The Harvard Classics played at the Boston Garden last night so it was only natural that they should win the game with a 15-2 second-half spree in the finest Boston Celtic tradition.

When the "mystique of being in the Garden wore off," Ralph Yearwood said, the Classics fast broke, rebounded and passed the Tri-Mountain New Hampshire All-stars dizzy and picked up a 66-55 victory.

With about ten minutes remaining, leading scorer Kevin McLaughlin hit a 20 footer and a subsequent foul shot, giving the Classics a 47-35 lead to put them on their way.

Todd Hooks slapped a New Hampshire jumper to the floor and Joel Fisher finished the play with a nifty behind-the-back bounce pass to Ted Killory. Seconds later, Fisher fed Hooks underneath for two more.

Killory swallowed a rebound and sent Tim Hresko away one-on-one for a layup and Fisher, unguarded, dropped in a deuce as New Hampshire watched from mid-court.

In two minutes, the Classics built up a 20-point plurality, 57-37, that not even the Celtics could overcome. Well, the granite staters certainly had bit the dust.

"We play our best when we're loose," Darryl DePriest said after the game. It just took the squad 30 minutes to settle down to some of its best basketball of the season. DePriest said that the plexiglass back-boards and the vast expanse of empty seats made it hard to judge distances.

Yearwood felt that the team shifted into gear when "the television lights went on." Ron Wade said in the victors' dressing room that the team had decided at halftime, "We didn't want to look terrible at the Garden so we could tell our grand-children that we won at the Garden and put it on our medical school applications."

Coach John Harvey said that the "local kids" were a key to last night's win. For McLaughlin, the Garden was old turf. He had played for Everett High School in the old Tech Tourney but had not been able to shine under the lights.

Last night, McLaughlin kept the Classics in the game while his teammates loosened up. With the game tied at eight apiece and neither team penetrating, the Classics jumped to an 18-8 lead which they never relinquished. McLaughlin rippled the twine from outside three times in this stretch.

Tri-Mountain closed to 21-18 with six points from Steve McMahon but Marty Healy came off the bench and made his presence felt. He swiped the ball from a bewildered Jim Clement, who bowled Healy over under the hoop. He sunk his free throws and laid in two more points on a fast break next time down the floor.

Shoot the Lane

The Classics started to shoot a man down the lane successfully and Harvard opened its lead to 32-24 at the half. New Hampshire fought to 28-32 at the beginning of the second session before the Classics let loose.

During vacation the Classics will tour Puerto Rico and play four games with the national team, which placed second in the Pan American Games. What next? The Celtics?