The red-hot Dartmouth offense torched the Harvard men's basketball team last night at Lavietes Pavilion and, without an offensive answer of its own, the Crimson dropped its Ivy League opener to the Big Green, 78-59.

Dartmouth (4-3, 1-0 Ivy) put the game away 7:32 into the second half as the 35-second shot clock was expiring and a Harvard defender was smothering sophomore guard Greg Buth. Buth pulled his right arm free and forced a desperation, one-handed three-point shot that found the bottom of the net to give the Big Green a commanding 61-41 lead. DARTMOUTH  78 HARVARD  59

Already up by 20, Dartmouth reeled off eight straight points as Harvard (3-5, 0-1 Ivy) went 6:10 without scoring after Buth's miracle shot. Buth hit 4-of-7 three-pointers and scored 20 points as four Big Green starters finished in double figures.

The first 30 minutes were unbelievable for us," said Dartmouth junior forward Shaun Gee, who led the Big Green with 21 points, including four treys. "Every shot was dropping and we were getting every loose ball. I think that was the best we've played all year."

Gee's effective shooting from behind the arc forced Harvard captain Paul Fisher to leave the key and guard him outside, allowing Dartmouth sophomore forward Ian McGinnis, who led the Ancient Eight in rebounding last season, to pull down 19 boards, six of them of the offensive end.

"I didn't expect [Gee] to shoot from outside as much as he did," Fisher said. "He was pulling up from a couple feet behind the arc and I was on the three-point line and he just made some good shots."

We got out-rebounded down low and the second chance points killed us. They got the lead in the first half and we were never able to come back," he added.

Senior point guard Tim Hill led the Crimson with 19 points and seven assists and Fisher added 12. But junior guard Damian Long was the only other Harvard player to contribute offensively with 11 points, and Fisher and Hill were forced to take a combined 28 shots, allowing the Dartmouth defense to focus on shutting down that inside-outside combination.

"I was just trying to get something going on offense in the first half and I took some bad shots," Hill said. "In the second half I played a little better offensively but it was just too little, too late."

Down by 12 at halftime, the Crimson was not able to reduce that deficit in the second. Buth and Gee made three of Dart-mouth's first four three-point attempts in the first seven minutes of the second half en route to a 19-9 run.

Dartmouth was the better team tonight and they clearly outplayed us," Hill said. "They hit way too many shots on us when They're making so many three-pointers it's very demoralizing."

Gee was 3-of-7 from downtown in the first half and scored 16 points in the first 20 minutes, including an authoritative slam dunk with 3:34 left before halftime that put the Big Green ahead by 10 points. Freshman point guard Flinder Boyd also hit two treys and scored 10 points in the first half.

Dartmouth had great zip to start the game," said Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan. "We knew going into the game that the match-up with Gee was going to be difficult for us and he certainly took advantage of that situation. His spark got Buth going and the momentum off the three-point shot carried Dartmouth well into the second half. We just can't not contest three-pointers to the degree that we did."

The Big Green shot 45.8 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three-point land While the Crimson put up tow more shots than its opponents, it was not nearly as effective, shooting 39.3 percent overall and 31.3 percent from distance. Dartmouth also dominated the inside game and outrebounded Harvard, 43-28.

Part of the problem was a lack of production from Harvard's two best shooters, senior shooting guard Mike Beam and sophomore forward Dan Clemente, who shot a combined 0-of-7 from three-point range. Neither Beam nor Clemente scored in the second half.

Beam could not get into a rhythm offensively because he picked up two fouls in the first six minutes of the game and only played 11 minutes in the first half and finished with four points. Clemente scored six points and still appears to be suffering from the degenerative ankle condition that almost forced him to miss the season.

"The problem on offense was partly a result of them [Dartmouth] throwing a zone at us and we were not patient," Long said. "We were taking quick shots rather than getting into the offense, setting some screens and moving the ball a little bit more. It's not that we didn't get open shots when we had to, it's just that we took too many quick ones because we were down by so much and we wanted to get back in the game quickly."