The Harvard men's basketball team Saturday night snapped its longest losing streak in more than a year, and began jockeying for position in The Race for Second Place.

In its finest performance of the year, the Crimson halted a three-game skid by pummelling Cornell, 77-64, before 500 of the faithful at Briggs Athletic Center.

The shellacking of the Big Red--which walloped the Crimson by 21 just three weeks ago--all but ended Cornell's dreams of an Ivy title, and moved Harvard into a four-way tie for second place in the Ivy League.

So now, the chase is on.

For with just two games remaining to play and with Penn holding a two-game advantage. Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and--surprise--Columbia are all 7-5 and apparently gunning for second place in the wacky world of Ivy League hoops.

Penn would need to lose both games at Cornell and Columbia next weekend just to set up a playoff for the Ancient Eight crown and the accompanying NCAA berth.

So, all of a sudden, second place looks real good, and all of a sudden, so does the Harvard men's basketball team.

The Crimson club that fell apart with a last-second loss to Penn two weeks ago, and then suffered through a Columbian Sleepwalk Friday night, responded Saturday night with a performance that would have made you believe first place, not second, was on the line.

"Before the game," Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said, "I told the players that I wanted to see the team that had gone 8-0, the team that had beaten Penn and Princeton on the road, and had beaten Yale and Brown at home.

"I wanted them to show people exactly how good they can be."

And what a show it was.

It included Arne Duncan's flying tap-in that put Harvard up, 2-0. Keith Webster's 360-degree turn-around banker that extended the Crimson's lead to 30-18, and Joe Carrabino's perimeter hook shot that put the hosts on top by 10 with three minutes to play.

Threw in an aggressive zone-trap defense that surprised the visitors, resulting in 13 Cornell turnovers and nine Harvard steals, and you've got the Crimson's finest performance of the year.

"You saw a completely different club tonight," McLaughlin said. "They felt they were letting a lot of people down, including themselves."

"It was just a matter of pride," said Webster, whose stats read like a career highlight. The sophomore scored a career- high 22 points--connecting on four of six from the floor and 14 of 14 from the line--and recorded three assists and two steals.