M. Hoops Comeback at BC Provides Excitement, But No Victory

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—Harvard coach Frank Sullivan admitted that Conte Forum was quieter than he expected as his team trailed Big East power Boston College by 13 with nine minutes left. That was before the Crimson decided to force life back into the crowd.

Harvard cut the deficit to two within the final three minutes, bringing the Conte crowd of 4,608 to its feet in anxiety. Though the Crimson players made a game of it, their failure to penetrate the Eagle defense down the stretch prevented them from making a victory of it.

Led by senior Troy Bell’s 28 points, including a perfect 14-of-14 effort from the line, BC (6-2) held on for an 84-77 win.

Freshman Craig Smith’s 27 points—21 of which came in the second half—further punished the Crimson (7-3), as the Eagles snapped a five-game Harvard win streak and dealt the Crimson its first road loss of the year.

Senior guard Pat Harvey led the Crimson with 20 points, five steals and 11-of-12 free-throw shooting, but he shot just 4-of-17 from the floor.

BC kept its lead within the comfortable 7-to-14 point range for most of the game and kept Harvard out of striking distance until the final four minutes.

A turning point came when BC, ahead by six, gained the ball on a defensive rebound and seemed headed for easy fast break points with a long pass over center court. But a giant leap by 5’11 Harvey blocked the ball’s intended path, and Harvey hustled upcourt and dished to captain Brady Merchant for an open three that cut the deficit to 73-70.

Sophomore Jason Norman followed up with a three of his own off a Harvey feed on Harvard’s next possession to pull within 75-73. After freshman Louis Hinnant missed two free throws for BC, Harvard had its first chance since the first half to take the lead.

But on the subsequent possession, Harvey—at point guard after Elliot Prasse-Freeman fouled out with five minutes left—lost the ball to Hinnant at halfcourt, and Bell followed by drawing two free throws to extend the BC lead.

On its next three possessions, the Crimson opted to drive inside each time instead of kicking back to open players at the arc. That strategy was successful just once as senior Sam Winter put back a rebound off a Harvey missed layup that cut the deficit to 78-75 with 58 seconds left.

BC finally iced the victory as guard Ryan Sidney, who had twice as many second-half turnovers (four) as points (two) until that point, found the net for an 80-75 advantage with 26 seconds remaining.

“We put ourselves in a position,” said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. “We couldn’t guard them when we needed to get over the hump.”

It was the 6’7 forward Smith, not 2001 Big East Player of the Year Troy Bell, who proved to be Harvard’s biggest defensive obstacle in the second half. Smith scored 17 of the Eagles’ 27 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half.

All of those 17 points came with Harvard center Brian Sigafoos on the bench. The 7’0 senior picked up his fourth foul just a minute into the second half.

The 28 points scored by Bell were the most Harvard had surrendered to a single player this season. Several different Crimson players guarded him to no avail, largely because he was so precise from the line. Merchant, who was on Bell for much of the second half, suggested his reputation was as much a boon to him as his talent.

“I think you always expect too much out of those guys,” Merchant said of Bell and Sidney. “We’ve played some good players over my four years here. [Bell’s] just another player—a little bit quicker. He gets his shot off a little better than other guys. ... I think sometimes we give those guys too much respect.”

The 55 points between Smith and Bell might not have mattered as much had Harvard been able to find the net itself in the first half.

The Crimson shot just 29 percent in the first half en route to a 39-28 deficit. Winter and Merchant combined for 26 points in the game, but only four of those came in the first half.

Harvard’s sharpest shooter in the first half turned out to be sophomore guard Kevin Rogus, who has made 60 percent from behind the arc this year. Rogus hit threes on consecutive possessions with his first two touches of the ball to pull Harvard to its last one-point deficit of the afternoon 8:33 into the game.

On the next possession though, Bell was guarding Rogus, and that was the end of that Crimson threat.

So in defeat, Harvard stands with seven wins prior to Christmas—just as many as it had a year ago—yet Sullivan feels these seven wins were harder to come by, with four coming on the road and the three defeats coming at the hands of 2002 NCAA qualifying teams.

While Merchant was unsatisfied with the defeat, he was satisfied with the confidence and the experience that the Boston College game provided in terms of big-arena atmosphere—a crucial asset as Harvard seeks a victory on Penn’s famed Palestra floor in the not-to-distant future.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.