M. Hoops Upsets Dartmouth Again

The Harvard men's basketball team now officially has a bulls-eye on its chest.

When the Ivy League teams compete in conference games this weekend, all of them will be setting their sights on the first-place Crimson, which upset Dartmouth 48-43 on Saturday, thus giving themselves a two-game cushion atop the league standings.

In a game plagued by poor shooting on both sides, the Crimson (7-7 overall, 2-0 Ivy) outlasted the Big Green (4-8 overall, 0-2 Ivy), and became winners of back-to-back games for the first time since Nov. 27.

With the victory, the Crimson swept the season series with the Big Green, which had been picked to finish as high as second in some preseason Ivy League polls.

"No one expected this," said freshman point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman. "We're just trying to shock the world."

Neither team fared especially well shooting-wise. Harvard managed just 35.4 percent from the floor--a lackluster performance, but good enough for the win considering the Crimson held the Big Green to an even sicklier 31.4 percent.

"We weren't getting any fewer good looks than usual," said junior center Tim Coleman. "We just weren't shooting well."

Harvard captain Damian Long led all scorers with just 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting.

"It does a lot for our confidence to win on a day when we didn't even shoot the ball well," said Prasse-Freeman. "It really shows we had the will to win."

Dartmouth had gotten off to a quick 8-0 lead in the game's opening minutes. The Big Green even led 29-28 at halftime.

But with just 2:07 expired in the second half, Prasse-Freeman hit a trey to give the Crimson its first basket of the half and a 31-30 advantage. Harvard managed to hold the lead the rest of the way, as solid defense held Dartmouth to just 22.7 percent shooting and 14 total points in the second half.

Even when key players such as Coleman and freshman forward Sam Winter got into foul trouble in the second half, the Harvard bench provided steady support. Senior Ethan Altaratz and freshman Onnie Mayshak both came in as reserves and saw a fair number of minutes.

"Ethan and Onnie really stepped it up," Coleman said. "They hit a couple of big shots and played some great defense."

The telling statistic for Harvard was the less-than-impressive scoring line for Dartmouth center Shaun Gee. The 6'7 senior, who was named a first-team all Ivy selection one year ago, had just seven points and four rebounds before fouling out Saturday.

"You just always have to be aware of where he is," said Coleman. "We did a good job of swarming him whenever he got the ball."

The seven-point output was Gee's worst offensive performance since the first Harvard-Dartmouth meeting back on Dec. 15, when the Crimson also held him to seven points.

In addition to shutting down Gee, the Crimson flexed its muscles on the defensive boards. Though Harvard was outrebounded 40-32 in the game, it won the war in Dartmouth's end. The Crimson collected 27 defensive rebounds compared to just 8 offensive boards for the Big Green.

Prasse-Freeman and Long led the team in rebounds with career-high totals of nine and eight, respectively. All of Prasse-Freeman's boards were defensive rebounds, as were all but two of Long's.

"I give credit to our big guys for all of my rebounds," said the 6'3' Prasse-Freeman. "Those guys do all of the boxing out, and allow me to clean the glass."

The Crimson effectively defended against the three-point threat, a constant worry for teams playing against Dartmouth. The Big Green shot just 24 percent from beyond the arc, including a mere 1-of-10 in the last twenty minutes.

Dartmouth guard Greg Buth, who led the nation in three-point shooting percentage last year, was successful on only 1-of-7 trey attempts before fouling out.

Offensively, the Crimson received contributions from a host of players. In addition to Long's 11 points, junior center Tim Coleman chipped in with nine points, while Winter and Prasse-Freeman added eight apiece.

"We are just trying to do what works," said Prasse-Freeman. "It doesn't matter who scores the points. We take what we can get."

Regardless of how pretty it was, Saturday's victory has gotten Harvard's Ivy season off to as good a start as it could have hoped.

"It's always tough beating any team twice, but especially so in the Ivy League," Coleman said. "It's one of the hardest things to do."

From this point on, however, Harvard will not be able to sneak up on anyone anymore. All conference rivals, beginning with Yale this Friday night, will be gunning for the Crimson. Of Harvard's 13 remaining games, all but one of them are league contests.

To make things tougher, Harvard will remain on the road for the next three games. The Crimson does not return home until Feb. 4 when it plays Cornell.