CONVICTIONS UPHELD IN POINT-SHAVE CASE

The convictions of all five defendants in the Boston College point-shaving case were upheld on appeal yesterday. The decision, which came in Manhattan from a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, rejected key defense arguments over an article in Sports Illustrated magazine. The judges thus supported, as a First Amendment right, reporters' protection of material that they obtain in criminal as well as civil cases.

The five defendants were found guilty in the autumn of 1981 of having participated in a gambling and bribery scheme that involved manipulating the scores of Boston College basketball games during the 1978-79 season. Rick Kuhn, a member of that Boston College team, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and James Burke, Paul Mazzei and the brothers Anthony and Rocco Perla received various sentences ranging from four to 20 years.

Mr. Burke, a convicted extortionist and reputed organized-crime figure, is already imprisoned in an unrelated case, as are Mr. Mazzei and Anthony Perla. Mr. Kuhn and Rocco Perla remain free on bail during the appeal process. Gerald Shargel, Mr. Burke's lawyer, said yesterday that the defendants would petition the United States Supreme Court to hear the case.

A major complaint of the defense is that the trial judge, Henry Bramwell of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, quashed its subpoena for all the material that Sports Illustrated used in developing an article that was published in February 1981. It was that article, titled ''How I Put the Fix In,'' that brought the Boston College case to light. It was written in collaboration with Henry Hill, a Government informant who became the main witness in the point-shaving trial.

When Judge Bramwell quashed the subpoena, he said the defense had failed to show that the information it would have provided was highly material, necessary for the defense and unobtainable from other sources.

In upholding that decision yesterday, Judge Thomas J. Meskill, with the concurrence of Judge Richard J. Cardamone and Judge J. Edward Lumbard, wrote:

''Indeed, the important social interests in the free flow of information that are protected by the reporter's qualified privilege are particularly compelling in criminal cases.

''Reporters are to be encouraged to investigate and expose, free from unnecessary government intrusion, evidence of criminal wrongdoing.''