squad. Harvard never recovered from that onslaught and lost, 100-85.

Harvard's freshmen, despite numerous turnovers to a Big Green half-court press and a 43-point performance by Dartmouth guard James Brown, held its lead to top the Little Indians, 91-89.

The varsity game began with a 14-point Dartmouth streak, similar to its second-half explosion, before the Crimson got on the scoreboard. The game's bright spot was Harvard's comeback from that deficit.

Junior guard Dale Dover, who led Crimson scorers with 24 and rebounders with 12, started the comeback with a three-point play and later added several driving lay-ups.

Scoring four jump shots and six free throws in the first half, sophomore guard Matt Bozek, who finished with 23 tallies, helped Harvard tie the score at half-time. 44-44.

The Crimson, which suffered its second loss in two games, had a 54-50 advantage four minutes into the second half on three Bozek jumpshots. Then Dartmouth opened up. Playing a pro-style run-and-shoot offense, the Big Green jumped ahead 64-57 with a quick eight-point production from reserve forward Bill Jacobson, who finished the game with 16.

Harvard was only down four points, 66-62. when Dartmouth's sophomore forward Paul Erland gathered in an offensive rebound, one of his game-leading 15 bounds, and laid it in.

The Crimson then hit one of its many cold shooting speels. Erland, who led 11 scorers with 27, collected six more points, and Dartmouth led, 79-62.

Harvard contributed to the Big Green outburst by failing to get back on defense. In attempting to compensate for its weak defense, the Crimson was forced to foul excessively, 29 times to Dartmouth's 23. But the biggest factor on the loss was a poor shooting percentage.

"We only shot 32 per cent in the first half." said coach Bob Harrison. "We finished with 35 per cent and you can't win games shooting that poorly."

Harvard's freshman team. trailing in the first half by as many as 12 points. overcame a 42-38 half-time Dartmouth lead and went ahead for most of he second half.

The Yardlings made up for poor ball-handling against a Dartmouth zone-23 turnovers to the Big Green's 13-by out-rebounding them. Marshall Sanders had 17 rebounds and Floyd Lewis added 16.

"We made a lot of turnovers at crucial spots." said freshman coach Ken Klug. "My boys did all right on Dartmouth's half-court zone press, but we were hesitant to fast break against it. To put the game away, we should have exploded with the fast break, but we didn't."

The Yardlings, whose record is now 1-1, had difficulty working as a team against a zone Good individual performances, for the most part, gave Harvard the victory. Floyd Lewis scored 32 points, most of them on short jump shots or lay-ins. James Brown had 19.