Harvard Endures Second Straight Blowout

DALLAS—The road trip to SMU was Harvard’s longest jaunt of the 2005-2006 season, and the 40 minutes on the hardwood were even more of an eternity last night for the Crimson.

The Mustangs built a 31-point first half lead on torrid outside shooting and dominant post play en route to a 76-55 win, out-muscling and out-hustling a Harvard team just six days removed from a lopsided 89-55 loss at No. 14 Boston College.

“In terms of the placement of the game, we made a concerted effort to give the team the two biggest challenges of the year right before going into the Ivy schedule,” said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. “We did back to back, Boston College...with this game and we wanted to see where we were.”

For most of the first half against SMU, the Crimson (8-5) was exactly where it shouldn’t have been: out of position on the defensive glass and too far from the perimeter to defend against SMU’s arsenal of outside shooters. The Mustangs (6-4) sank 7-of-11 first half three-pointers, including a pair of back-to-back treys from guard Dez Willingham to give SMU a 48-21 advantage with 0:40 remaining in the opening frame.

While the Mustangs showcased their athleticism with a bevy of alley-oops, finger rolls, and dunks, the Crimson played dead for the majority of the first half. Harvard was just 6-of-24 from the floor in the opening half and went 9:56 without a field goal—a stretch during which a 12-8 SMU lead swelled to a 40-9 advantage for the hosts. An electrifying alley-oop pass from Bryan Hopkins to forward Derrick Roberts with 7:18 to go punctuated the run.

“We were all very, very, discouraged by the early transitions in the game,” Sullivan said. “We couldn’t make shots, [and] the biggest thing that compounded it even more was that we couldn't get defensive rebounds. They were dominating on the offensive boards.”

The Mustangs amassed seven offensive rebounds to just four defensive boards for Harvard in the first half, netting 16 second chance points and bullying the Crimson’s smaller frontcourt.

Only junior guard Jim Goffredo’s two three-pointers late in the first half kept the game within 30 points. Captain and leading scorer Matt Stehle collected three fouls in the game’s first 15 minutes and did not attempt a shot in the opening frame.

“Each time we go through this cycle [with games over Christmas break],” Sullivan said. “We go home, we meet at a site, we practice for two days, and there’s always rough sledding in the first half of the game.”

The Crimson looked calmer and more poised in the second half, as Stehle asserted himself on the offensive glass and Harvard attacked the basket with much more consistency. Freshman Evan Harris put up 10 hard-fought points against a bruising SMU frontcourt and Stehle earned six of his team-high nine rebounds on the offensive end.

But Harvard could never quite match SMU’s speed and athleticism, a mismatch compounded by the Crimson’s inability to hit from beyond the arc. Harvard shot just 1-of-11 from the three-point line in the second half and was just 30.4 percent from the floor on the game, while SMU finished with a 52.7 percent clip from the field.

“We understand that there's some reservoir of resiliency on our team,” Sullivan said. “But at the end of the day, no matter who you play, if they shoot 53 percent, we’re not going to hang around.”

The Crimson will take the next week and a half to prepare for the Ivy schedule, which begins with a home contest against Dartmouth on Jan. 7.

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.