Two Wins a Must for M. Hoops

The Harvard men’s basketball team’s collective back is up against the wall this weekend, as it takes to the road for two must-win games against Columbia and Cornell.

Harvard’s margin for error would have been much greater but for a second-half meltdown last Saturday against Yale.

At halftime at Lavietes Pavilion, the Crimson (11-7, 4-2 Ivy League) appeared to be well on its way to taking a critical step toward mounting a challenge for the Ivy League title. The Crimson led the Elis 38-22 and, having beaten Brown the previous night, seemed a lock to take sole possession of second place.

Only three television timeouts later, however, everything had changed. The zone defense Yale implemented at halftime kept Harvard scoreless for a seven-minute stretch and held the Crimson to a mere six points over the first 12:37 of the second frame. The Elis jumped ahead 49-46 and never relinquished the lead en route to a 66-57 victory.

By the end of the night, the Crimson’s loss had dropped it into a third-place tie with Brown, behind Yale (5-1) and undefeated Princeton (4-0). Since the Tigers account for Harvard’s other Ivy loss, a third defeat this weekend against either the Lions or the Big Red would effectively eliminate the Crimson from title contention.

Last season, Harvard followed up a heart-wrenching home loss to Princeton at the buzzer by descending into a tailspin and losing four consecutive road games. With this weekend’s games to be followed by a trip to Penn and Princeton next weekend, this year’s Crimson is seeking to avoid a similar fate.

“We’ve put [the Yale loss] out of our minds and recommitted ourselves to winning,” junior guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman said. “The focus is off us, and we’re looking to do some damage.”

Indeed, anticipating facing a zone again sometime this weekend, Harvard spent the week devising offensive schemes to beat the troublesome defense.

Leading the Crimson offense will be junior guard Pat Harvey, whose 21 points and over-50 percent shooting from the field in each game last weekend earned him a spot on the Ivy League honor roll. Overall, Harvey has netted 20 or more points eight times this season, including five times in his last seven games. His 18.6 points-per-game are second only to Brown’s Earl Hunt in the Ancient Eight.

Defensively, as always, Harvard will look to captain Drew Gellert to shut down the opposing team’s top scorer. The Crimson’s career leader in steals currently leads the Ivies with 2.6 per game and has only failed to record a steal once in the past 72 contests.

The Lions (10-10, 3-3 Ivy), Harvard’s Friday night opponent, are coming off a stunning, 53-52 victory at Penn on Saturday. Throughout the season they have excelled at keeping their opponents from scoring, holding them to a league-low 40.1 percent shooting from the field. Harvard, whose opponents are firing at a 41.3 percent clip, is second.

On the offensive end, Columbia looks first to co-captain forward Craig Austin, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-American last season. The responsibility of guarding Austin will fall to Gellert. Of late, senior Joe Case has also emerged as a credible second option. The forward, who joined Harvey on the Ivy honor roll, had 19 points in Columbia’s 54-42 victory over Cornell two weeks ago and sank the game-winning free throws against Penn.

History is on the Crimson’s side against the Lions—Harvard has captured every contest on a Friday night between the schools since the 1992-3 campaign—but the location isn’t. Columbia is 5-0 at Levien Gym this winter.

Saturday night, the Crimson must avoid overlooking perennial cellar-dweller Cornell (3-16, 0-6 Ivy), whom Harvard has beaten in the last four meetings.

“At this point, there’s so much parity in the league that you can’t look past anybody. Anybody has the opportunity to beat anybody else,” Prasse-Freeman said.

The Big Red feature senior guard Wallace Prather, who earned a spot on the Ivy League honor roll with his career-high 28 points and five steals in Friday’s 75-63 loss at Penn.

This weekend’s contests will go a long way towards determining the Crimson’s chances for an Ivy League title. With two wins, Harvard will keep itself squarely in the mix and poised to capitalize on any slip-up by the Tigers. Anything less, though, will leave the Crimson too far down in the standings to do anything but watch and hope for a miracle.