It would be more thrilling to say that the Crimson men's basketball team won this game with a blazing fast break, a barrage of three-pointers and a storm of thunderous dunks, but the truth is that Harvard defeated Yale with textbook free-throw shooting and old-fashioned hard work.

After a listless first half, the Crimson exploded for a 12-0 early second-half run and held on for an 83-81 victory over Yale last night at Briggs Cage to remain in contention for the Ivy League title. Harvard (8-10 overall, 4-3 Ivy) remains one-and-one-half games behind league-leader Princeton (5-1 Ivy). Yale is also 4-3 in the league.

"We have our backs to the wall. We can't lose any more games," said Harvard Co-Captain Mike Gielen, who last night became the 13th player in Harvard history to score 1000 points.

The Crimson won on the strength of 90 percent shooting (27-for-30) from the charity stripe, which has been anything but charitable to the Crimson in recent games.

"We've lost too many games because of missed free throws," Harvard Co-Captain Neil Phillips said. "We've got our eyes set on a championship and we've got to eliminate certain faults, like free throw shooting."

But the touch was there tonight when it counted. After building a 77-72 lead with 2:17 to play, the Crimson watches as Yale guard Dean Campbell torched them for six of his 21 points, including a breakaway lay-up after he stripped the ball from Harvard's Ralph James.

But it was James (26 points) and the Crimson who had the last laugh. After Dana Smith hit both ends of a one-and one to give Harvard the lead at 79-78 with 56 seconds remaining, James iced the game by making four clutch foul shots.

Harvard's decisive surge came early in the second half. Having been victimized by a 13-0 Yale run in the first half, the Crimson must have taken good notes, because Harvard exploded for a 12-0 run of its own. James started things with a baseline jumper at 16:22, and Phillips found Fred Schernecker in the paint for an easy two. Two free throws by Schernecker and a three-point bomb by James forced a Yale timeout, but Phillips followed the pause with a three-pointer of his own to give Harvard a 52-48 lead.

In the second half, the Crimson seemed to turnevery phase of its game up a notch. Its passeswere more crisp, its defense was more inspired andits press was more fear-some. The result was thatYale's scorching 62 percent first-half shootingplummeted to a more seasonal 43 percent, and theCrimson converted on numerous steals, including athunderous breakaway slam by Ron Mitchell on afeed from Gielen.

"We had to do a better job half-courtdefensively, and I think we did," Harvard CoachPeter Roby said. "Their shots were harder to comeby in the second half."

The game started off as a preview of today'sNBA three-point contest. Yale freshman Ed Petersen(31 points, 4 three-pointers) and Gielen (14points, 8 assists, no turnovers) each hit twothree-point jumpers in the first five minutes. Oneof Gielen's was a rarer-than-gold four-point play,as he nailed a three while being flattened byYale's Mike Ryan.

After a see-saw first ten minutes, the Crimsonturned colder than the wind on the Charles River.Harvard did not score a point for 5:37, from 10:51until 5:14 as Yale went on its 13-0 run.

Despite dismal shooting from the field (37percent), the Crimson escaped to the locker roomonly 7 points down, thanks to 10-for-11 shootingfrom the line and a top-of-the-key jumper by Jameswith four seconds left in the half.Last Night's Game

Crimson, 83-81 at Briggs Cage

Yale  43-38--81Harvard  36-47--83