PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Bernie beat them in the first two periods.

Bruno pounded them in the third.

In the fourth quarter, the players on the Harvard men's lacrosse team finally shut down Brown's "Killer B's"--forwards Bernard ("Bernie") Buonanno and Tom ("Bruno") Gagnon.

But, by then, the duo had combined for eight of Brown's 13 goals.

And they began to exhibit some of their other skills.

Like passing.

And running.

And wasting time.

Their scoring done, Bernie and Bruno took charge of Brown's stall game.

And although the Crimson was able to outwit lacrosse's version of basketball's "four corners"--netting three final period goals--it wasn't able to catch the Bruins (6-4 overall, 2-0 Ivy), who won, 14-10, in front of 250 spectators at Stevenson Field yesterday.

"We played defense for too much of the game," said Harvard Coach Bob Scalise, whose team fell to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League. "We couldn't handle the pressure on the offensive end."

"They came back a couple times," Buonnano said. "But we felt we controlled the game and waited until the clock ran out."

Yesterday's matchup featured two of New England's top three clubs: Brown was ranked second in the New England area and 14th in the country, and the Crimson was third and 16th respectively.

The region's top two teams will receive automatic NCAA bids.

The Crimson jumped to a 3-1 lead with five minutes left in the first quarter.