Young M. Hoops Squad Struggles Through Difficult Season

After Harvard’s final game of the season against Penn, Quaker coach Fran Dunphy explained that for a young team like the Crimson, one bounce can change the course of a season. Sadly, it wasn’t just one, but many bounces that failed to go the Crimson’s way.

Midway through the first half of Harvard’s final game of the season, Crimson junior captain Jason Norman stole an errant Penn pass, bolted down the court, and went up for a routine two-handed dunk.

The ball hit the back iron and ricocheted out. The Quakers proceeded to go on an 8-1 run.

After Princeton tied the game at 42 with just 23 seconds remaining, it appeared that Harvard would have one last chance to defeat the Ivy-leading Tigers on the road in regulation. Sophomore forward Matt Stehle promptly inbounded the ball to sophomore guard Michael Beal.

Beal was looking toward the bench. The ball hit him, bounced back to Stehle who was still out-of-bounds, and gave Princeton the possession underneath the Crimson basket with a chance to win.

In the second meeting with the Tigers, Harvard had 10 chances from the charity stripe over the final 10 minutes of the tight contest.

The Crimson hit just four, squandering a seven-minute stretch during which Princeton hit just two field goals. The Tigers were able to hang around and pushed ahead of Harvard on a three-pointer by guard Scott Greenman.

“[Free-throw shooting] certainly hurt us,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “I think we needed some free-throw shooting tonight certainly. For being a good free-throw shooting team, it was one of our poorer [games].”

Combine that with the lack of consistent shooting, a consistently poor assist-to-turnover ratio, and constant foul trouble. Throw in the loss of an All-Ivy caliber center to a season-ending foot injury, and the end result is a disappointing 4-23 record and a 3-11 mark in Ivy play.

The Crimson appeared to be on the verge of grabbing a win in its first contest of the season against Fairfield. Harvard trailed by 11 points in the first half, but stormed back to take a 49-43 lead with 8:29 left in the second half. The Stags outscored the Crimson 22-11 over the remainder of the contest to seal the 65-60 win. Harvard hung around in each of the next four games, but its opponents pulled away in all four.

Then the Crimson hit rock bottom.

After leading Boston University 12-7 early in the first half, the Terriers went on a 37-5 run to close out the half. BU led by as many as 49 during the contest, before coasting to an 86-42 victory.

“We personally were dealing with a lethal combination: can’t score, can’t guard and can’t play at the line of scrimmage,” Sullivan said after the loss to BU.

At 0-9, the Crimson appeared to have its first win in its sights, as junior center Graham Beatty put Harvard up 84-82 over Rider with 28 seconds remaining. But Rider guard Robert Taylor converted a tough driving layup to force an overtime period which the Broncs would dominate.

After getting shellacked by Stanford, the Crimson sat on a 0-11 record, tied for the worst start in school history.

Harvard had one last shot to get a win, against San Jose State, before the Ivy season started. Despite committing 25 turnovers and shooting a dismal 3-15 from three, the Crimson managed to hold off the Spartans for a 58-53 win.

But the win was not enough to break Harvard out of its late-game woes. The Crimson held double-digit leads in each of its first four Ivy contests, but only managed to win one.

Sandwiched between the blowouts at the hands of Penn and Brown was the Princeton game, one which the Crimson led by six late in the second half, only to watch the Tigers slowly whittle away at the advantage and force overtime.

Heading into the matchup with Yale, Harvard had been in a position to win five of its seven Ivy contests, but had just one victory to show for it.

But against the Bulldogs, the Crimson didn’t crack down the stretch. Six threes by junior guard Kevin Rogus kept Harvard alive in the waning minutes, and a crucial block by Beal iced the game. With the loss, Yale’s hopes of competing for an Ivy title were dashed. The Crimson would down Cornell in the same manner one week later, ending the Big Red’s title hopes as well.

“[Beating Cornell] was a terrific win based on playing the toughest team, on the road, on the toughest weekend of the year,” Sullivan said.

Harvard went on to drop the final four games of the season, with only the loss to Princeton coming by less than double digits. The final game against Penn provided a high note, as Rogus set the single-season three-point record with 74 conversions.

Unlike last year, this squad will remain fully intact heading into next year. The Crimson will also regain the services of Cusworth, who will be returning to school in the fall. And if the luck returns to Lavietes Pavilion, maybe a few of the bounces will go to the Harvard side as well.

Before the final matchup with the Killer P’s, Norman said, “We’ve been coming together as a team all season and now we want to send a message to the Ivy League.”

Next year, the Crimson will get that chance.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.