Harvard Outguns Sacred Heart

After hitting everything in sight from the field all evening, the Harvard men’s basketball team caught fire from the charity stripe at just the right moment.

Senior guards Kevin Rogus and David Giovacchini combined with junior forward Zach Martin and sophomore center Brian Cusworth to hit 7-of-8 free-throw attempts in the span of a minute to fend off Sacred Heart 97-84 at Lavietes Pavilion last night.

“This was a great boost of confidence,” Cusworth said. “Although it’s tough to carry momentum over a three-week [break], it will definitely carry over into practice.”

For Cusworth, the two free throws were part of a career-high 21-point performance and his nine field goals tied a career high.

“He did an outstanding job tonight,” Sullivan said.

All five starters for the Crimson Harvard (6-9, 1-1 Ivy) reached double figures in scoring for only the second time this season.

A 7-1 run by the Pioneers (1-11, 0-3 Northeast) that culminated in a layup by forward Mike Queenan with just 2:23 remaining allowed Sacred Heart to close to within single digits for the first time since the 15:31 mark of the first half. But the free-throw barrage by the Crimson put the Pioneers down 14 just over a minute later.

“They’re a team that lives off of scoring runs,” Cusworth said. “The goal was to keep the game at our tempo, although there were a couple of times that it slipped away from us and they got to revert to their original [fast-paced] style.”

After Giovacchini hit a jumper to put the Crimson ahead 77-58 with 8:42 remaining, Harvard hit just two field goals the rest of the way, but hit 16 free throws during that span.

Sacred Heart started chipping away at the lead out of the halftime break, pulling to within 11 just over two minutes into the period. But Harvard responded once again, as Cusworth hit the Crimson’s next three baskets to spark a 15-3 run that gave the squad a 23-point lead—its largest of the night—71-48.

The Crimson stumbled heading into the intermission as the Pioneers scored three straight baskets including a breakaway dunk to cut the deficit to 13. Goffredo hit one of his two free-throw attempts with just 3.6 seconds remaining in the half to give Harvard a 52-38 lead at the break.

The 52-point explosion came on 20-for-27 (74.1 percent) shooting from the field with the Crimson nailing eight of its 14 attempts from behind the arc.

“I had a couple teams [shoot 74 percent in a half] at Bentley, but not at Harvard,” Sullivan said. “It was unusual, to say the least, and the biggest concern was to let everyone know at halftime that it was fool’s gold and that to win the game we still had to rebound and stop them off the dribble.”

Captain Jason Norman brought the crowd to its feet early in the first half, picking off a Sacred Heart pass and taking it the other way for a two-handed jam. Norman had a career-high five steals on the night to go along with a season-high 14 points.

A three-pointer by Jim Goffredo with 11:11 remaining in the first half gave Harvard its biggest lead of the night 32-13. The Pioneers immediately responded with a 12-4 run to cut the lead to 11, but Rogus stepped up for the Crimson, hitting two trifectas and nailing a jumper in the lane to push Harvard back to 20, 46-26.

The Crimson offense charged out of the gate as each of the five starters connected from the field to open the game with a 16-5 run.

The inside-outside passing game was crisp, as two smooth feeds set up a couple early baskets for Cusworth and three-pointers by Giovacchini and Rogus kept Sacred Heart from collapsing on the interior. Rogus added three more trifectas to increase his total to four by halftime.

“The ball moved pretty well and we found Kevin on a couple extra [passes],” Sullivan said. “He was finding his spots and [the Pioneers] weren’t aware of where he was on the floor at key points.”

The strong passing effort helped Harvard record 20 assists on the night as junior forward Matt Stehle recorded a career-high six and Giovacchini chipped in with five.

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