PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Harvard saved its least impressive performance of the season for the opener of its Ivy League schedule, falling to Brown last night, 75-58, at Marvel Gym here.

The Crimson, inactive since December 29, evidently had been lying fallow too long.

The Crimson's record falls to 4-6 and 0-1 in the Ivies. Brown goes to 2-1 Ivy and 4-7 overall.

Listless and flat, the squad left its shooting touch back at the libraries. Sophomore swingman Don Fleming, the team's top scorer with a 22.3 point-per-game average, managed only 11 last night, his offensive strength having deserted him since the impressive triumph over Holy Cross.

Mark Harris led Harvard with 13 points and the occasionally hot Tom Mannix followed with 12. Brown's Peter Moss led all scorers with 22.

Brown opened the game with shooting that had the Crimson looking for magnets, hitting their first eight shots from the field. The Bruins vaulted to a 16-6 lead before Harvard coach Frank McLaughlin called a time-out to regroup.

Brown pumped in another shot to make it nine straight, but the rest apparently did Harvard some good as the Crimson closed to within 18-14 by the end of the first quarter on two foul shots by six-man Calvin Dixon.

Consistently sloppy play by Harvard--bad shooting, bad passing, travelling, etc.--foreclosed any further whittling down of Brown's lead, despite some miserable play by the host team. Only two whirling gyrations by freshman Dixon highlighted a desultory half that ended with the Bruins up, 31-26.

Some uncharacteristically bad shooting by Fleming, which continued in the second half, and the Crimson's recurring failure to unravel a one-three-one zone played parts in the first half deficit.

The cagers picked up where they left off when the second half started, except now they weren't rebounding either. Mannix's hot hands and the continued mediocrity of the Bruins kept Harvard within ten.

But the Crimson's play continued to degenerate, and by the three-quarter mark a goaltending call on Fleming gave Brown a 54-41 advantage.

The Bruins' Scott McCarthy converted a pretty lob under the basket to put his team ahead 59-43 with five minutes remaining and the Crimson sinking fast.

Harvard had a chance for a six-point play to get back into the game after the refs called a bench technical foul on a Brown assistant coach, but Flemming missed three of four foul shots and the team couldn't convert its possession.

Joe Mullaney's squad gave a demonstration in disciplined, classy basketball for the remainder of the game, running down the clock in a four-corner offense. If Harvard wanted the ball it had to foul. It was the simple.

J.V.

In the first game, George White's 12 points in the third quarter led the Crimson junior varsity to its fifth victory of the year, 80-72.

White's 16 points overall and Wally Rutecki's six steals topped a balanced attack against the Bruins in which six players scored eight or more points. The J.V. has not lost in official competition so far this year. Its only setback came at the hands of the Harvard Classics.