It's fun to watch your favorite superstar punish the opposition, but nothing in sports matches the thrill of seeing an unknown talent enter the fray and lead his team to victory.

Freshman guard Kevin Boyle was that hero-off-the-bench for the Harvard basketball team Saturday, when the Crimson beat Columbia, 73-69, raising its Ivy League record to 2-1 (6-7 overall) after a frustrating one-point loss to Cornell Friday.

Playing in only his third varsity game, the 5-ft., 11-in. rookie hit seven-for-seven from the floor, scored a team-high 17 points, and handled the ball flawlessly after replacing starter Kyle Standley midway through the first half. Equally important to the Crimson's recovery from an early 13-point Lion advantage was the precise passing and careful shot selection previously missing from the Harvard attack for most of this season.

Still missing, however, was the fire-power of last year's Ivy scoring champ and team captain Donald Fleming, who has not started since the December break. Fleming scored four points against Columbia and sat out the entire second half.

Questions

"We're still not sure about Donald, and some of the substitutes have been playing well so we've left them in," Crimson coach Frank McLaughlin said after the weekend doubleheader.

The Crimson's 2-1 record puts the team in second place after the first round of Ivy clashes, well within striking distance of perennial favorites Penn and Princeton, both of which have played poorly in early league games.

Like most of his teammates, Fleming played inconsistently Friday against Cornell, but the senior forward did muster a little of the old razzle-dazzle--consecutive in-your-face drives with less than two minutes remaining--to put Harvard up by one point, 54-53. Cornell went ahead a minute later on Mike Lucas's inside jumper, but Crimson guard Bob Ferry hit two foul shots with seven seconds left, putting the Big Red in a big hole.

What transpired in those seven seconds still has Harvard partisans shaking their heads in disbelief.

Cornell struggled to get the ball past midcourt, and with three seconds left, reserve guard Ron Tyron launched a desperate 20-footer that missed everything. Crimson center Monroe Trout, a hefty 6-ft., 9-in., 225-pounder, grabbed the rebound under the Cornell basket with his back to the court. Tick...tick... buzzer; lucky Harvard win after a sloppy performance, right?

Wrong. An as-yet unidentified hand knocked the ball from Trout's grasp, and in one fluid motion, Cornell's Lucas scooped it up and banged it in off the glass before time ran out. Final score: Cornell 57, Harvard 56.

"I don't know," Trout said in the somber post-game lockerroom. "Someone got in there, and the other guy [Lucas] ended up with it."

As McLaughlin and his troops later agreed, the Cornell game never should have come down to a last-second basket. Harvard led through the early part of the second half, but mainly because of 29-per-cent shooting by the ice-cold Big Red.

Lacking patience on offense, the Crimson failed to get the ball inside until Fleming's burst near the end, and played haphazard basketball against a smaller, less talented team.

Subs to the Rescue

The cagers again started off sluggishly against Columbia, falling behind, 30-17, after 13 minutes. But with the addition of Boyle and second-string forward Ken Plutnicki, the defense tightened and Harvard began to work the ball in and out of the lane with confidence.

Boyle, who moved up from the j.v. when starter Calvin Dixon damaged ligaments in his right leg last month, displayed extraordinary poise under the pressure of Columbia's aggressive man-to-man coverage and periodic press.

Underneath, Trout and forward Joe Carrabino benefited from the improved team-work and combined for 27 points and 11 rebounds.

"It wasn't me or any one guy," Boyle said after acing his first big test. "We played together, that's all."