M. Basketball Halts Brown's Runs

The waves kept coming, but the Harvard men’s basketball team had an answer for each Brown run in the Crimson’s 80-68 win at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday night.

Leading 39-26 with 18:09 left in the game, Harvard (12-13, 7-5 Ivy) watched as the Bears ran off a 13-2 run to pull within two, 41-39. But junior center Brian Cusworth hit a jumper and junior forward Matt Stehle finished a layup to give the Crimson back a six-point lead.

The two buckets kicked off a 19-9 spurt over the next eight minutes, putting the Crimson back up 12 with 8:05 to play.

Brown (10-15, 3-8) went to work on chipping away at that advantage, as Bears guard Jason Forte knocked down a pair of free throws and forward Luke Ruscoe hit a three.

Harvard senior guard Kevin Rogus matched the Brown mini-run by nailing two free throws and draining a three—his third of the night.

Forte, who finished with a game-high 23 points, got the Bears back within seven with a driving layup and a three-point play.

“Forte can take over any game, and he almost did it tonight,” Sullivan said. “He might be the toughest cover in the league off the dribble.”

After a few defensive stops, the Crimson finally found its way to the line, as Stehle and Cusworth combined to hit four consecutive free-throws to push the lead back to double-digits.

“We had good poise against the pressure,” Sullivan said. “The team continues to believe that not only can it win any game, but that it can get back in any game and withstand any trials that happen during the game.”

A final desperate rally allowed the Bears to pull within five, 72-67, with 1:27 to play. But Stehle found his way to the line once again hitting his eighth and ninth free throws of the night, and Cusworth put the exclamation point on the game with a thunderous dunk on the following possession to seal the victory.

ALMOST COMPLETELY FREE

Harvard made its way to the free-throw line 30 times Saturday night and converted 27 of those opportunities—a season high.

Stehle led the Crimson with 10 attempts, hitting nine, while Cusworth went 5-for-5 from the stripe and junior guard Michael Beal hit 5-of-6.

“We were fortunate that we got to the free-throw line, and that we made our free throws,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “I don’t know the last time that we...got 90 percent from the line.”

The Bears matched Harvard’s strong effort from the free throw line, connecting on 20 of its 23 attempts. Brown was led by forward Sam Manhanga, who came in hitting just 56 percent of his attempts on the season, but went a perfect 8-for-8 on the night. Forte also nailed eight on nine attempts—the ninth time this season he’s converted eight or more opportunities from the stripe.

I NEED ASSISTANCE

The Crimson has logged an assist-to-turnover ratio above one in each of the past three games, after accomplishing the feat just four times in its first 22 contests.

The most impressive performance of the season came Friday night against Yale. Harvard racked up 23 assists on the contest, while committing just 11 turnovers.

“It was one of our better [assist-to-turnover ratios],” Sullivan said. “I was reluctant to talk about it because I didn’t want to jinx the whole thing, and I’m reluctant to talk about it with the players as well.”

The Crimson just managed to keep the streak going Saturday night, posting 15 assists to 14 turnovers.

In the seven games in which Harvard has managed to post an assist-to-turnover ratio above one, the squad is 6-1 with its only loss coming at home against Cornell on Feb. 19.

THREE-POINT PLAY

The weekend Ivy sweep was the Crimson’s first since 2002, when it defeated Cornell and Columbia at home. The last time Harvard swept a weekend by winning both games by double-digits came against Brown and Yale in 1999...With the wins, the Crimson remains in a three-way tie for second place with Cornell and Dartmouth. Harvard would need to win just one of its final two league games to guarantee a winning Ivy record for the first time in eight seasons and would need to take both in order to claim its first winning season overall since 2002...The last time the Crimson scored 80 or more points in two consecutive games came in 2003, when the Harvard put up exactly 82 and 80 against Yale and Brown, respectively, in two home losses to end the season.

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