It Was a Tough One to Lose

For a Crimson basketball fan, last night's heartrending loss to UMass was extremely depressing. Harvard led throughout the second half, only to relinquish its advantage, and the ball-game, in the last two minutes.

Inexperience is what cost the Crimson the contest. With three sophomores in the starting line-up, that's to be expected. Harvard pulled ahead by six points with six minutes to go, and had the opportunity to run away with the game.

But the lack of a "killer instinct" allowed the embattled Minutemen to hang in and eventually overtake the Crimson. What particularly hurt was the foul shooting 7 for 16 mark Harvard had.

Soph guard Dave Rogers gave the ball away seven times. The most crucial turnover came in the last minute and a half, when, with UMass leading by two, a Minuteman stole the ball from Rogers and made a three-point-play.

However, there were some good signs. Rogers did pump in 10 points, of which most came on drives down the middle. In addition, Rogers showed he is the best ball-handler on the team, and the team quarterback.

His back court mate, sharpshooting sophomore Jonas Honick, hit for 14 points, almost all of them from outside 25 feet.

All in all, it was a good showing against perenially strong UMass. The Crimson can only get better as the season progresses and should be able to cut down on its mistakes by the time the big games against Penn and Princeton roll around.