Five to Face Lions in IAB

This is the time for the Harvard basketball team to bounce back, if it is ever going to bounce back. The squad opens a four-game home stand tonight in a sport where the home court provides a tremendous advantage. And the boys come home off their best game in a long time -- they led Princeton by four at the half before running out of life and losing by seven last Saturday night.

Tonight, the Crimson hosts Columbia and tomorrow the visitors are from Cornell.

Despite the winless Ivy record, morale is high, captain Gene Dressler said yesterday after practice. "The Princeton game showed what we can do," the 5 ft. 11 in. guard explained.

It is impossible for a team to avoid a little strain between its members in the midst of a long losing streak. For that reason. Dressler believes the two-week layoff came at just the right moment. "We were in a rut," Dressler admitted. "and the break did us good."

Coming back from a layoff, however, can be disastrous, especially against teams that have not been resting. That may help explain last Friday's drubbing by Penn, 76-56. Harvard took more shots and outrebounded Penn, but could not find the range.