Dartmouth Avenges Last Week’s Defeat

HANOVER, N.H.—What a difference a week—and a change of place—can make.

One week after blowing out Dartmouth in its Ivy League opener, the Harvard men’s basketball team had the favor returned at Leede Arena as it lost, 73-56, to the Big Green on Friday night.

The Crimson (6-12, 1-1 Ivy) remained winless in road games this season, but its ninth loss in those contests may be the most shocking of all after Harvard had run over Dartmouth (6-8, 1-1) in an 82-56 win last Saturday at home.

There was no carry-over effect into this game.

“It feels good to be able to protect your own house,” Big Green coach Terry Dunn said. “I thought tonight, we came out a different team, we came out on a mission. We came out to prove we weren’t as bad as we played last Saturday.”

Dartmouth proved that point emphatically as it bested the Crimson on both ends of the court. After shooting just 38.3 percent from the floor last time out, the Big Green shot 47.5 percent at home. The Harvard offense—which was firing on all cylinders last Saturday to the tune of 51.8 percent from the floor and 22 assists against just 10 turnovers—made just 18 of 52 attempts at Leede Arena. It turned the ball over 17 times while dishing out just five assists.

“We didn’t defend as well as we did in the first game,” Crimson coach Tommy Amaker said. “We were horrendous shooting the basketball. We were 17-for-26 from the foul line, 3-for-16 from three, 18-for-52 from the floor, five assists, 17 turnovers. You pick it, it was the total opposite from a week ago. Not very good, to say the least.”

Hurting Harvard’s cause was a leg injury suffered by sophomore forward Pat Magnarelli in the first minute of the game. The big man who led the team in scoring in each of its last two games returned to the bench after a trip to the locker room, but he was on crutches with his knee heavily wrapped.

“Pat’s been as good as anybody for us and had been consistent,” Amaker said. “We’re the type of team where we need everybody, and we don’t have a large margin of error. Certainly, not having one of our better players didn’t help us.”

A week ago, the Crimson took a 47-26 lead into the half, but this time it entered the half down, 36-26. Despite several brief spurts in the second half, the deficit would never fall below six.

With the team down, 59-49, and just under six minutes left, junior forward Evan Harris drove for a lay-up and a foul, making the free throw to cut the Big Green lead to seven. Harris then forced Dartmouth forward Alex Barnett to turn the ball over on the next possession, and Harvard seemed ready to go on a run.

Instead, Big Green guard Robby Pride stole the ball from freshman guard T.J. Carey near halfcourt and dropped in an uncontested lay-up. That would spark a 14-4 run by the home team to end the game.

Barnett was the game’s leading scorer with 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting. Just like his team, he bounced back from a frustrating performance last weekend, when he hit just eight of 21 shots.

“Previous times against Harvard, I’ve played well, but we lost,” said Barnett, who leads the Ivy League in scoring with 16.2 points per game. “It sits with me the whole week. Just thinking about it in class today—I probably should have been paying more attention in class, but the thought of this game was on my mind the whole day. I couldn’t wait for it.”

Guard DeVon Mosley added 17 points for the home team after scoring just eight in the first game.

“When DeVon Mosley and Alex Barnett are shooting the ball well, we have a chance to win most nights,” Dunn said.

Harris and sophomore guard Jeremy Lin led the Crimson with 16 points each. Ten of Harris’s points came at the free-throw line, where he had 13 attempts.

That was one of the few bright spots for Harvard, as it went to the line 26 times but made just 17 of its shots there.

“We had a goal of getting [to the foul line] 25 times,” Amaker said. “We did that and exceeded it by one. But we’re not going to be very good if we can’t convert some of the plays we’ve made offensively from the foul line, open threes, or shots around the goal. We have to convert.”

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