Despite an abundance of early-season bad luck, bad breaks and at times bad play, the Harvard men's basketball team has a shot at closing out its season in the top half of the Ivy League standings.

Weekend victories over visiting Cornell and Columbia boosted the cager's record to 11-10 overall, 4-6 in Ivy play. With four games remaining on the schedule, Harvard is in position to make this season one of its best in recent history. The Crimson has won more than 12 games only once in the last nine years, and the squad hasn't topped 16 victories since 1946.

League-leading Penn and Princeton invade Briggs Athletic Center this weekend, and if the cagers are to pull off an upset in either game, they'll have to perform better than they did in Saturday's 56-55 edging of Cornell.

The Big Red (8-14 overall, 4-5 in the Ivies) stumbled into Briggs after a narrow loss to Dartmouth at Hanover the night before. Harvard captured the lead with a seven-point spurt at the end of the first half, and it took Cornell 17 minutes of the second half to retake the lead.

By then both teams had shaken their early lethargy, and things generally went back to normal Harvard point guard Calvin Dixon, for example, made up for a less-than-stellar performance in the first 37 minutes with some solid play in the final three. The Crimson co-captain, who hit just two of 12 from the floor on the night, drove for a lay-in to give his squad a 52-51 lead, then came through with two clutch free throws two minutes later to up the Harvard margin to three with just 12 seconds remaining.

In between Dixon's heroics came a key assist by fellow guard Bob Ferry. The alert pass to Monroe Trout was just another in a series of great Ferry plays on the night. The sophomore tallied 18 points to lead all scores, popping from the outside or driving through the lane for easy five-footers. Ferry has scored in double figures in 17 of Harvard's 21 outings.

As in all the Crimson victories this year, though, no one or two players could carry the team. Ferry's scoring would have been all for naught and Dixon's free throws wouldn't have happened if swing man Dave Bernard hadn't come through on defense.

At the foul line with 33 seconds remaining and the Crimson up by one. Bernard missed the front end of his one-and-one.

"I was sort of upset," the 6-ft., 3-in, freshman recalled after the game.

But he wasn't upset for long. When Big Red point guard Hawathia Wilson made a pass a few seconds later, Bernard took a risk and went for the steal.

"First I thought it was gonna get by," Bernard said. "I just jumped at the last second."

Fortunately for the Crimson, Bernard jumped in time. He threw the ball to Dixon, who drew a foul and senk the clutch free throws.

After Dixon's shots, Cornell raced back to within one on a Stuart Mitchell roll with six seconds left. But it was too late. Cornell didn't have any time outs left, so Harvard never inbounded the ball and the cagers recorded their third straight victory. It was a fitting end for a less-than-artistic contest.

The last four Harvard-Cornell games have been decided by a total of five points, two of them in overtime.

So Crimson Coach Frank McLaughlin was only half kidding when he said, "I would have been disappointed if we had won by more."