After coaching for six years in the Big East Conference as an assistant at Villanova and Seton Hall, Harvard men's basketball coach Frank Sullivan knows the value of a good defense.

Yesterday at Briggs Cage, Vermont learned its value as well: Harvard (5-2 overall, 1-0 in the Ivies) used a dominating defense to thoroughly embarrass Vermont (4-2) in a 92-64 victory.

The Catamounts entered the game boasting a potent offense (87.8 points per game) led by sophomore superstar guard Eddie Benton, who was fourth in the nation in scoring (28.6 points per game).

Harvard held them to just 29.4 percent shooting, due in no small part to junior guard Jared Leake, who held Benton to 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Vermont scored just 19 points in the first half.

"One of the things we've been missing the last two years is a defensive player to step up and take out a good offensive player," Sullivan said. "Jared has really done that for us."

Sullivan's starting five set the tone early on as Vermont failed to score for the first three-and-a-half minutes of the contest. Harvard employed a methodical inside-outside attack throughout, alternating between three-point bombs from sophomore guard Michael Gilmore (eight firsthalf points) and sophomore forward Darren Rankin (13 points, eight rebounds).

The Crimson capitalized on its size all afternoon, dominating the Catamounts in the paint. Rankin, freshman Kyle Snowden (13 points) and sophomore Terrence Mann (10 points, nine rebounds) their way down low, seemingly converting layups at will on its way to a 58.7 percent performance from the field.

For the seventh straight game Harvard out-rebounded its opponent. Yesterday, it finished with 54 boards. doubling Vermont on the defensive glass, 38-19.

"We just went to work on them," Mann said. "They just weren't aggressive. They had a smaller team, for one thing; from the very start we just took it to them on the boards. We knew we could dominate them there; there was no doubt in our minds they could not stop us. We were tougher than them inside and we're bigger."

Just before halftime, Gilmore sunk a trey at the halftime buzzer to put Harvard up by 20. Despite the 20-point halftime advantage, the Crimson had to remain weary of the Catamounts' offensive firepower. Vermont averaged 51.8 points per second half entering Sunday's contest. What was more, Harvard has a history of blowing leads: Against Holy Cross, it squandered a 21-point advantage en route to a 4-point defeat, and last week escaped with a 1-point victory over Dartmouth, despite leading most of the second half.

"In the Holy Cross game we tried not to lose instead of coming out aggressive," Leake said. "We were trying to hold out because we thought time would expire. In the back of [our] minds we decided [Vermont] wasn't gonna come back. We went into the locker room at the half and said we didn't want another relapse. We came out aggressive and attacked the press."

Senior captain Tarik Campbell sparked the second half attack, finishing with a career-high 14 assists. Snowden added nine second half points. Junior guard James White provided the spark off the bench for the Crimson, finishing with 12 points. He was among six Harvard players in double figures.

The Catamounts managed only one substantial run the entire game. Beginning at 14:09, they began a three-minute, 17-5 run, narrowing the deficit to 14 points, 61-47. Benton never got into a rhythm, however, and his cold shooting spelled doom for Vermont.

HARVARD, 92-64 at Briggs Cage Vermont  19  45  --  64 Harvard  39  53  --  92

VERMONT: Benton 4-15 2-4 10; Falkenbush 1-5 0-23; Grey 0-1 0-0 0; McDonough 3-6 2-5 11; Conlon 1-3 0-2 2; Reed 2-5 0-0 5; Benoit 0-1 1-2 1; Roberson 4-15 8-10 18; McCool 3-9 0-0 8; Madic 1-2 0-0 2; Cieplicki 1-5 2-2 4; Nunnery 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-68 15-27 64.

HARVARD: Campell 1-3 2-4 4; Leake 5-10 1-3 11; Gilmore 4-5 3-5 13; Morris 1-1 0-1 2; Mann 5-7 0-0 10; Scott 3-7 2-4 8; Demian 0-1 0-0 0; Snowden 6-8 1-2 13; Grancio 0-1 0-0 0; Kubiak 0-0 0-0 0; White 5-7 1-1 12; Fricka 1-2 2-2 4; Rankin 6-11 0-3 13; Chhabra 0-0 2-2 2. Totals: 37-63 14-27 92.