Few Positives for Crimson in Loss to Big Red

With three seconds left in the first half of Friday night’s showdown against Cornell, freshman point guard Drew Housman went coast to coast and hit a lay up as time expired.

Sandwiched around that play were two halves completely dominated by Cornell, as the Big Red crushed the Harvard men’s basketball team, 71-44, at Lavietes Pavilion, holding the Crimson to its lowest point total of the season. It was Harvard’s eighth straight loss.

Cornell (12-15, 7-6 Ivy) blew the game open right at the start. The Big Red’s first five shots of the game were threes—all of them good. The Crimson found itself down ten, 12-2, before the game was four minutes old.

“I think early in the game, we were surprised by some quick handoffs,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “They got us in rotation schemes on a couple of occasions, which led to some threes.”

Cornell made 8-of-12 three pointers in the first half and was 11-for-23 for the game. Freshmen Adam Gore and Brian Keefer each hit four threes, several from well beyond the arc, and finished as the high scorers for the game with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

Harvard, by contrast, made only 3-of-18 of its three-point attempts and shot only 28 percent from the floor for the game.

Adding to the Crimson’s problems offensively were turnovers. Harvard coughed up the ball twenty times during the game, and made just fourteen field goals. In the first half, the squad had nearly twice as many turnovers as field goals, thirteen to seven.

The Big Red led 37-22 at halftime and ended any thought the Crimson may have had at coming back, scoring the first six points after the break and taking a 21-point lead.

The margin slowly grew, sometimes dipping below 20, and eventually reached its high point at 29 with 2:15 left to play.

For Harvard, senior center Brian Cusworth was the only player to record double figures in any category besides field goals attempted and minutes played. He had 11 rebounds, despite playing with a broken right hand.

“I just want to finish this year on a high note,” Cusworth said. “Injuries have been rough this year for me.”

As in recent games, the Crimson faced a team that received many more contributions from its subs than did Harvard. Cornell’s bench outscored the home team’s reserves, 33-2.

“I think all those guys [on the bench] in the last game deserve to get some work this year,” Sullivan said. “They have all worked hard. Collectively, this had been as good a group as we have had in terms of a collaborative effort and a group of guys who believed in the service of their team...unconditionally. There are a lot of guys who deserve to play.”

“We can’t hold back for anything,” Cusworth added. “There isn’t any Monday practice, or Monday film. This is it, for these seniors especially. We really have to leave it all on the floor.”

—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.