Men Cagers Lost in a Big Green Haze

Pat Riley, the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, has a saying about basketball games and championships.

"No rebounds, no rings."

Friday night at Briggs Athletic Center, the Harvard men's basketball team proved the merit of that statement with a disappointing 74-69 loss to Dartmouth, snapping a three-game winning streak.

The Crimson (7-7 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) was out-rebounded by a margin of 57 to 34 in the contest, enabling the Big Green (8-4 overall, 1-2 Ivy League) to stay in the ballgame before pulling away in the final three minutes.

Two weekends ago, Harvard knocked off Penn and Princeton on back-to-back nights at Briggs.

"Basically, we got what we deserved," Harvard Coach Peter Roby said. "We were coming off the most successful weekend in thirty years, and did not accept the challenge that Dartmouth gave us."

The loss dropped the Crimson from its previous position alone on top of the Ivy League standings, but not out of first place altogether. Harvard now shares the top spot in the Ivies along with Yale and Cornell--all owners of 2-1 league records.

In addition to out-rebounding Harvard, the Big Green also attempted twice as many free throws, 39 to 19. As a result, Dartmouth was able to overcome a 57-52 deficit from the field and secure a five-point win.

Dartmouth's Bryan Randall led all scorers in the contest with 18 points, half of them coming from the foul line. Guard Len Bazelak also had a good night for the Big Green, putting in 17 points including three big three-pointers down the stretch.

Senior Arne Duncan was the high scorer for the Crimson, netting 16 points, all coming in the second half. Sophomore Mike Gielen finished second in scoring with 14 points, while senior Keith Webster was the only other Harvard player in double figures with 10 points.

Big Green center Kwaku Miller had the best game under the boards Friday. Miller finished with 17 rebounds, and his eight offensive boards were one more than the entire Harvard team had. Despite scoring only three points--none of them from the field--he also swatted down two Crimson shots to help the Dartmouth cause.

The Crimson, trailing at halftime, 29-26, outscored the Big Green by a 15-8 margin at the start of the second half to take a 41-37 lead with 16 minutes to play. Harvard held the edge until the 5:49 mark, when a Bazelak jumper gave Dartmouth a 58-57 advantage.

A driving shot by Duncan with 4:13 to play put the Crimson ahead again, 62-60, but a Bazelak three-pointer left the squad behind by one with 3:48 left.

Duncan again retaliated with a turnaround jumper at 3:08 to make it a 64-63 lead for the Crimson, but another Bazelak three-pointer only 16 seconds later gave the Big Green the lead for good, 66-64.

Harvard pulled to within one point at the 1:30 mark, 69-68, until John Bean sunk a turnaround jumper with less than a minute to play, forcing the Crimson to foul intentionally, which it did without success.

One of the game's highlights for both Harvard and the 1850 spectators at Briggs came with just under 10 minutes left in the game and the Crimson holding a four-point lead, 49-45. Following a questionable foul called on Keith Webster, Roby let go at referee Lou Filippetti with a tirade that continued into a timeout.

Finally, Roby was whistled for a technical foul, but by the other referee, Barry Spears, who was standing over 40 feet away, under the Dartmouth basket.

Following the timeout, while Randall stood at the line for a 1-and-1, the Harvard fans, shaken up by the technical call on Roby, went into a wild fenzy of whooping and yelling.

Visibly shaken, Randall missed.

Then Jim Barton, the nation's leading free throw shooter last year and now shooting almost 88 percent from the line, came up to attempt the two-shot technical.

Encouraged by Randall's miscue, the crowd yelled even louder.

Barton missed the first. Then he missed the second.

All to the delight of the Crimson faithful, who were hoping to see their team stay perfect in the Ivy League. But it was not to be.

Harvard came out at the start of the game showing very little intensity. Roby, sensing this, took out all of his starters within the first five minutes, looking for a spark from his bench.

He got that spark from junior Bill Mohler, who battled underneath the basket for six points within a three-minute span. By the time Mohler was replaced by David Lang with 7:53 left in the half, the Crimson had built up a 19-13 lead.

Harvard scored twice more for its biggest lead of the game, 22-13, with 7:10 remaining in the first stanza, but that was immediately followed by a 16-2 Dartmouth run that game them a 29-24 advantage at the 1:40 mark of the first half.

The Crimson was also plagued by its unusually sloppy play in the first half. Harvard finished with 13 turnovers.

Mohler finished with eight points and led the Crimson with seven rebounds. He also had two blocked shots before fouling out with 15 seconds to play.

Harvard is now in the middle of a 15-day break for finals, and will resume its Ivy League slate with a pair of home games, against Columbia on January 31 and Cornell on February 1.

"Every game we play from now on is important," Roby said. "This was the first time in my two years as head coach when I felt genuinely disappointed. We didn't play the way Harvard basketball has been played. We don't need to change anything, except for our mental approach."

The Notebook: The Crimson finished the game shooting 43 percent from the floor, coming back from a 29 percent mark at halftime...Both teams shot better from behind the three point line than in front of it.