The reason came in the form of big, brawny Dartmouth forward Paul Anderson, who duped his opponents with a display of offensive fireworks. He dunked, canned the long shots and the short ones, and showed an uncanny ability to draw Harvard fouls. On the evening he led all scorers with 25 points, 17 in the second half, pushing his team out in front by as many as 13 with just over 10 minutes to play.

Things got just a little exciting with 3:45 to go as the Crimson trimmed Dartmouth's advantage to only six points. But from that moment, Harvard became a little too eager, allowing Dartmouth to enjoy a spree of foul shots. When the Crimson found itself down by 15 with just under two minutes remaining, the game became academic.

Bumpy Road

"Our philosophy was to go out and avoid letting them have the easy baskets," Dartmouth Coach Reggie Minton said. "We knew that they were well coached and had good players, so we wanted to avoid their having free and uncontrolled shots."

Of the seven losses away from Cambridge this year only once has the Crimson come away--against Holy Cross--with less than a 10-point margin of defeat. Usually, the cagers fall behind right at the beginning of the contest and spend the rest of the game trying to play catch-up.

"There's definitely something to traveling," Minton said. "I really think it's something psychological. It's not only the fans. Our team thinks it can beat anybody it wants here at home on this court, but it's a completely different story on the road. Your confidence is not broken up a home and you're not as comfortable on the road."

The Harvard squad would probably agree.

THE NOTEBOOK: Junior Joe Carrabino paced the squad with a team-high 20 points and eight rebounds ... Bob Ferry and Arne Duncan contributed 12 pots each ... Harvard is out of action until January 30 when it hosts New York University. The squad gets a chance to break the string of road defeats' when it travels to Columbia and Cornell on February 3 and 4.