After falling behind Cornell by as much as 19 points in the first half of Saturday night's basketball game at the IAB, the Crimson battled back to within two points, 63-65, with seven minutes remaining in the contest before Mike Davis, the Redmen's leading scorer and rebounder, scored Cornell's next six points to stave off the Crimson's rally.

Although Davis fouled out at 5:48, leaving the game after scoring 26 points and hauling down 10 rebounds, the damage was already done. The Harvard cagers missed one-and-one opportunities from the free throw line on their next two possessions, and even eight points by Crimson co-captain Bob Hooft, in the last five minutes could not avert a disappointing 86-78 loss.

Hooft, who became only the seventh player in Harvard's history to score 1000 points, passed the millennial mark with a short one-handed jumper from inside the lane which rolled around and around the rim before dropping in. After a short standing ovation from the thousand fans on hand at the IAB, Hooft went on to score 22 more points to finish his career with 1021 points.

Glenn Fine, Harvard's other senior co-captain and all-time assist leader, contributed eight assists and eight more points in his final appearance for the Crimson.

Harvard shot only 37 per cent from the floor in the opening stanza and quickly fell behind the hot-shooting Cornell team, 16-4, after only six minutes. Pete Call, who only averaged 9.3 points per game all season for the Redmen, picked up eight points in the opening Cornell splurge.

Call only scored one more basket in the next 31 minutes, but after Davis fouled out of the game, Call scored eight more points in three minutes to give Cornell a commanding 82-72 lead with 1:05 remaining to be played.

Fine, Donald Fleming, and Hooft all notched baskets in the last minute, but Cornell kept adding points at the free throw line to prevent Harvard from coming any closer than the eight-point margin that separated the teams at the buzzer.

The loss to Cornell prevented the Crimson from finishing the season with a .500 mark in the Ivy League. Instead, the cagers wound up 6-8 in the Ivies and 8-21 overall.

Looking at the University's athletic commitment, especially to the major revenue sports, football, basketball and hockey, coach Frank McLaughlin said, "I can't believe a school that prides itself on excellence will settle for mediocrity."

"I'm probably the most optimistic person you'll ever meet, but I'm ticked off--and I'm not settling for it," he added. Cornell 86, HARVARD 78 at the IAB HARVARD  FG  FT  REB  A  TP Mannix  1-1  0-0  0  2  2 Coatsworth  1-1  3-4  3  3  5 Allen  4-10  1-2  2  4  9 Harris  4-7  2-3  4  2  10 Hooft  11-18  2-2  3  0  24 Taylor  1-8  0-0  1  1  2 Fine  4-8  0-1  5  8  8 Clarke  0-3  0-0  2  0  0 Fleming  5-17  6-7  7  0  16 Mundy  0-2  2-2  2  0  2 Totals  31-75  16-21  29  21  78 Cornell  FG  FT  REB  A  TP Call  6-12  6-7  4  3  18 Halloran  6-8  0-0  9  3  12 Carter  0-3  2-5  0  3  2 Allen  2-7  6-6  3  3  10 Lucas  0-1  3-4  0  0  3 Sellew  6-9  0-0  7  2  12 Davis  10-22  6-7  10  1  26 Shaffer  1-4  1-3  4  3  3 Totals  31-66  24-32  37  18  86