Ferry Sinks Vermont in Final Second, 63-62 (OT)

Pressure's the ailment that finds a junior guard at the foul line with just one second left in overtime and his team on the short end of a 62-61 score.

Luck's the cure that finds a junior guard who hasn't missed a foul shot all year taking the two shots.

When he staved off the 12-barrel shotgun named pressure and sank numbers 15 and 16 in a row Saturday night at Briggs Cage, a junior guard named Bob Ferry gave the Harvard men's basketball squad the most drama tie of last-second victories over an extremely talented University of Vermont team.

The 14 straight buckets he had sunk from the line this year couldn't compare in importance. The next two would decide a game that had seen his squad fight back in the last seconds of regulation to force an extra period, and then fight back in the last seconds of overtime to force the final shots.

"All I wanted to do was make the first one," Ferry said later of the shot which tied things at 62. "I was a lot more relaxed on the second," he added, recalling the shot which gave Harvard its dramatic 63-62 win.

The come-from-behind victory in a game that saw the lead seesaw back and forth more often than U.S. foreign policy raised the Harvard record to 4-2 and marked the Crimson's fourth home win in as many tries. It also saw the cagers post furious rallies at the end of regulation and overtime, a habit that's become something of a trademark of this Harvard squad.

Timeout.

Isn't the Harvard men's basketball squad the one that's supposed to fold quicker under pressure than Joe Namath's knees?

Not when it's got a surehanded junior guard who sinks free throws by rote.

And certainly not when it's got one of the most aggressive sophomore guards around, one who's playing some of the finest ball of his life, and one who set up Ferry's heroics with a few of his own.

Enter Arne Duncan.

Holding On

After Vermont took a 32-31 halftime, lead, it held on until just 2-20 remained in regulation. Duncan's 16 ft. jumper from the right corner gave Harvard a 50-49 lead, the first Crimson lead since midway through the contest.

"We had a lot of reasons to give up." Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said afterwards.

Chief among them was Duncan's miscue on a layup with just over a minute left that would have tied the score at 52. His miss, though, and the Vermont rebound gave the Catamounts a chance to go up by four and virtually put the game out of reach.

"But we kept fighting back," McLaughlin continued. "Never folding under pressure."

Chiefly when, just after that Vermont rebound, Duncan came up with the play of the game, stealing the ball at midcourt and drawing a swarm of Vermont fouls.

His two pressure-packed free throws tied the score at 52 with just seconds left in regulation, and when Vermont proved unable to get a last shot off, Harvard had its first overtime of the year.

The departure of Vermont's sharpshooting Howard Hudson with five fouls early in the OT and Harvard's pinpoint field goal percentage (the Crimson shot .714 from the floor in the second half and extra period) kept the Crimson close; close enough, in fact, so that when Tom O'Shea missed a Vermont free throw with 18 seconds left, Harvard trailed only 62-61.

When Ferry drew a foul with just one second left, it set the stage for some last-second heroics.

For McLaughlin, the win over the talented Catamounts was sweet: "We finally got a really good win," he said. "We didn't play well in Thursday's win [over St. Anselm]. We were lucky to win that one."

And lucky to have a surehanded junior guard taking the free throws to win this one.

At Briggs Cage

HARVARD (63)--Plutnicki 2-3-7; Wildes 4-0-8; Carrabino 6-2-14; Ferry 7-2-16; Smith 0-1-1; Duncan 6-5-17; Farley 0-0-0; Totals 25-12-62.

VERMONT (62)--Simko 7-5-19; Brennen 0-1-2; Thompson 6-0-12; Hudson 1-5-7; Payne 3-2-8; O'Shea 6-0-12; Manchel 1-0-2; Day 0-0-0; DeWeaver 0-0-0; Totals 25-12-62.

Halftime: V. 32-31.