Men's Basketball Team Rolls, Beats Columbia in Thriller

"Look, We're not having an earthquake. We're not having a hurricane. There are people dying in Sarajevo. In this city, if you can't take a little inconvenience, move out."

So, according to the New York Times, spoke one hardy New Yorker after he was snowed in at Penn Station on Saturday Afternoon.

And the get-tough attitude apparently carried over to the Harvard men's basketball team (8-12 overall, 4-4 Ivy) on Sunday, when it won at Columbia (6-14 overall, 4-4 Ivy) in a thriller, 76-75.

In the context of college basketball, at least, this game served as a serious gut-check, and the Crimson passed with flying colors.

After trailing at halftime, 39-33, and falling behind by as many as nine points in the second half, Harvard came back on the strength of clutch play by several Crimson players.

First was James White. The junior guard, whose outside shooting has been coming on strong in recent games, dropped in nine points on Sunday, including a three-pointer with 11:58 left that gave the crimson its first lead of the afternoon, at 51-50.

After the lead changed hands twice in the next few minutes, Harvard pulled away for good when sophomore Mike Gilmore, who tallied 15 points for the contest, scored another three-pointer to give the team a 73-70 lead.

Columbia rallied one last time, but Harvard captain Tarik Campbell sealed the game with five seconds left when he collected his third steal of the game (to go along with eight points and a solid five assists), and dribbled out the clock.

Harvard needed this win badly.

After losing an 83-64 decision to last-place Cornell on Friday night, a win over Columbia seemed imperative if the tem wanted to stay in the thick of the Ivy League pack.

While Columbia was the unanimous pre-season choice for the Ancient Eight cellar, the Lions have done surprisingly well and still stand tied with the Crimson for third place in the League standings.

Esteemed Lions coach Jack Rohan watched on Sunday as Jamal Adams scored 17, C.J. Tompkins 15 and J.J. Waterer 10 to lead his team to a near victory.

Considering that star freshman Kyle Snowden sprained his ankle in practice on Thursday and was out for both games, Harvard's weekend split seems adequate, if not completely unfortunate.

Despite Snowden's absence, the inside game was solid on Sunday as sophomore Darren Rankin scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds, and freshman Chris Grancio responded to the emergency call with 13 points and two rebounds in 23 quality minutes.

Next up on Harvard's schedule is this weekend's homestand against League powerhouses Penn and Princeton.

Although Princeton was upset on Saturday by Brown, the Tigers defeated Yale yesterday afternoon and still rank an imposing second to the Quakers in league play.

In short, the Crimson will be hard pressed to win either contest.

But on Sunday, at least, the Harvard squad took the New York credo to heart, got though, and, though hard-pressed, garnered a win.