Bad Breaks, Poor Shooting: M. Hoops Doesn't Even Come Close to BC Eagles

CHESTNUT HILL--After three and a half minutes of Saturday's game here against Boston College, Harvard men's basketball coach Frank Sullivan had to be thinking only one thing.

Oh lordy.

By the time Sullivan and his troops could call their first timeout, the score was 14-0, BC. And that was only the beginning.

An afternoon of bad breaks, poor shooting and excellent BC play combined to send the Crimson down in defeat, 96-57. Call it the massacre at Conte Forum.

"For an opening game on the road, it was a worst case scenario," Sullivan said. "We couldn't score points, and we couldn't stop them."

The first half seemed to stretch on endlessly for Harvard. After Captain Tyler Rullman finally put the Crimson on the board with a 14-foot turnaround, BC went on another 18-0 run to make the score 32-2.

One Harvard fan at courtside was heard muttering, "Game, set and match, BC."

Coming into the contest, the Crimson knew that it would have to shut down the Eagles' potent three-guard rotation and junior power forward Bill Curley. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen.

BC's man-to-man defense stifled almost all the motion in Harvard's offense, and the Eagles simply seemed quicker with the ball.

The Eagles junior backcourt trio of Malcolm Huckaby, Gerrod Abrams and Howard Eisley repeatedly penetrated the Harvard offense, either dishing off for wide-open jump shots or keeping the ball for easy layups.

"We just wanted to get out quickly, and we weren't really thinking about getting such a big lead," Huckaby said. "It just happened that things went right for us and wrong for [Harvard]."

Curley and sophomore center Kevin Hrobowski dominated the rebounding early, and the rare BC misses often led to quick putbacks by the Eagle big men.

"Teams are coming out looking to attack us, and we have to get that attitude ourselves," Harvard point guard Tarik Campbell said. "We need to come out ready to play, because it's hard to come back so far."

Mercifully, the first half finally ended with the score 58-14, BC.

What was left to say? With the Eagles up by 44 points, the Crimson was clearly headed for its second loss of the young season.

"At halftime we just talked about playing it possession by possession, and about showing some heart in the second half," Sullivan said.

If any bright spots could be seen in the loss, it would indeed be the second half.

The Crimson seemed to come out a different team after the break. Two quick shots inside by sophomore off guard James White started the attack, and Harvard played BC even for much of the second stanza.

Senior power forward Eric Carter and sophomore Paul Kubiak started playing tougher defense inside, and Harvard generally seemed more active on both sides of the ball.

Unfortunately, it was a case of too little, too late. Even after an 11-2 run to close the game, Harvard finished with its worst loss in recent memory.

"I'm confident that this is not a fluke for [BC]," Sullivan said. "The three guards and Curley are incredible."

While BC may well be playing in the NCAA tournament in March, Harvard has to be concerned at this point with getting its season back on track.

The next three games are at home against Babson, Fairfield and Lehigh, and the Crimson should win all three.

"We can't get embarrassed again," Campbell said. "The next couple games are totally winnable, and that's what we're focusing on now."