The Ancient Eight's Newest Stars

This past weekend will long remain one of the greatest in Harvard men's basketball history.

Consider a few highlights:

.With victories over Penn Friday night (93-91) and Princeton Saturday (78-54), Harvard engineered its third-ever home sweep of Penn and Princeton and its first since the 1956-'57 season. The other two back-to-backers came in 1937-'38 and 1902-'03.

.The Penn second-half comeback owes thanks to two great individual efforts. Harvard guard Neil Phillips scored the Crimson's first 10 points in the second half, to keep Harvard within range. Not until Fred Schernecker canned two free throws at the 11:25 mark did another cager score.

Then, with Harvard behind, 77-67, and just 4:21 remaining in regulation, Harvard Co-Captain Arne Duncan scored the Crimson's next 14 points--in the span of three minutes--to bring the cagers to within a single point.

.Harvard faced first-half deficits of 9-0 and 22-6, and second-half deficits of 53-39 and 62-43 (with 13:00 remaining) before beginning its epic comeback. Down the stretch, the Crimson outscored the visitors, 17-8, to force the OT.

.The Penn bench contributed just two points and 16 minutes to the Quaker cause. Meanwhile, the Crimson bench contributed 31 points and 94 minutes. Overall, the Harvard bench outscored its counterparts, 49-8, for the weekend.

.Harvard never led during regulation against Penn, and was tied for all of 53 seconds--the first 0:19 of the ballgame at 0-0 and the final 0:34 of regulation at 83-83. The Crimson took its first lead a half-minute into the extra period.

.The 24-point margin of victory Saturday night was Harvard's largest over the Tigers in 81 years (106 games). The Crimson defeated Princeton in the 1905-'06 season, 38-8. And that, actually, is pretty close to the second-half score this weekend: Harvard 44, Princeton 18.

The Fashion Report: The Basketball Notebook rarely delves into questions of fashion, but two pressing notes came into our hands recently.

Item No.1: Malcolm Hollensteiner, Harvard's 6-ft., 10-in. freshman center, has taken to wearing the really long kind of boxer shorts that stick out beneath his uniform. Hollensteiner has yet to get into a ballgame wearing this wacky apparel, but he will doubtless establish some kind of major college basketball first if and when he does so.

Item No. 2: A half-dozen fans showed up at the Princeton game with their faces painted half red, half white. Briggs is hardly Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke's home court, where the student fans--many with painted faces--are affectionately known as "the animals") but at least it's moving in the right direction.

The Opponent File: Overlooked in Harvard's dramatic victory weekend were a number of outstanding performances by visiting team members.

Bruce Lefkowitz, Penn's fine center, led all scorers Friday night with 33 points. The senior Quaker hit 10 of his 14 field goal attempts (most lay-ups) and was an amazing 13-for-13 from the foul line. Lefkowitz also grabbed 10 rebounds.

Ivy Accolades: For his performance against Penn and Princeton this weekend, Duncan has been named the Ivy League Player of the Week.