The Crimson basketball team scrambled its way around the IAB floor last night to make a game of it with Princeton for 34 1/2 minutes, but the Tigers took charge in the last 5 1/2 to wear down Harvard and coast to a 79-65 win.

Frank Sowinski and Bob Roma gunned for 50 points to provide Princeton's ammo, but with Harvard shooting only 45 per cent from the foul line in a game marked by widespread fouling, the Crimson did not have much of a chance.

Late Hustle

What chance they did have came in the form of a hustling comeback rally midway through the second half. Trailing by nine with eight minutes left and playing without the fouled-out Brian Banks (13 points, five rebounds), the pressing cagers launched a comeback.

Bob Hooft (14 points) blocked a Sowinski layup, then hit a jumper and a pair of free throws, and when Glenn Fine hit both ends of a one-and-one, the score stood at 59-55 Princeton.

Moments later, Cy Booker sent the ball on a screaming parabola through the twines from 18 feet out, and Harvard had narrowed it to 60-57 with 5:46 to play. Visions of upsets dancing in Crimson heads.

The heralded Tiger choke of 1977-78--Princeton has played eight five-point games this year, and lost them all--was not to be, however. Princeton came alive with 5:30 left to go, when reserve center Tom Young sank a three-point play and the Tigers went on to score 12 of the next 14 points.

Early Duster

The Crimson had started off well in the contest, dusting the visitors off the court in the opening two-and-a-half minutes to establish an 8-0 lead. The All-Ivy Sowinski came out of suspended animation at 17:00 to put Princeton on the board, but Banks quickly countered with a "stick-it-in-your-face" jumper over Bob Roma to make it 10-2.

That's when the dream ended, as Pete Carril's squad reeled off 33 points to Harvard's 15 over the next 11 minutes.

Sowinski (for the record, 28 game points), Roma (for the record, 22) and guard Bill Omeltchenko and John Lewis led the surge, but it was in essence a team effort that did the trick.

Healthy Spank

The Crimson came back to close it to 37-33 at the intermission, prompting coach Frank McLaughlin to deliver a healthy spank to sparkplug Fine's rump as the squad entered the locker room. But Princeton quickly opened a ten-point lead in the second stanza, and the orangemen kept it there until the five-minute mark. And then they mopped up.

"You can't be disappointed," McLaughlin said after the contest, "because everyone came out and gave what they can give."

"The problem was that they beat us at the foul line," the first-year coach added. "And that's been our problem all year--foul shooting."

Banking on it

"The difference between this game and the one down at Princeton is that you have Brian Banks," Princeton coach Carril said afterwards. "When he went out, that's what turned the tide."

So an upset was not in the cards last night, leaving but one Ivy powerhouse for the Crimson to pick off this year. That change comes tonight, when first-place Penn comes to the IAB. If the Harvard cagers want to play a spoiler role in this year's race, tonight is their last chance.