M. Cagers Win On Road With Help From Charity Stripe

After jumping out to a 4-0 lvy start with its three straight road ins, the squash's best start in 10 years, the Harvard men's basketball team leads the chase for the league championship.

For now.

The Crimson has company on the road to an NCAA tournament berth, as Princeton surprised no one in bolting to a 2-0 start last weekend.

To kick off its bid for a third consecutive league championship, the Tigers downed Yale and Brown at home. The Princeton defense held the Elis to just points Friday night, before letting up and surrendering 42 points to Brown Saturday.

While Brown's weekend was not a total washout (the Bruins buried Pennsylvania Friday), Yale was unable to salvage the weekend, losing to the Quakers Saturday, 59-57.

Over the Hills and Through the Ice: Harvard Coach Peter Roby made a lot of good decisions last weekend, none better than choosing to take his team to Ithaca, N.Y., the day before Friday's game--the day before a major snowstorm.

The team was not so lucky departing ithaca, however, driving seven hours through an ice storm to New York City for Saturday's contest against Columbia.

New Hampshire, Home to More Than New England's Only Nuclear Reactor: While the Crimson is undoubtedly looking forward to hosting New Hampshire on January 29th, no one is probably happier about the 1-12 Wildcats visit to Cambridge than the Wildcats.

New Hampshire is the not-so-proud owner of a 30-game home losing streak.

How bad have things gotten for the Wildcats tat home in Durham? They lost to lowly Dartmouth there two weeks ago. Enough said.

That's Why They Call Them Free Throws, Gertrude: Both of last weekend's Harvard victories depended on the Crimson's ability to hit its free throws down the stretch.

The free throw shooting problems that have plagued the Crimson in recent years have not haunted the team this year. In the final three minutes against Cornell, Harvard knocked down 14 of 16 foul shots.

During that stretch, Tyler Rullman converted all six of his free throw attempts.

On the other hand, Tarik Campbell was noticeably absent from the lineup at the game's end. The sophomore guard has been horrendous from the free throw line, connecting on only 37 percent (20-for-53) of his foul shot attempts.

Removing Campbell's woes from the line, the rest of the team is shooting .750 from the charity stripe.

Perfection: Columbia never commited its 10th personal foul in the second half, avoiding the new NCAA regulation that gives a team two shots after the opponents' 10th foul, instead of one-and-one. This only adds to the lustre of Ron Mitchell's 11-for-11 effort from the line Saturday night.

Those attempts included what proved to be the winning shot, giving the Crimson a four-point lead, which held up despite a last-second three-pointer by the Lions' Eric Speaker.

No, It's Not a Mirage: Also new to the NCAA rule book: when a shooter is fouled behind the three-point line, three free throws--instead of the two previously granted--are awarded.

Cornell's Shawn Maharaj took advantage of this rule to can three free throws and cut the Harvard lead to six points with 50 seconds to play.

Maharaj showed great affinity for the three-point shot throughout the game, connecting on six of his 10 attempts from behind college's second favorite charity stripe.

And The Winners Are: "We've been saying all along that Ron Mitchell is as good as anyone in the league," Roby reiterated last weekend.

After Mitchell averaged 19.5 points and nine rebounds in last weekend's festivities, the league finally took notice, naming Mitchell Co-lvy League Player of the week.

Mitchell now leads the Crimson in scoring (15.4- p.p.g.) and rebounding (9.6 r.p.g.).

Sharing the honor with Mitchell was Columbia sophomore sensation Buck Jenkins. Jenkins scored 48 points on the weekend, including the winning basket in the Lions' upset of Dartmouth and 28 points in Columbia's near upset of Harvard.

Somebody Should Tell The Knicks:Harvard has more players who call New York home than Cornell (1) and Columbia (1) combined.

Ralph James, Ron Mitchell, Tarik Campbell and William Curry all hail from the Empire State.