M. Basketball Drops Tight Contest to Columbia

NEW YORK, N.Y.—Answer: A bounce, a call or a roll. Question: What did the Harvard men’s basketball team need Sunday afternoon during the last five seconds of regulation to complete an improbable 14-point comeback against Columbia and force the battle for second place in the Ivy League into overtime?

Instead, what it got was the dreaded “d) none of the above.”

Senior guards David Giovacchini and Kevin Rogus found only rim on back-to-back contested jump shots, junior forward Matt Stehle was called for a questionable foul during the ensuing scramble for the loose ball and Stehle’s last second alley-oop tip-in attempt refused to fall.

The result was a disappointing 57-55 defeat for the Crimson (7-10, 2-2 Ivy), the team’s third straight loss decided during the closing seconds of regulation or in overtime.

While Stehle mentioned that the Lions may have benefited from a “home-court advantage” in the game’s closing moments, he emphasized that the loss should have been avoided.

“It never should have come to that. We should have played better, so we can’t blame it on the refs,” Stehle said.

The Lions (12-5, 3-1) came out firing and almost put the game out of reach before the intermission.

Following a steal and dunk by senior captain Jason Norman that put Harvard up 8-4, the Lions roared ahead with a 25-5 run that spanned almost ten minutes. Fifteen of the 25 points came from beyond the arc, as the Crimson struggled to fight through screens get to open Columbia shooters.

Matt Preston, who currently ranks in the top five in the Ancient Eight in both scoring (15.0 points per game) and rebounding (7.3), paced the Lions with a double-double—19 points and 10 boards.

Sullivan described Preston as “one of the toughest covers in the [Ivy League and]...a unique guy, to say the least.”

Columbia coach Joe Jones lauded his leader after the game as well, saying that he would “be lucky to find another guy to work [as hard as Preston does].”

Preston’s layup with 7:52 remaining, which put Columbia up 53-40, proved to be the Lions’ last field goal of the game.

As the Lions went 0-for-5 with four turnovers down the stretch, the Crimson finally caught fire. Giovacchini had eight of his team-high 12 points and one of his team-high four assists during a 12-1 run that brought the Crimson to within one, but his team could never quite force the tie.

Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said he “couldn’t be more pleased with [his team’s] effort” in their first games back after a 17-day hiatus for final exams.

“Being away from competition certainly takes its toll,” Sullivan added.

Harvard’s inside game, usually a strength on the offensive end, was held at bay by an aggressive Lions defense.

Junior center Brian Cusworth grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds for the Crimson but struggled from the field. He followed a Matt Stehle miss with a remarkable one-handed dunk during the second half but failed to connect on his five other attempts from the field.

Frontcourt mate Matt Stehle picked up his third foul with 6:41 to play in the opening frame and struggled to season lows of nine points and two boards.

“Things weren’t going our way early on and we...just didn’t do a good enough job of fighting through it,” Stehle said.

Reserve guard Dalen Cuff came off the bench to record nine points on three of Columbia’s eight long distance baskets, while point guard Brett Loscalzo dished out a game-high seven helpers.

The Crimson appeared poised for a comeback earlier in the second half, when Kevin Rogus hit a three-pointer, came up with a steal that led to Cusworth’s dunk, and drew a charge on consecutive possessions.

The threat ended quickly when the Lions scored twice to push the lead back to 13.

Jason Norman had 10 points and four steals for Harvard before fouling out with 5:50 to play. Kevin Rogus attempted nine three-pointers and zero two-pointers to bring his ratio of long-range to short-range attempts to 106-23.

—Staff writer Gregory B. Michnikov can be reached at michnik@fas.harvard.edu.