The Harvard cagers managed to get by two of the weak sisters of the Ivy League this weekend as they defeated Cornell, 78-72, Friday and Columbia, 64-59, Saturday night.

Against Cornell in Ithaca the Crimson opened up a big lead early in the second half and held on to beat the Big Red. Hapless Cornell, which has lost its last ten games, shot 51 per cent in the first half to stay even with the Crimson. Harvard led by only two points, 39-37, at the half.

Scoring Surge

Forward James Brown led all scorers Friday as he threw in 21 points, including 11 during Harvard's surge in the first ten minutes of the second half. Tony Jenkins added 20 points and Jim Fitzsimmons contributed 17.

Against a 5-11 Columbia squad Saturday night in New York City, the cagers played one of their poorest games of the season. Neither the Crimson nor the Lions were able to find the basket with any frequency during the contest.

Columbia missed the first 16 shots enroute to a 19 per cent shooting average in the first half. The Lions had to wait nine minutes before Steve Pellino's lay-up gave them their first field goal of the game. Harvard was not much better as it scored at a 28 per cent clip during the opening stanza.

Harvard held its largest lead in the first half after 7 minutes of play, opening up a 12-1 margin. When Columbia began hitting it was able to cut the Crimson margin to 25-19 at the half. Harvard committed 12 turnovers during the first segment of the game.

Columbia opened the game in a 2-1-2 zone but shifted to a man-to-man midway through the first half.

Harvard opened up a 19-point lead after 12 minutes of play in the second half, taking a 49-30 advantage behind the play of guard Jean Wilkinson. The senior guard triggered the fastbreak and hit a couple of long jumpers, scoring a total of eight points during the scoring a total of eight points during the scoring spree.

Wilkinson replaced Fitzsimmons after the starter argued with Coach Bob Harrison during the first half. Harrison had pulled Fitzsimmons out of the line-up after 11 minutes of play, and the two had words.

When Harrison sent Fitzsimmons back into the line-up two minutes later, the junior guard had a disgusted look on his face and threw a towel at Harrison's feet before re-entering the game.

Fitzsimmons saw no action in the second half. Both Harrison and Fitzsimmons refused to comment on the incident after the game.

Statistically, the Columbia contest was a very poor showing for the Crimson. The cagers committed 24 turnovers during the game and shot only 36 per cent from the floor. The also could not find the basket on foul shots as they made 41 per cent of their attempts from the charity stripe.

Brown led the Harvard attack again Saturday as he scored 16 points and pulled down 21 rebounds. Floyd Lewis only put in seven points but hauled down 13 rebounds to complement Brown's effort.

The Crimson dominated both backboards against the Lions, often getting two and three shots offensively and limiting Columbia to one shot when the Lions were on the attack.

Following the game, Harrison held a half hour closed door meeting with the team.