Men's Basketball Downs Dartmouth 60-56 for Second Straight Ivy Win

Hanover, NH--In its first meeting with Dartmouth earlier this season, the Harvard men's basketball team capitalized on the strong play of junior guard Drew Gellert and the last-minute heroics of sophomore guard Pat Harvey to narrowly escape with a 79-78 win in Cambridge.

Last Saturday, before the television cameras of WMUR and the 1,500 spectators at Leede Arena, the Crimson (7-5, 2-0 Ivy) again benefited from the resilient play of Gellert and Harvey to edge Dartmouth (2-9, 0-2) with a dramatic 60-56 win.

The victory was Harvard's second Ivy win and it marked the fourth straight win against Dartmouth. This is the second straight season that the Crimson has swept its games versus the Big Green en route to 2-0 starts in Ivy play.

Despite its recent success against Dartmouth, Harvard came dangerously close to posting its first back-to-back loses of the season.

After a sloppy first half that ended 29-26 in the Crimson's favor, the Big Green came alive in the first minutes of the second stanza and rode the crowd momentum to take a 44-37 lead with 10 minutes left in the game.

Fueled by three-pointers from captain Dan Clemente and sophomore point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman, Harvard rattled off 15 unanswered points over the next six minutes to regain the lead and the momentum in the game.

Not to be denied in front of its home crowd, Dartmouth clawed back with three long-range three-pointers by junior forward Mark Kissling.

"I commend Kissling for throwing in some incredible shots down the stretch," said Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "Some of those were like radar shots."

Kissling was six-for-nine with his three-point shots and finished the afternoon with a team-high 19 points.

With 30 seconds left to play, Harvard led 55-53 and faced a precarious inbounds pass. Sensing a chance to get a steal and tie up the game, the Big Green played the Crimson in a tight man press deep in its own end of the court.

Harvard was prepared to counteract this strategy, though, as Clemente launched a long pass court immediately as Gellert sprinted down the court. The "touchdown" pass hit Gellert in stride and the junior guard converted the easy lay-up for a 57-53 lead.

"Drew's hands are so good that he's the guy you want to throw to if you go long," Sullivan said. "He set the state record in Connecticut for interceptions as a football player. He's had hands his whole life."

Gellert, whose hands also make him one of the nation's premier pickpockets, also had a steal to continue his impressive streak of 40 games with a steal. He finished with seven points and three assists.

After Gellert's full-court play, the Crimson turned to Harvey to seal the game as the Big Green resorted to fouling on every possession. The sophomore guard, who finished with a game-high 21 points, hit three of his last four free throws to secure the win.

Harvey, who is now 39-of-45 from the line, came into the game leading the nation in free throw accuracy. Harvey also iced the Crimson's first win over Dartmouth with two free throws after his miraculous steal of an inbounds pass.

In addition to the Crimson's second half 15-0 run, Harvard held Dartmouth without a field goal for the first eight minutes of the first half. Harvard's tenacious defense induced both Dartmouth dry spells and set the tone for the low-scoring affair. During both ineffectual spans for Dartmouth, the Crimson offense capitalized on the Big Green miscues and generated crucial points.

"Those two segments of the game were really momentum-builders and were really effective," Sullivan said.

Another important element for Harvard's success was containing Dartmouth co-captain Greg Buth. The senior guard is the team's leading scorer and came into the game averaging 18.5 points. Harvard's dominant defensive performance limited Buth to five points.

Normally a reliable three-point shooter who finished his sophomore season leading the nation in three-point accuracy, Buth went 0-for-six from beyond the arc. In the first meeting between the two teams this season, Buth hit four three-pointers en route to a 24-point performance.

"We were able to keep Buth in check all day long and that was absolutely huge for us," Sullivan said. "As a team, we had a better sense of how important it was to get pressure on him."

With last weekend's win at Dartmouth, Harvard finished a long road trip that included losses at Georgia Tech and Navy and a win at Mercer. The Crimson now returns to the cozy confines of Lavietes Pavilion for the remainder of January. The four-game homestand will begin tomorrow night against New Hampshire and will include Ivy rivals Yale and Brown this weekend.