The Crimson basketball team built up an early lead in last night's game against Dartmouth in Hanover and held off repeated Indian rallies to win its third Ivy League contest, 81-75.

The victory, almost a replay of the previous meeting between the clubs in December, pushed Harvard's record to 8-8 overall and to 3-1 in the Ivy League. Dartmouth dropped its eighth straight contest, and is winless in four Ivy games.

Quick Lead

As in Harvard's 89-78 triumph in December, the Crimson moved to a quick advantage, outscoring the Big Green 15-2 during a five-minute stretch at the start of the first half. Junior forward Brian Newmark, who replaced sophomore Tom Mustoe at center, scored eight of the 15 points that moved Harvard ahead, 19-11.

Harvard's sophomore guard James Brown, who has played extremely well in his last three games, took over where Newmark left off. Hitting seven-of-eleven from the floor and contributing ten-of-ten from the foul line, Brown paced the Crimson with 24 points.

The Crimson went into the locker room with a 43-33 half-time advantage, but at the start of the second half its lead dwindled to three points, 51-48, after seven minutes. As in its two previous Ivy League games, Harvard displayed sluggishness in the opening minutes of the second half.

Dartmouth's Paul Erland, who is the top scorer in the Ivy League to date, scored six of his game-leading 33 points to spark the Indians' comeback attempt. But accurate free-throw shooting by the Crimson, which as a team made 31-of-36 foul-line shots, stopped the Big Green.

Sophomore forward Floyd Lewis, who paced Harvard on the boards with 14 rebounds, tallied two free throws to increase the Crimson lead to 64-53 with eight minutes left in the game. Lewis scored 20 points for the second game in a row.

Dartmouth narrowed the gap with three minutes left in the game with Erland putting on his customary last-minute scoring binge. But then junior guard Matt Bozek tallied a lay-up underneath, and captain Dale Dover stole the ball and scored to put the game out of Dartmouth's reach.

With his 24-point performance last night, James Brown moved into sixth place in the early race for individual scoring honors in the Ivies with a 20.3 point average. Floyd Lewis, who is averaging over 14 rebounds per game for the season, established himself as one of the top rebounders in the League with last night's performance.

The Crimson now has a two-week break for exams. It begins League play in earnest on February 5 against Yale in the IAB, and has five straight weeks of two-game weekends.

But having won three of four games so far against the top three contenders for the Ivy title, the Crimson's chances of finishing in the first division for the first time since 1947 are very good. Harvard has never finished higher than third in the League, which it did in 1906.

"We have a shot at the League championship," said head coach Bob Harrison on Monday, "and we still think we can get it."

Ivy League Standings

Team W L

Columbia 3 0

Pennsylvania 3 0

Brown 3 1

Harvard 3 1

Princeton 1 2

Yale 1 3

Cornell 0 3

Dartmouth 0 4