PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Was it just not their weekend?

Has the team come crashing back to earth?

Whatever the reason, the men's basketball team suffered through a pair of gut-wrenching defeats this weekend at the hands of Ivy League foes Brown and Yale.

Brown 71, Harvard 60

On Friday in Providence, the Crimson (9-8, 3-3 Ivy) came out of the blocks with all the pickup of a Mack truck. The Crimson scored six points in the first 12 minutes and shot 20 percent from the floor en route to a 19-32 halftime deficit.

Despite a second half rally that brought the Crimson to within striking distance, Harvard was never able to effectively contain Brown's offense, and ended up on the short end of the stick, 71-60.

The Bears (4-14, 1-5) took advantage of porous interior defense in shooting 57 percent from the floor mostly due to easy buckets in the post. The athletic forward Kamal Roundtree came off the bench to score 17 points on perfect seven-for-seven shooting against a defensive unit which was clearly unprepared to deal with his quickness on the inside. HARVARD  60 BROWN  71 HARVARD  65 YALE  71

"We didn't do the job at the four and five spots defensively. Three [Bear post players] who average single figures scored in double digit figures," coach Frank Sullivan said. "They were way over their quota on the inside."

Harvard was competitive in the second half, making up ground behind nine points on four-for-six shooting by junior center Paul Fisher. Harvard closed to within five, and then three at the four-and three-minute marks, but Brown's 62 percent shooting in the second half prevented any sustained come-back, and the Bears pulled away in the closing minutes.

"Yes, we looked a little better on offense [in the second half]," Sullivan said. "But to respond [defensively] to a 52-percent shooting half with a 62-per-cent shooting half is not the proper response."

As Harvard started poorly, the team began pushing and showed signs of inexperience as seemingly all the loose balls ended up in the hands of a Brown player.

"I think two things happened," Sullivan said. "We got a few good shots early that didn't fall, and we had opportunities for loose balls, and we didn't retrieve them, and then we...became frustrated, which showed itself in poor concentration."

Harvard looked out of synch on both ends of thecourt throughout the game. Defensively the teambroke down with depressing frequency, yieldingeasy buckets to Bear forwards.

"It seemed like we were caught up and kind ofhelpless out there," Fisher said. "We werebreaking down on little things that make a bigdifference."

On the other end, Harvard was repeatedly forcedout of its offense as it was unable to get openlooks before the shot clock began to wind down.Junior point guard Tim Hill and captain swingmanMike Scott were forced into settling for toughjumpers far too often, leading to 7-for-29shooting on the night for the backcourt.

"Our offense was predictable," Fisher said. Noone was getting good shots, so we were having toresort to a ball screen for Hill. It's certainlynot the best option."

Hill had six assists and 15 points for theCrimson, while committing only two turnovers.