There's no place like home.

Playing for the first time in 17 days due to final exams--and for the first time at home since Dec. 16--the Harvard men's basketball team roughed up struggling Yale and Brown at Lavietes Pavilion with a pair of 18-point wins last weekend. YALE  58 HARVARD  76 BROWN  62 HARVARD  80

The Crimson (9-9, 3-3 Ivy) evened its record at .500 and moved into fourth place in the Ivy League thanks to strong shooting from the senior backcourt of Mike Beam and Tim Hill, who combined to score 74 points during the sweep.

Harvard, which had lost four of five, strung together consecutive wins for the first time since December.

"It's tough to play off a 17-day layoff," Hill said. "But we were comfortable. Anytime you sweep an Ivy League weekend, it means something. Last year we lost to both of these teams, and we needed two wins badly."

Harvard 80, Brown 62

Hill, who was named Ivy League Player of the Week, scored a career-high 28 points on 8-of-13 shooting and collected seven assists against no turnovers as the Crimson handed struggling Brown (4-14, 2-4) its second straight loss.

Sophomore forward Dan Clemente added 20 points and shot 4-of-7 from three-point range as the Crimson built a 10-point halftime lead then posted a 14-6 run over the final 4:50 to pull away from the Bears 80-62 on Sunday.

"This game was more about Tim Hill than anything else," said Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan. "He bounced back from a tough shooting night against Yale and showed why he's maybe the best point guard that's played here. He led us in points, he led us in assists."

Senior power forward Kamal Rountree paced Brown with a career-high 26 points and hauled in six boards, getting the better of Harvard captain Paul Fisher, who was battling the flu and scored only two points on 1-of-7 shooting.

"Fisher's had the flu for the last two days," Sullivan said. "He told me that he felt really out of it out there. We knew Rountree would be a tough match-up, and Fisher had to battle."

A day after pouring in 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting against Yale, Beam scored 16, pulled down four rebounds, and converted a rare four-point play with 3:13 remaining.

Beam took freshman guard Andrew Gellert's cross-court pass on the right wing and launched a bomb from three feet behind the arc. He then took a late hit from charging Bears guard Travis Brown and added a free throw to open up a 73-58 lead and put an exclamation point on the weekend sweep.

The Crimson trailed briefly at 11-9 with 15:45 remaining in the first half after Brown forward Travis Brown hit a pair of free throws, but Harvard, keyed by six points from senior center Bill Ewing (eight points in 12 minutes), put together a 15-2 run over the next 4:40.

Ewing showed agility in the low post, gettingone-handed put-backs on two consecutive misses,and then working Brown freshman Shaun Etheridge inthe paint for a five-footer off the glass.

Hill added seven during the run, draining twospot-up jumpers over point guards Corey Vandiverand Omari Ware and driving the lane at willagainst a sluggish Bear half-court defense. Hillfinished 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.