Cagers Bounce Back from 19 Down, Quickly Overtake Bruins, 76-72

The predictably unpredictable Harvard men's basketball team did it again Saturday night, defying the odds and the oddsmakers to down Borwn, 76-72, after trailing by as much as 19 points in the second half.

Down 62-44 with just under 12 minutes remaining, the cagers staged a rally that soon brought the Briggs Athletic Center crowd of 800 back into the contest. The Crimson strung together eight unanswered points to come within range of the fleet-footed Bruins.

After Brown nabbed a couple of buckets. Harvard put on the freeze. For the next five minutes the Harvard defense put a lid on the Brown net. Brown's spread offense, the only formation it had employed since the 10-minute mark, never really clicked. Meanwhile, the cagers went to the races, capitalizing on Bruin turnovers to break by the quicker Brown team.

From 13 minutes into the half until less than two minutes remained. Harvard netted 15 tallies while the Bruin scoring machine remained inoperative.

Co-Captain Calvin Dixon led the Crimson chase, speeding up the tempo of the Harvard offense with spin shots from inside the key, underhand scoop layins and jump shots off the dribble. Dixon hit a team-high 19 points on the night, leading an offense that had sputtered in the first period of play to a 47-point stanza and its first Ivy win since the Dartmouth game in early January.

The senior point guard's duty didn't end until the final buzzer sounded, as fate called for him to attempt two pairs of last-minute free throws. The Philadelphia native calmly sank all four to preserve the cagers' come-from-behind triumph.

I don't believe in pressure. Dixon said after the game. "I just told myself I had to make these shots."

Dixon's contribution came not only in his seven buckets and two assists. Dixon believes it is his responsibility to motivate his teammates, and a few words he said to center Monroe Trout early in the second half helped turn the game around. Dixon assured Trout that the ball would come into to him, and that's all Trout needed to hear.

"When I know it's coming in there it makes me post up harder," the 6-ft. 10-in. Trout said At one juncture in the second half the big man netted seven consecutive Harvard points With Dixon feeding him down low. Trout attacked the basket with uncharacteristic ferocity.

"That was part of the game plan," Dixon said. "I knew they couldn't stop him inside," Dixon said.

While the Bruins couldn't stop Trout inside, it seems nobody can stop freshman guard David Bernard from outside. The Southern Californian set his second career high of the weekend, eclipsing his 12-point showing Friday against Yale with 15 points Saturday night. Also contributing to the Harvard cause was Bob Ferry who hit five for nine from the floor.