Overcoming what Harvard men's basketball Coach Pete Roby called "an exercise in mental gymnastics," the Crimson cagers knocked off Holy Cross, 75-69, Monday night before 600 fans at Briggs Athletic Center.

The Crusaders repeatedly worked the 45-second shot clock down to single digits in the first half in an attempt to pull the Crimson out of its usual run-and-gun style of play.

But after Harvard trailed for most of the first half, sophomore guard Kevin Collins drilled a 15-ft. baseline jumper with 37 seconds left in the opening stanza to give the Crimson a lead it would never relinquish.

"Holy Cross knows we want to run the ball," said Roby, "so I'm proud of these guys for hanging in there when [Holy Cross] had the lead. We were eventually able to dictate the tempo, and look, we scored 75 points."

The victory halted a two-game cager slide and upped Harvard's record to 5-6 on the year. The Crimson, which needs just one more triumph in its remaining 15 contests to match last year's six-win total, is now 5-0 at home and 0-6 away from Cambridge.

Harvard maintained its poise and finally established the upbeat tempo it prefers early in the second half. And although The Cross narrowed the deficit to two points with just under seven minutes remaining, consecutive three-point baskets by Co-Captain Arne Duncan helped secure the victory.

Duncan paced Harvard in scoring with 16 points (including three-for-four from three-point land) and was one of a trio of cagers to hand out three assists.

The Crimson saw its lead swell to as many as 10 points, 73-63, with under 30 seconds remaining before the Crusaders connected on a pair of closing-seconds three-point buckets.

"I hope this game means that we've turned the corner," Roby said. "There's no doubt that the close games have helped us."

Harvard Co-Captain Keith Webster continued his success from three-point territory, getting all three of his field goals from beyond the NCAA's 19-ft., 9-in. arc en route to a 15-point performance.

Webster, a senior guard and the Crimson's leading scorer to date, also recorded a game-high four steals, dished out three assists, and was a perfect six-for-six from the free throw line. He has now scored in double figures in 11 of his last 12 outings.

After sophomore guard-forward Neil Phillips (six points, three rebounds) hit two free throws to tie the game at 10-10, the cagers decided to extend their winter break by another six minutes and 15 seconds--that's how long it was until Harvard scored again (7:07 without a field goal).

Not until sophomore forward Fred Schenecker (six points) hit consecutive baskets underneath--one on a nice pass from Bill Mohler and the other on a feed from Mike Gielen--did Harvard show signs of snapping out of its funk.

Only the inability of the Holy Cross offense to mount any attack of its own kept Harvard in the game during that stretch. For more than four minutes of the first half, the scoreboard stood frozen at 15-10 as both sides watched scoring opportunities pass them by.

Junior forward Kyle Dodson netted nine points and David Lang, who banged his head on the floor midway through the second half but later returned, hit all three of his field goal attempts and grabbed five rebounds.