Harvard's cagers, down by as much as 11 during the first half, came back to defeat Brown, 83-76, in Providence last night.

Shooting a phenomenal 58 per cent from the field, the Crimson opened up a 64-56 lead with 5:31 left in the game and held off a late Brown rally to take the contest.

Harvard shot 64 per cent from the field, during the second half and quickly eliminated Brown's three-point half-time edge.

Hit Consistently

Leading the Harvard attack were Tony Jenkins and Floyd Lewis. Jenkins hit consistently from the corner and poured in 26 points. Lewis controlled the boards, hauling down 14 rebounds and scoring 18 points. Phil Brown, the Bruins' fine sophomore center, could do little to stop Lewis's powerful moves to the basket.

James Brown started as guard for the Crimson along with Kenny Wolfe. Apparently, Coach Bob Harrison hoped to isolate Brown underneath against the smaller Bruins guards. The strategy did not work and Harrison went to Hal Smith midway through the first half. Smith cintributed little to the Crimson effort, and Harrison brought in guard Jim Fitzsimmons whom he had benched earlier in the week.

Fitzsimmons did the job for the Crimson, throwing in 15 points and adding a game high of 7 assists in 27 minutes of action.

The Crimson played a ragged ballgame in the early going and accumulated 24 turnovers during the contest. However, after Brown opened up their 11-point margin midway through the first half, Jenkins and Lewis went to work to bring the cagers back to the 3-point half-time deficit.

3-2 Stall Offense Fails

Brown tried a 3-2 stall offense early in the second half but the strategy failed to stem the Crimson surge. Last Saturday the stall put the game on ice for Brown when they beat the Crimson 65-60.

Surprisingly, two of Brown's sophomore stars, Eddie Morris, a flashy guard, and Lloyd Desizgne were on the bench for a large part of the second half. Morris played only 30 minutes and Desizgne 29. Brown did not really have much depth; they suffered with their sophomore starters out of the lineup.

Besides outshooting the Brins, the Crimsonbeat them where they had to beat them -- on the boards. Harvard outrebounded Brown, 38-26, and rarely allowed the Bruins more than one shot. Since Brown's biggest man is 6'5" it was essential that the cagers control the backboards to win. Last Saturday night the cagers barely outrebounded Brown, 45-39.

Sophomore forward Jim Busam paced the Brown attack, throwing in 20 points while forward Vaughn Clarke netted 18.

The win boosts Harvard's overall record to 13-8, and their Ivy mark to 6-3. Because of its win over Brown, the Crimson moved into undisputed possession of third place in the Ivy League.