The Harvard basketball team, riding the crest of a four-game winning streak, takes on Brown tonight at 8 p.m. in the IAB for a game the Crimson must win to keep its hopes of a third-place finish in the League alive.

Brown, which had been flying high with a 6-1 Ivy record just two weeks ago, has cooled off with three straight losses to Harvard, Penn and Princeton, but it still poses a big threat to the Crimson, which has lost two starters in the last week.

Tom Mustoe, who played the best game of his career last week against Cornell (scoring 15 points and grabbing three rebounds), broke his ankle in the Columbia game the next night, and will be out for the remainder of the winter.

Another starter in recent weeks, Jean Wilkinson, won't play for the rest of the season either because of academic probation.

Top Twenty

The loss of both will hurt the Crimson tonight, but the squad's depth should be able to take up the slack. Jim Fitzsimmons, who is still among the nation's top twenty scorers with a 25-point average, and sophomore Ken Wolfe will probably start as guards.

The front court will probably include Marshall Sanders, the hero of last Saturday's Columbia game. Brian Newmark, who played his best game of the season against the Lions, and either Tony Jenkins or James Brown.

Brown, who has not started the last four games after gaining All-Ivy honors last year, has played exceptionally well coming off the bench. He scored 20 points against Columbia and grabbed 20 caroms.

Tough Defense

Brown will be out to avenge its loss to the Crimson two weeks ago, 78-72, which Harvard won in the final minutes. The key to the Crimson victory, though, was its tough defense which forced Brown to the outside.

Brown was hot in the first half of that game, hitting the outside set shot with Arnie Berman leading the way. In the second half, however, the Bruins cooled off and Sanders put the clamps on Berman, and limited him to just five points in the half.

Tough defense like that again tonight should boost the Crimson past Brown, and if Yale loses to Dartmouth in Hanover, Harvard could move into a tie for fourth place with the Elis.

Then Saturday night's contest against Yale would decide the fourth-place occupant, at least until next week when Brown and Yale play Princeton and Penn, and Harvard meets Cornell and Columbia.

In what will undoubtedly be an interesting interlude between Ivy weekends, the Crimson will meet Oral Roberts University for an 8 p.m. game Monday in the IAB. Oral Roberts himself plans to attend.