M. Basketball Tames Great Danes

Junior center Tim Coleman notched his second double-double in as many games as the Harvard men's basketball team downed Albany 78-60 Wednesday night at Lavietes Pavilion in its final tune-up before the Ivy season kicks in gear.

Senior captain Damian Long also poured in 13 of his 16 points in the second half to continue his scoring prowess of late.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Crimson (6-7 overall, 1-0 Ivy), and stopped the team's 2-4 skid since losing junior forward Dan Clemente, an Albany native, to a season-ending eye injury.

"We showed a workman-like ethic tonight," Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. "We got out of the gate well and then did a good job getting to the line."

Harvard, which jumped out to an early 9-0 lead and led 33-25 at halftime, never trailed in the contest. Though Albany (3-10) staged a run in the second half and managed to trim the Crimson advantage to just five points, steady defense and solid rebounding by Harvard staved off the Albany attack.

Led by Coleman's game-high 12 boards, Harvard overpowered the Great Danes on the glass, 37-28. Albany was especially outplayed in its own end, as the Crimson grabbed 22 defensive rebounds, compared to just 10 offensive boards for the Great Danes. As a result, Albany managed merely four points off second-chance opportunities while the Crimson collected 25.

Harvard's dominance on the glass put increased pressure on the Albany offense to take good shots, but the Great Danes were already struggling in that department. The Harvard defense held them to just 30.4 percent shooting in the first half. In particular, the Crimson took away Albany's most potent offensive weapon, the three-point basket, holding them to just 27.8 percent.

"We were very concerned with the three-point shot," Harvard coach Frank

Sullivan said. "Defending it was our prime objective. We did a good job acknowledging screens and coming off them."

In the end, the Crimson beat the Great Danes at their own game. Harvard connected on 7-of-14 treys, while Albany hit just five all night, including only two in the second half.

The Great Danes had entered the contest ranked tenth in the country in three-point shots made per game (8.3).

"We compared them to Princeton," said Sullivan. "They came in shooting 24 threes per game--those are Princeton-type numbers."

Despite Albany's woes from behind the arc, twelve Crimson turnovers in the second half allowed the Great Danes to sneak back into the game.

Fumbled passes and poor decisions translated into twelve second-half points for Albany. With 13:31 remaining in the game, Harvard freshman forward Sam Winter committed his second turnover in as many possessions, leading to an easy lay-up by Albany forward Will Brand. The basket capped a 12-3 run by the Great Danes and narrowed the score to 45-40.

But that was the closest that Albany would come, as two consecutive clutch shots by freshman guard Brady Merchant put the Crimson back up by ten.

Those baskets, along with 10 points from Long in the final 3:18, put the game away.

One definite sign of encouragement for Coach Sullivan was the Crimson's improved free throw shooting, which helped Harvard put the game out of reach. In the last 12:25 of the second half, 13 of Harvard's final 22 points came from the charity stripe. On the night, the Crimson shot 21-of-27 from the line, significantly better than the 31-of-57 clip it had been shooting in its last three games.

Despite six turnovers, freshman guard Elliot Prasse-Freeman showed progress in several facets of his game on Wednesday night. In addition to dishing out 9 assists and scoring 7 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the foul line, Prasse-Freeman was also a catalyst on the defensive side of the ball, collecting seven defensive rebounds, two steals, and a block.

For Prasse-Freeman, who was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week last month, his nine assists against Albany give him 18 in his last two games and helped improve his average to 6.77 assists per game. That performance could also move him up from 19th place on the NCAA assists ladder.

Hardly a Vacation

Wednesday night's victory over Albany came on the heels of back-to-back losses in the Crimson's two games over the winter break. After defeating

Sacred Heart 96-83 at home on Dec. 21, Harvard was walloped 94-63 in South Florida on Dec. 29 and then fell 78-71 to Vermont on Jan. 2.

Against Vermont, Long's career-high 26 points and Coleman's first career double-double both went for naught as the Harvard defense was scorched by Catamounts' guard Tony Orciari, who lit up the Crimson for 30 points.

Orciari connected on 6-of-11 attempts from three-point land to lead

Vermont, which shot 58.8 percent as a team from behind the arc and 43.5 percent overall from the field.

In addition, despite 12 rebounds by Coleman and a career-high 7 from Long, the Crimson were beaten on the glass, 47-36.

For Harvard, sophomore guard Andrew Gellert gathered three steals. His total of 38 takeaways on the year ranks him as both the best on the team and 17th in the country in that category.

In the loss to South Florida on Dec. 29, the Crimson was unable to sustain an 11-point lead in the early-going, and two late South Florida surges in the first half, including a 16-2 run, pushed the Bulls ahead by 15 at halftime.

Harvard failed to recover, and after being outscored 47-31 in the second half, was handed its most lopsided defeat of the season.

Sophomore forward B.B. Waldon led the Bulls with 33 points. Winter paced the Crimson with 17.

The Crimson had fared much better versus Sacred Heart, against which it scored its highest point-total of the year. In the romp, Winter (23 points), Coleman (20 points), Merchant (9 points) and freshman center Onnie Mayshak (7 points) all either tied or topped previous career highs in scoring. In addition, Prasse-Freeman (14 assists) and Gellert (10 rebounds) also set personal bests.

Now Comes the Tricky Part

Now halfway through its schedule, the Crimson must turn its attention to defending its top spot in the Ivy League, a position that it attained by defeating Dartmouth, 76-49, back on Dec. 15. That game was the first and only conference game played so far this season.

Tomorrow, Harvard will be forced to put its unblemished 1-0 mark on the line as it travels to Dartmouth this Saturday for a rematch of last month's game in Cambridge.

The test for the Crimson against the Big Green will be whether or not it can once again stop senior center Shaun Gee. In the teams' first meeting, Harvard limited Gee, then the fifth-leading scorer in the nation, to just seven points.

Another weapon the Crimson will watch is Greg Buth, a 6'4 junior guard who led the nation in three-point shooting percentage last year.

Harvard will also need to continue to achieve balance in its offensive attack, like it did in its first go-around with the Big Green, when all five starters scored in double figures. While players such as Coleman and Long have emerged as scoring leaders of late, Harvard relies on different players on different nights.

"Whoever's open is open," Coleman said. "Anyone can score on this team."

Things undoubtedly get harder for the Crimson before they get easier, as

Harvard remains on the road after tomorrow for its next three games, and does not return home until Feb. 4 against Cornell. Next month, the Crimson also faces traditional Ivy powerhouses Penn and Princeton twice apiece.

But if Harvard can string together a series of strong efforts, it will stand in good position amid a talented field. Coleman says he likes the team's chances the rest of the way.

"All of these guys are really maturing, especially the young players," Coleman said. "We're learning how to play with one another; we're learning each other's moves. And it's not just one guy contributing. Everyone is helping out."