Backcourt Misses Beal's Athleticism

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—It was all going so well.

Harvard was holding Yale at bay. The Crimson would pull ahead by a couple, the Bulldogs would draw back even, but they could never take the lead.

Harvard was weathering the storm and staying afloat even with sophomore starting point guard Michael Beal sidelined by a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

Junior David Giovacchini—coming off tying his career high with 14 points in an 81-78 win over Cornell last Saturday—was performing well in Beal’s stead. In fact, he was more than holding his own running the point, with eight points, three rebounds, an assist and two steals nine minutes into the game. He’d even overcome an early air-balled three pointer that elicited the predictable response from the Yale faithful by draining a baseline jumper from the left side less than 1:30 later to silence the crowd.

There was just one nagging little issue: The Bulldogs—on the strength of their backcourt—were staying in the game. The Crimson took a four-point lead at 11-7 on a Giovacchini layup 4:50 into the contest, but Yale guard Edwin Draughan responded with five consecutive points to keep his team within one.

All Harvard needed was a couple of threes to open things up. Get junior shooting guard Kevin Rogus uncorked, watch Yale self-destruct and head out to Providence.

Rogus must have sensed the opportunity, but he was being hounded by the oversized Bulldog backcourt—both 6’6 Draughan and Casey Hughes have long arms that allow them to play significantly bigger, while Scott Gaffield is just as tall—and couldn’t get a clean look at the hoop. Still, he took threes on three straight Crimson possessions—his only three shots of the half.

None of them fell. Then, the wheels fell off.

Draughan hit a three to give Yale its first lead of the game—one it would never relinquish.

It only got worse.

Without Beal, Harvard didn’t have the size on the perimeter to counter the Bulldogs. Hughes checked in, and the Crimson responded by moving the 6’1 Giovacchini over to defend Draughan so junior captain Jason Norman would be free to guard Hughes. But Hughes scored seven straight for the Bulldogs on a three, a layup after he stole the ball from Norman and a two-handed dunk after a Giovacchini turnover. Draughan made it a 13-5 run with a jumper with 6’1 freshman guard Jim Goffredo guarding him.

Draughan—who scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half of Harvard’s 78-71 win over Yale Feb. 14—had 12 first-half points on 5-6 shooting, including a 2-2 performance from three-point range.

“I talked to him before the game started,” Yale coach James Jones said. “I told him, ‘Don’t wait for the second half to play.’ You can’t wait for the second half to be a player, and if that’s what I have to do to make him play like the best player on the floor, well, that’s what you have to do.”

Hughes added seven points before the break.

“We had trouble with him and Edwin all night long, their athleticism,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said.

“They’re a good combination,” Jones said. “They bring a lot of energy to the floor, especially defensively and getting in lanes.”

Harvard—which had committed just two turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes—turned the ball over 11 times over the next nine, leading to 13 points.

“They were without their point guard and their offense struggled a little bit and we were able to get out in transition and get some easy baskets,” Jones said.

Giovacchini committed his only five turnovers of the night in just 4:40 and didn’t record a point, rebound, assist or steal in the last 11:13 before halftime—a far cry from how he opened the game.

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.