It was supposed to have been an easy win for the Harvard men's basketball team.

It wasn't.

Although Harvard (4-2 overall) dribbled out of Briggs Cage yesterday afternoon with its third consecutive victory--a 81-63 triumph over Brandeis--it came harder than expected.

The scrappy visitors had a lot to do with it, but mostly, it was the Crimson's poor outside shooting that kept the Judges on the court.

The Crimson came into the contest with a nine-game winning streak over the Judges. Number 10 was supposed to come as easily as snow in winter.

"I think they're getting better all the time," Brandeis Coach Mike O'Brien said of Harvard. "It's probably tough for them to get up for us after playing St.,John's and B.C. Let's not kid ourselves."

Brandeis appeared to be in trouble in the backcourt, with point guard Jamie Bourque playing against the Harvard press in place of injured three-year Captain Stanley House.

Without House, the Judges had to depend on their inside game. Six-ft., 6-in. center Derek Oliver turned in a solid effort, scoring 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting.

The Harvard press was nullified early on when the Crimson missed its first 15 shots, and the Judges' inside game opened up when the Crimson decided to go with a three-guard lineup.

Although the game's outcome was a little too close for comfort, Harvard Coach Pete Roby was happy with the team's performance.

"We executed much better in the second half," Roby said. "You can't figure I'm disappointed because we didn't win by 40. You can't judge a game by the score."

The Crimson shot 44 percent (33 of 74) for the game, and went the first five minutes and 59 seconds without scoring a basket, netting only a pair of Neil Phillips free throws.

If there was a good sign for Harvard in those first five minutes, it was that despite missing its first 15 shots, the Crimson still trailed only 8-2.

At the 14:01 mark, Tri-Captain Kyle Dodson rebounded a miss and laid the ball in to break the Crimson's longest scoring drought of the season.

After a Mike Gielen steal on the inbounds pass, and a Ralph James layup, the Crimson went cold again.

Trailing 12-6 at the 12:45 mark, Roby inserted the foursome of Scott Gilly, Dave Lang, Tedd Evers and Scott Collins into the lineup to join Gielen.

"It was only because of fatigue," Roby said. "They were spreading their offense all over the place, and we wanted to keep the guys fresh. It was not a disciplinary thing."

The Crimson promptly executed a 26-10 run over the next eight minutes.

Evers, who started the game with three misses and was yanked after only 1:29 had elapsed, buried three consecutive long jumpers to knot the score at 12.

After a long jumper by Gilly, Collins (career-high 22 points on 10 of 13 shooting in 22 minutes) and James (17 points in 24 minutes) each erupted for their own six-point runs, with a Collins basket giving the Crimson its first lead, 18-16, at the 9:01 mark.

Although Harvard shot only 37 percent at the half, it led 39-32 buoyed by its work on the offensive glass. Harvard outrebounded Brandeis 19 to 6 on the offensive boards, and 41-28 overall for the game.

Second chances resulted in Harvard getting off 48 first-half shots (hitting 18) to the 25 shots (12 made) taken by the Judges.

Once the shots began to fall for Harvard in the second half, the Crimson was able to employ its full-court press regularly, forcing 19 turnovers.

"When you're missing shots," Roby said, "you can't get into the press."

The pressure defense forced the tempo and Harvard began to score at will, putting together 13 runs of at least four unanswered points.

With the score 43-36, Harvard put together its first nine-point run. Brandeis retaliated with its own sevenpoint run, which was then followed up by Harvard's second nine-point run.

Harvard then outscored Brandeis, 12-4, over the next six minutes to up its lead to 20.