Lin Nears Triple-Double In Victory

New Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker made his Lavietes Pavilion debut on Friday night, but that wasn’t the big story.

The Crimson’s resounding 91-73 victory over Mercer was.

With a balanced offensive showing, Harvard (2-2) knocked off the Bears (1-2), a squad just six days removed from a 15-point victory over then-No. 18 USC in Los Angeles, in front of 1,676 at Lavietes.

Four of five starters scored in double figures while the fifth, sophomore forward Pat Magnarelli, pulled down 12 rebounds and notched five blocks.

Sophomore guard Jeremy Lin led the way with 23 points, his third straight career high, while approaching a triple-double with nine assists and nine rebounds in the win.

"He’s a hard-charging, explosive player," Amaker said of Lin. "He’s fearless, and a lot of times, he can go make a play that people don’t expect him to make—hooking rebounds, making shots, creating his offense."

Mercer took its first lead since the early minutes midway through the second half. But the Crimson became energized by the multitude of Harvard hockey fans that streamed into Lavietes following the men’s hockey game against Cornell. With the bleachers nearly full, the Crimson exploded on a 30-8 run to break open the ballgame and hand the Bears their second defeat of the young season.

"Especially in the last two years, when teams catch up with us like that, it’s usually a dogfight until the end," junior guard Drew Housman said. "That shows a lot about this team’s resolve."

The run began with a 10-0 Crimson spurt, including two key steals by sophomore guard Dan McGeary, who also hit two three-pointers en route to eight points, which led to easy buckets.

Harvard continued to apply the pressure, extending its lead to 13 at 78-65.

After a missed layup by Mercer guard James Florence—the Bears’ leading scorer coming into the game who finished with nine points on 3-for-18 shooting—Crimson guard Andrew Pusar chased down the rebound in the corner. Pusar made an outlet pass to Magnarelli, who found Housman running alongside junior Evan Harris at midcourt.

With no defenders between them and the basket, Housman handed it off to Harris for a two-handed power jam and a 15-point lead with less than four minutes remaining. Harris finished with 16 points and nine rebounds.

"I think our big guys especially did a good job of sprinting the floor, getting layups, dunks, those momentum builders, those fast-break layups" Housman said. "That really helped us out."

If that was the dagger, Lin’s three-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:36 remaining to give the Crimson an 89-68 edge was the nail in the coffin, capping off the big nine-minute run.

"I can’t remember scoring that many points in such a short time," Housman said.

In an up-tempo battle with both squads pushing the ball up the floor, the teams traded leads in the early going. When most of the Harvard starters took a much-needed rest just six minutes in, the bench opened up the game’s first big lead, taking a 21-14 advantage. Freshman Adam Demuyakor notched all of his six points in the first half.

"We need players to be able to rotate through, to have fresh bodies," Amaker said. "So the bench is going to be critical and I thought that they did a nice job, especially in the first half."

"Everyone [on the bench] came in and hit big shots—I think they even pushed the lead out," Housman said. "There wasn’t a drop off at all."

Mercer managed to tie the score at 31 with less than five minutes remaining in the half, but from there, Harvard regained the momentum with an 11-3 run entering halftime, capped off by a jumper by Lin at the buzzer.

"I thought it was a huge lift for us—just a heads-up play," Amaker said. "I saw him look up and realize how much time was left. He knew he had enough time...to put it on the floor once, maybe twice, and get a clean look."

"I got lucky in a lot of different ways," Lin said. "But I was able to get a semi-open look."

The teams traded baskets coming out of the break, but with the Crimson leading at 54-46, Bears forward Calvin Henry, who led the Mercer attack with 14, made two layups and a three-pointer in a two-minute stretch to get the Bears within a point.

As it did in its win over Northwestern State last Sunday, Harvard shared the ball well, tallying 23 assists as a team, leading to easy shots and a 53.6 field-goal percentage.

"Teamwork’s a big thing for us because we have so many guys who can create," Lin said. "Basically, if we move the ball enough, we’ll get exactly what we want, and that’s pretty much what happened tonight."

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.