Crimson Faces Tough Road Tilt

In college basketball, there can be little rest for the weary, as the Harvard men’s basketball team will soon find out.

Three days after a heart-breaking 81-76 double-overtime loss at home to Northeastern, the Crimson return to action tomorrow as it battles another tough non-conference foe in George Washington tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the nation’s capital.

Down by seven points in the final minutes of regulation to the Huskies, Harvard stunned the crowd by rallying to force overtime. Several clutch baskets by Northeastern denied the Crimson a thrilling win, but its spirited effort and resiliency is definitely something Harvard can build on.

“I think our team grew up a lot tonight,” said junior guard Jeremy Lin after the game, in which he led the team with 18 points. “We’re starting to realize what we can do as a team. But obviously there’s still a lot of work to do. There’s definitely a lot of positives from today, we’re just going to shake it off, use it as a learning experience, and get ready for GW.”

Its opponent tomorrow, the Colonials, are one of the highest-profile teams the Crimson will play all year. Playing in the Atlantic 10 Conference, three years ago George Washington went 26-2 during the regular season and won a thriller in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against UNC Wilmington before falling against Duke. The team returned to the Tournament again the next year, falling to Vanderbilt in the first round.

A year after missing out on postseason action altogether after posting a disappointing 9-17 record, the Colonials are off to a decent 3-2 start so far this season. In its last game however, it fared much like its namesake did against the British on Long Island in 1776, as George Washington was routed by Maryland, falling 76-53.

Rather than giving the Crimson hope with that result, the blowout has Harvard coach Tommy Amaker concerned about Colonial backlash against his team tomorrow.

“They’re coming off their worst performance and we’re their next game, so we’re going to get their completely best shot,” he said.

Getting over the draining loss Wednesday to get up for tomorrow’s game is a tough task, but one factor working in Harvard’s favor is the depth of the team. The Crimson has shown so far that it can play as many as ten different players throughout the game, with little drop-off from the starters to the reserves.

“We played 10 guys tonight and I anticipate we’re going to have to continue to use our bench, especially now, after double-overtime,” Amaker said after the Northeastern game. “[We have just] a couple days and travel and then we play a very quick and athletic George Washington team. So we’re going to need to use our bench as we did tonight.”

One player certain to see a lot of the court tomorrow is junior guard Jeremy Lin. The best player on the team, and perhaps in the Ivy League, Lin went a career-high 47 minutes against the Huskies before fouling out late in the second overtime.

The Colonials sport their own weapons both inside and out. Led by guards Noel Wilmore and Tony Taylor, and forwards Damien Hollis and Diggs, George Washington will be tough, and it will take strong efforts from both the Crimson frontcourt and backcourt to slow them down.

Joining Lin in combating the George Washington guards is senior guard Drew Housman, who had one of his best games of the season on Wednesday. Playing all of the final 17 minutes of the game, he hit two three-pointers in the final minute of regulation, including the game-tying shot with eight seconds left. Housman finished with 13 points in 37 minutes.

“We were right there, a couple baskets and we have a huge win, tons of momentum,” he said. “There’s definitely a few positives to take from it, we just have to make sure we don’t get too down on ourselves because we should have had it.”

—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.