It was, for the most part, a laugher, as the Harvard women's basketball team coasted past MIT, 63-24, Saturday night at the IAB.

The Crimson women needed no outstanding individual efforts nor any lategame miracles as they put together a solid team performance, sparked by a very effective 1-3-1 zone-trap defense.

With center Sue Hewitt putting on the pressure out front and quick Tamar Atinc waiting underneath to slip out and steal the ball, the Crimson zone forced continual MIT turnovers and shut off any attempt by the Engineers to work the ball inside.

The defense was the perfect weapon against the hapless Engineers, who anchor their offense around their 6-ft. center, Diane Ozelius. With Harvard clogging the middle, Ozelius could not work down low, and was forced to shoot from outside her range.

For the first ten minutes of the game, MIT stayed within striking range, but the Crimson women finally broke down MIT's 2-1-2 zone with some sharp passing.

"We were moving the ball well out there against the zone, but we're still not moving the ball inside enough," Crimson coach Carole Kleinfelder said.

But the quick perimeter movement, an ingredient that the women have lacked for much of the season, was enough against MIT because Harvard had the hot hand from outside.

Wendy Carle triggered the Harvard breakaway when she linked together three baskets and put Harvard in front 20-10, with seven minutes left in the half.

From there, Leslie Greis, who had replaced Hewitt when the center injured her hand earlier in the half, took control of the game's offensive tempo, chipping in six more points. The first two resulted from a superb feed from Atinc that thread-the-neeedle of the MIT zone and left Greis alone for an easy lay-up.

With Harvard's defense shutting off any MIT attempts to mount an offense, the contest began to fall into a monotonous pattern: a Harvard steal followed by a Harvard shot followed by another Harvard steal,...and so on.

A 30-13 halftime bulge for Harvard was only the beginning of the ultimate rout. MIT opened the second half with a full court press, but that weapon, which MIT could use only after scoring a basket, became ineffective very quickly since the Engineers rarely put the ball in the hoop.

Some fine outside work from freshmen Gia Johnson and Sue Field helped Harvard extend its lead continuously, although coach Kleinfelder said after the game, "We just wanted to work on our passing and offense in the second half. We weren't trying to run up the score." In the late going, Field ripped off three corner shots and one of two free throws to pace the Harvard attack.

Carle's 11-point performance along with Greis's 12-point game-high effort (60 per cent from the field) left MIT floundering. Forward Hildy Meyers chipped in five assists which opened up the Harvard offense and helped it to a 33-11 advantage in the second half. It was a final 20 minutes that was all Harvard.

The women, now 4-5 on the year, will vacation until February 1, when they will face Dartmouth in Hanover at 7 p.m.