M. Hoops Continues Slide With Loss At Lehigh

New game, same old story.

The Harvard men’s basketball team once again spotted an opponent a large lead—thanks to defensive lapses and foul trouble—only nearly to reel it back in before falling short in the end.

This time, Lehigh was the opponent, 12 was the early second-half deficit and one point was as close as the Crimson got before the Mountain Hawks pulled away to an 88-79 victory at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa. Saturday night.

The loss was the fifth in a row to open the season for Harvard (0-5), leaving the Crimson as one of just 15 remaining winless Division I teams. It is the team’s worst start since 1991-92, when Harvard dropped its first 11 to begin the season.

Freshman Jose Olivero paced Lehigh (3-3) with 24 points, making Olivero the latest guard to create havoc against the Harvard defense. Despite shooting just 28.9 percent off the bench before Saturday, Olivero torched the Crimson beyond the arc and at the charity stripe, hitting 3-of-5 three-pointers and making 9-of-10 free throws.

Harvard sophomore forward Matt Stehle, who all but guaranteed a win against Lehigh after Tuesday’s loss to Maine, led the Crimson with 17 points on 5-8 shooting. Junior guard David Giovacchini chipped in 14 points, while sophomore point guard Michael Beal added 6 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds.

Junior guard Kevin Rogus, Harvard’s leading scorer, was held to 10 points on 3-12 shooting thanks to a relentless Lehigh defense that, he said, “tried not to let me get the ball at all.”

“It was frustrating,” Rogus said. “They...had good help defense, so that every time we drove the lane, there were at least two people there.”

Lehigh led by just four at halftime, but came out of the locker room red hot in building a 55-43 advantage.

Harvard fought back, eventually scoring nine in a row to cut the deficit to 62-61.

But that was as close as it got. Lehigh guard Austen Rowland—the team’s leading scorer this year at 13.3 points per game—answered the Crimson, hitting a layup to help the Mountain Hawks pull away.

All in all, the Crimson offense performed well. Before Saturday night’s game, Lehigh had hounded opposing offenses to the tune of 61.4 points per game allowed. The only other team that had scored more than 70 points against Lehigh this season was Associated Press No. 3 University of Connecticut, which beat the Mountain Hawks 75-55 on Dec. 1.

All 10 Harvard players who saw action made a field goal, and the team shot .471 from the field overall. The 79 points represented Harvard’s highest output of the season.

But in the end, it was inconsistency and a lack of defensive execution that doomed the winless Crimson yet again.

“We played poorly for...couple-minute spurts and those runs were just too much to overcome,” Rogus said. “We really have to find a way to play well for the entire 40-minute game.”

Harvard also ran into foul trouble as Stehle and junior forward Graham Beatty fouled out and the Crimson was once again at the mercy of its opponent’s foul shooting. Lehigh made 34 of an improbable 50 free throws.

“No team is going to win when your opponent shoots 50 free throws,” Stehle said. “Of course we’re disappointed about the 0-5 start because we’ve had a chance to win at the end of every game. As a team we feel...that we beat ourselves.”

The Crimson is on the road again on Tuesday, when it takes on Boston University at 7 p.m.