Harvard Pushes Penn to Brink, Loses

PHILADELPHIA—It took six threes, but Ibrahim Jaaber’s final shot from the field finally buried the Harvard men’s basketball team.

Freshman point guard Drew Housman scooted past the Penn defense for a layup to give the Crimson (12-13, 4-8 Ivy) its second lead of the overtime period, but Jaaber’s three triggered a 10-2 run that pushed the Quakers (10-14, 8-3) to a 74-71 victory at The Palestra Friday night.

“I thought it was a tremendous Ivy League basketball game that represented the highest form of [league] play,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “For us, it’s still a loss though.”

Harvard captain Matt Stehle kicked off the scoring in the extra period with a scoop shot in the paint. With 1:51 left, Penn forward Mark Zoller drained two free throws to put the Quakers up three, but Crimson senior center Brian Cusworth answered with an offensive board and put back to pull Harvard back within one.

“I feel like we’re in a position where everyone wants to beat us,” Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. “In all honesty, it’s an enviable position.”

As the shot clock ticked down on Penn’s next possession, Quakers guard Brian Grandieri drove into the lane and crashed into a group of players as he let his shot go. Cusworth was whistled for a foul, his fifth, and Grandieri made one out of two to put Penn up two with 59 seconds remaining.

The Crimson worked the ball inside to senior forward Zach Martin, who was fouled by Grandieri. Martin went to the line with a chance to tie the game but missed the front end of the one-and-one.

Harvard’s last chance slipped through its fingertips as Jaaber missed the second of his free throw attempts, leaving a loose ball with the Crimson trailing by just three, but Zoller corralled the rebound for Penn.

The Quakers sank three more from the stripe to push the lead to six, before a meaningless three at the buzzer by senior swingman Michael Beal pulled the Crimson to within three.

Jaaber guided Penn to a 12-point lead, its largest of the game, early in the second half after knocking down a trifecta, while getting fouled by Stehle. Jaaber sunk the free throw to put the Quakers up, 41-29, just under three minutes out of the break.

Grandieri finished off a layup and hit a jumper to put Penn up 50-40 with 12:24 left in regulation. From there, the Crimson went on a 16-5 run capped off by a leaner by Stehle in the paint. That bucket gave Harvard a 56-55 lead with four minutes left.

“I think we showed some resiliency in the second half,” Cusworth said. “We got down a little bit, but I couldn’t be more proud of the character and everything we showed in the last 20 minutes.”

Trailing 62-59 with a minute to go, the Crimson tried to work the ball to junior guard Jim Goffredo for a game-tying three.

But the Quakers hounded Goffredo, leaving the ball in Cusworth’s hand behind the three-point arc. Cusworth let fly and connected on his third trifecta of the evening to pull Harvard even and force overtime.

“I was a guard back in the day, so I’m not going to say that I can’t shoot the ball,” Cusworth said. “Obviously coach would want me to have the ball close to the rim rather than out there, so shooting a three probably wasn’t the highest option on the play.”

Cusworth finished with 22 points and a career high 16 rebounds.

But the seven-footer wasn’t the only player to hit an all-time high in the contest.

Zoller pulled down 18 rebounds for Penn, while Jaaber and Grandieri posted career highs in points with 31 and 17, respectively.

Zoller helped out even further on the defensive end with five blocks, making up for an abysmal 4-for-16 shooting performance from the floor.

“I wasn’t shooting the ball particularly well tonight, so I knew I had to try to help my team in other ways,” Zoller said.

Harvard built an early nine-point lead on the strength of three early treys. The Crimson shot a combined 10-for-17 from behind the arc on the game, while the Quakers struggled to a 7-of-26 mark. Harvard outshot Penn from the field, but the Crimson’s 22 turnovers did it in.

The Quakers grabbed an eight-point lead at the half on the strength of a 22-5 run into the break.

“When they get going, their crowd gets going,” Housman said. “Everything gets magnified. We still have a five-point lead, but their crowd is going so crazy that it feels like we’re losing all of a sudden. Then, we stopped doing what we did to get us that lead.”

Penn forward Steve Danley and swingman Friedrich Ebede were limited to a combined 22 minutes after Danley left with an injury to his nose and Ebede departed after getting fouled hard on a layup attempt.

“I would have gone to Steve first [down the stretch],” Dunphy said. “But his nose was pretty clogged up, so I didn’t know how he was going to breathe or how effective he’s going to be.”

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