Men's Basketball Hopes to Break Losing Streak

After a heartbreaking overtime loss to UC Irvine (6-8) to end 2007, the Harvard men’s basketball team hopes to start off the new year, and the Ivy League season, in winning fashion against Dartmouth (5-7) tomorrow at Lavietes Pavilion.

The Crimson (4-11) has now lost seven in a row with its last win dating back to the historic thriller against Michigan Dec. 1.

“I would have loved to have gone into [the Dartmouth game] with a fresher start,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “Hopefully we can make a run at it playing better basketball.”

Tomorrow’s game against the Big Green marks the first of its 14 conference games.

As the only Division I conference without a playoff tournament, the Ivy League awards its only automatic NCAA bid to the winner of the regular season.One loss, one small misstep in league play could mean the end to any postseason hopes.

“We have to play each game with intensive urgency,” sophomore guard Jeremy Lin said. “The stakes are really high. You can’t take any nights off.”

“With league play, there’s always an increased intensity,” Amaker added.

Harvard has been consistently outscored by its opponents in the waning minutes of the game in each of its losses.

“A lot of the games that we’ve had have come down to the last 2 minutes,” Lin said. “We’re having trouble closing out games right now and have errors—mainly turnovers and rebounding—coming down the stretch.”

In last weekend’s game against the Anteaters, the Crimson nabbed 45 rebounds to UC Irvine’s 24, allowing it to improve its rebounding margin to –3.1. However, Harvard also had 26 turnovers, with 10 coming in the last nine minutes of the game.

The Crimson also lost an 18-point second-half lead in last weekend’s game to allow the Anteaters to win in overtime.

Despite the loss, several players stepped up their level of play to keep the score respectable.

Lin led the Harvard campaign with 20 points, 13 rebounds, five steals, and three assists.

The Crimson also saw inspired performances from sophomore forward Pat Magnarelli (17 points, 12 rebounds) and junior forward Evan Harris (15 points, 8 rebounds).

Against Dartmouth, the three will team up with junior point guard Drew Housman, who leads the team in average points and assists per game, to highlight the Crimson attack.

The quad will have to post impressive numbers tomorrow to stop the Big Green’s biggest weapon, junior forward Alex Barnett, who scores an average of 16.1 points each game.

Barnett will also front the Big Green’s defense, as he currently leads the league in both rebounding, and shot blocking, with an average of 6.9 rebounds and 1.83 blocked shots per game.

Junior guard DeVon Mosley, who leads the Big Green in steals, will also look to figure into Dartmouth’s defense.

The Crimson needs to make technical improvements and find a renewed determination to win in order to start the Ivy season off on a positive note. Tomorrow’s game signals the beginning of a new year, a new conference campaign and a chance to this season around into a winning one.

“We have the potential to win the league even thought that’s not what a lot of people are predicting,” Lin said. “Right now, we’re going through a tough stretch and we just have to get through it.”

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.