Near Misses Dot History

The Wente heave, the short runner by Sam Winter ’03, the off-balance miss by Elliott Prasse-Freeman ’03.

Pick almost any Harvard-Princeton game of recent memory and you can define it by that one last-second play that sent the Tigers on to victory and tore the hearts out of the Crimson.

Last year was no different.

In the midst of one of its worst seasons in school history, Harvard—2-16 at the time—held a tenuous two-point lead on the road at Princeton with under a minute to go. But a layup by freshman forward Harrison Schaen with just 23 seconds remaining allowed the Tigers to force overtime, and they would finally prevail in the second extra session.

“The motivation for this group of guys is how we played last year at Princeton,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “They’ve got the confidence that they played very well at Princeton and very well at home against the team that represented the league in the NCAA tournament.”

In the game at Lavietes Pavilion a month later, Princeton trailed by three with under four minutes to go and pulled even at 51 just two minutes later before guard Scott Greenman nailed a three-pointer from the corner to destroy the Crimson’s upset hopes once again.

“I think we’re due for a victory against Princeton,” captain Jason Norman said. “I know all of the seniors are ready to get this one, and we’re just going to work hard throughout the week.”

In the last four games between Harvard and Princeton at Lavietes, the Tigers have racked up four wins by a combined total of 14 points.

“We’ve been close with Princeton ever year that I’ve been here,” senior guard Kevin Rogus said. “We know that we can beat them...and this year we want to take that extra step and get those couple of points that we’ve needed.”

NIGHT AND DAY

As if playing the two toughest opponents in the league on back-to-back nights isn’t tough enough, the Quakers and the Tigers utilize two completely different offensive strategies as well.

Penn’s primary objective is to rely on its strong perimeter play and ability to score points in bunches in order to put an opponent back on its heels and run it out of the gym.

In the Quakers’ 104-69 win over the Crimson last season at The Palestra in Philadelphia, Penn did just that, taking a 55-24 lead into the intermission.

“Penn likes to play fast,” said senior point guard David Giovacchini. “Last year, they kind of blew past us, so we’ve been

front of them and slow the game down,” junior center Brian Cusworth said. “We can’t let them get the open looks that they are used to.”

Then, there’s Princeton—the veritable tortoise to the Quakers’ hare. The Tigers’ offense has been a national sensation for quite some time for its superfluous backdoor cuts and deliberate tempo.

“It’ll be good to get Penn out of the way the first night,” junior forward Matt Stehle said. “We’ll be a little more tired [on Saturday], and it will be easier to [stick with them]. But it will take two very tough and very different defensive efforts.”

Harvard, however, feels quite comfortable with the Princeton offensive pace and, in recent years, has shown an ability to match the Tigers shot-for-shot until the waning moments of the game.

“The guys know the Princeton offense pretty much by heart,” Rogus said.

RAINING THREES

Last Sunday at Columbia, the Crimson found itself facing as much as a 16-point first-half deficit, due to the inability to stop the Lions from hitting the three. Columbia went 5-for-9 from behind the arc before the intermission, but Harvard came out focused on stopping the three after the break and held the Lions to just 3-of-12 shooting over the duration of the contest.

“Every team in this league can shoot the three-pointer really well,” Giovacchini said. “We were able to guard it better in the second half, but those extra points that teams get off the three-point can decide the game, as it did against Columbia.”

That second half effort will need to continue if the Crimson hopes to shut down two teams that have traditionally relied on the three-pointer as the cornerstone of their offense.

“Both of these teams are great from behind the three-point line,” Norman said. “So we just have to be strong with our closeouts and aggressive on defense.”

DOWNRIGHT DEFENSIVE

Coming off a dismal offensive performance against Columbia, Harvard will face an even tougher test against Princeton and Penn, as the two teams are first and second in the league in scoring defense.

The Crimson managed to put up 74 points on Cornell Saturday, but 43 of those points came during a second half when Harvard went 15-of-19 from the field. The hot shooting masked what had been a sloppy performance on the offensive end.

“We were very rusty in the Columbia game,” Cusworth said. “We were totally out of rhythm...and it showed in the Cornell game too, but we just shot exceptionally well in the second half.”

While the Tigers have stymied the Crimson offense quite regularly in recent years—not allowing Harvard to break 67 points in the last eight meetings and holding them to 51 points or below four times—Harvard has had some more success finding its rhythm against Penn. But with the Quakers giving up just 62.6 points per game, the Crimson will be in for a difficult challenge on the offensive end of the floor on both Friday and Saturday night.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.