Brother Jasper, a late 19th-century Manhattan College athletic guru who gave his name to the school's sports teams, is credited with the invention of baseball's seventh-inning stretch.

Saturday night at Briggs Athletic Center, the Harvard men's basketball team decided to commemorate Brother Jasper's achievement with a mid-game break of its own. Leading 24-7 with eight minutes gone in the first half, the Crimson decided it was a nice time for a little rest.

Only problem was, the cagers forgot to inform the visiting Jaspers--or the two officials--of their intentions. With the permission of the refs, therefore, Manhattan continued play and turned a would-be rout back into a game again. It eventually took a Mike Gielen four-point play with three minutes left in the contest for Harvard to regain firm hold on the game.

When the dust cleared, and the refs' whistles stopped blowing, the Crimson (now 3-4) had emerged with a 96-90 victory. Arne Duncan led six Crimson players in double figures with 25 points, and Kyle Dodson added 16.

Manhattan was led by junior transfer Bill Wheeler, who scored 33 of the quietest points in memory. Jasper center Pete Runge was awarded 23 points by the official scorer for winning the Billy Paultz play-alike contest. (For those who don't remember, Paultz is the former NBA player whose boorish and unimaginative play earned him the nickname "The Whopper.")

In fact, boorish and unimaginative is a pretty good description of the game at hand. Referees Bob Madigan and Don Winterton (or, as they were introduced Saturday night, "Mr. Bob Madigan and Mr. Don Winterton") spent the game blowing their whistles at seemingly random intervals, calling a whopping 50 fouls overall. Five of the eight Harvard players who saw action ended with four fouls.

One call the Mr. Referees did get right led to Gielen's game-sealing four-pointer.

The sophomore guard (who finished with a career-high 14 points) made a nifty steal and drove downcourt. Near the foul line, Jasper forward Antoine Owens made like a cornerback beaten on a fly pattern and tried to make a touchdown-saving tackle. Gielen was dragged to the floor, but not until he threw in the lay-up. A two-shot intentional foul was correctly called, and Gielen canned the freebies to cap an eight-point Harvard run which turned a 77-73 ballgame into an 85-73 Crimson cinch.

The rest of the game saw an unfelicitious series of quasi-unintentional fouls, but no significant alterations of the scoreboard margin.

In the early going Saturday, just about the only suspense concerned the fate of Kyle Disdain's Secret Santa, who (honest to God) passed out instructions to the 600 spectators present to stand in unison at the 18:00 mark of the first half and chant, "KY-le, KY-le."

The plan misfired (as did a second-half half-hearted attempt to revive the gift), but Harvard didn't, as the Crimson nailed its first seven shots from the floor.

But the cagers cooled down after constructing their initial 17-point lead, and the Jaspers had success going inside against Harvard's 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones.

"That's always a problem when you get off to a big lead like that against a club like that," Harvard Coach Pete Roby said of his team's first-half lapse. "We were just lucky to hang in and still win the game."

Roby made heavy use of the zones and partially scrapped Harvard's full-court press in an effort to keep the Crimson eight well-rested. At the Vermont track meet last week, the Catamounts whipped a weary Harvard squad, 110-92. "We were very, very tired mentally and physically at Vermont," Roby said.

The Harvard lead dwindled to four, 41-37, at halftime, and the Jaspers actually went ahead by two points early in the second stanza.

But Harvard played a superior, if hectic, ballgame overall and quickly retook the lead for good. The Crimson shot 59 percent from the floor in the second half (54 percent for the game), and committed only 13 turnovers. But Harvard's intensity, if statistically measurable, would have been unusually low.

"That's still something we have to work on," Roby said of his team's drive. "The other team doesn't care if you're tired, so that's something we have to improve on."

Now, about those unauthorized tributes to Brother Jasper....

Crimson, 96-90 at Briggs Athletic Center

MANHATTAN (90): Bret Holmdahl 5-0--10; Chris Schiano 0-0--0; Pete Runge 7-9--23; Ed Lawson 1-4--6; Bill Wheeler 11-7--33; Antoine Owens 3-3--9; Jamil Adams 3-0--6; Ken Bouyer 1-1--3; John Degennaro 0-0--0; Steve Boyle 0-0--0.

Totals: 31-70 24-34 90.

HARVARD (96): Arne Duncan 11-3--25; Kyle Dodson 7-2--16; David Lang 1-0--2; Kevin Collins 5-0--10; Keith Wesbster 3-7--15; Bill Mohler 1-0--2; Neil Phillips 4-4--12; Mike Gielen 5-4--14.

Totals: 37-68 20-27 96.

Fouled out: Lawson, Adams. Total fouls: Harvard 27, Manhattan 23. Assists: Harvard 18 (Duncan, Webster 7), Manhattan 11 (Lawson 4). Turnovers: Harvard 13, Manhattan 15. Rebounds: Harvard 43 (Webster, Phillips 7), Manhattan 42 (Runge, Owens 9). Manhattan  37-53--90 Harvard  41-55--96

A: 600