M. Basketball's Late Surge Falls Short Against Columbia

NEW YORK, N.Y.—After Harvard narrowed the Columbia lead to a single point with a dramatic 15-3 run late in the second half, the Crimson held the ball with several chances to tie or win the game in the heart-stopping final minute of regulation.

Coming out of a media timeout, Columbia forward Matt Preston missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw sequence to give the ball to Harvard with 1:13 left, but on the ensuing possession junior Matt Stehle was called for traveling under the basket.

This turnover gave the ball back to the Lions with 57 seconds left, and they tried to hold the ball, but junior center Brian Cusworth came up with a steal late in the shot clock to give the Crimson another opportunity to take the lead.

Head coach Frank Sullivan waved senior point guard David Giovacchini up the floor, and the senior, confident after scoring the last five Harvard points, looked to create his own shot.

Under tight pressure, Giovacchini forced up an off-balance jumper from the right elbow, the shot hitting the iron.

But junior guard Michael Beal soared in for the offensive rebound, kicking the ball out to senior guard Kevin Rogus at the top of the key with less than ten seconds left.

Rogus let fly a deep three-pointer—another miss—that caromed out to Stehle. As Stehle went up for the put-back, he was stripped of the ball. As the ball rolled out of bounds with 2.4 seconds left, Stehle was charged with a questionable loose ball foul, shifting the action away from the Harvard hoop for a pair of Columbia free throws.

“I don’t want to call out any referees, but I got fouled. The guy held my arm,” Stehle said. “Home-court advantage is what you call it, I guess.”

The Lions converted the first but missed the second, giving the Crimson one final gasp, down 57-55 with 1.8 seconds remaining.

A baseball pass the length of the court from Stehle to Cusworth made contact with the defender on its way across the baseline, giving Harvard an inbounds pass, now with 0.9 seconds to go.

Stehle cut down the lane to the basket and tipped a Giovacchini lob pass, but the ball rattled out, giving Columbia the win.

“We certainly had ample opportunities to win the game in two critical situations,” Sullivan said. “I’m real proud of the guys. They had pressure situations in end of game, and we’ve been off this long, we haven’t had a chance to work on special situations.”

THE NEW YORK POST

Columbia held the Crimson to just 55 points on 34 percent shooting from the field and the key to that defensive effort was the Lions’ ability to limit the number of looks from close range. This meant containing Harvard frontcourt presences Cusworth and Stehle and denying them touches on the block.

“Our game plan was to keep it out of the post, to make them work for their shots,” said Columbia forward Matt Preston. “We did a great job. That was probably one of the main reasons we were able to pull it out.”

The duo was held to 12 shots combined from the field, of which they converted only two, each turning in a 1-for-6 performance. Their 14 combined points were equivalent to each of their individual averages. For Stehle, who tallied nine, it was the first time this season that he has been held to single digits.

“We didn’t do a good enough job posting up and we missed some layups early on,” Stehle said. “Things weren’t going our way and we, myself especially, didn’t do a good enough job fighting through it.”

STRONG IM-PRESTON

In addition to his defensive effort, Columbia’s Preston was the game’s high scorer. In helping push the Lions out to its early lead, Preston nearly achieved a first-half double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds in the opening period. He finished with 19 and 10 on the night, and consistently provided the intensity that sparked Columbia’s attack on both ends of the floor.

Afterwards, Lions coach Joe Jones was not sparing in his praise for the All-Ivy senior.

“If you saw the first half, you saw how many times his toughness made the difference,” Jones said. “I am going to be lucky to find another basketball player like Matt Preston. He set the tone of the game. We follow his lead.”

Harvard coach Frank Sullivan also recognized Preston’s impact.

“He’s one of the toughest covers in the league,” Sullivan said. “If you look at Preston, he’s so hard to guard because he’s so active. He generates more energy with his feet than any four or five [player] in this league. He’s a unique guy to say the least.”

THREE-POINT PLAY

Harvard scored a highlight-reel basket just before the halftime break. As Stehle’s full-court inbounds pass threatened to sail out of bounds, Rogus leapt to tap the ball back into play to sophomore reserve Brian Darcy, who banked in a jumper as the horn went off...Despite a career-high 15 boards from Cusworth, Harvard was outrebounded for the sixth time in its last eight games, 39-37. The team’s record is 4-4 over that span...Jason Norman fouled out with 5:50 left in the game. It was his first disqualification of the season and the fifth of his career.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.