NOTEBOOK: Seniors Step Up In Tough Harvard Victory

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And seniors Evan Harris and Drew Housman came off the bench to deliver in big ways, as they helped Harvard pull away in the final minutes to defeat Holy Cross 69-59 last night.

Dampened by injuries, Harris and Housman had played only 18 and 20 minutes, respectively in the first two games, but turned in easily their best performances in the season in a hard, physical Bay State battle against the Crusaders. Harris went 23 minutes and put up nine points and eight rebounds, while swatting three shots. Housman played 20 minutes and also put up nine points to go with three assists, while manning the point in the final clutch minutes of the game.

“I don’t know if they’re 100 percent, but they gave us incredible gutsy minutes,” Crimson coach Tommy Amaker said. “They did an outstanding job showing toughness and leadership.”

Harris had his right knee completely covered in ice after the game.

I’m gonna have surgery at the end of the season and I got a cortisone shot, so it’s pretty much just managing and playing through the pain and icing it afterwards,” he said. “It’s as good as it’s going to get so I just got to deal with it. Being back on the floor, mentally it felt great, physically my knee is killing me. But it just felt great to get the win. Sitting on the bench at Colorado [a 70-57 loss last Saturday] was hard for me.”

In the second, Housman and Harris made their presences felt in the final exhilarating moments. Harris blocked two shots in the final minute as Holy Cross was desperate to narrow the margin, emphatically swatting away the second one. Housman keyed Harvard’s pull-away, finding junior guard Jeremy Lin for a three-pointer to make it 56-52 with under five minutes left, then fed freshman guard Max Kenyi for another three two minutes later to give the team a double-digit lead at 63-53. Following a Crusader basket on the next possession, the guard came back, driving for a layup with the shot clock winding down.

“As seniors, me and him did a great job coming in and leading tonight,” Harris said. “Hopefully, we can continue this onto Saturday against Army and the next games after that.”

FREE RAIN

On a day when rain fell all over the Cambridge area, there was a different thing falling all night long at Lavietes Pavilion­—Crimson free throws.

Harvard hoopsters went to the line an astonishing 39 times, connecting on 32 of those, accounting for nearly half of its point total. Holy Cross, on the other hand, made just 14 trips, all in the second half.

“We felt coming off the Colorado game that was the difference for us not being able to hang in there at the end and possibly win,” Amaker said. “So a point of emphasis for out ballclub is to be the aggressor and racking up fouls on your opponent is certainly a key stat.”

Lin led the parade to the free throw line, hitting 8-of-10 shots from there as part of his career-high 30 point performance. Kenyi went 8-of-8, with Harris following at 7-for-11 and Housman throwing down 5-of-6 free throw shots.

“We got a lot of guys who can attack and our post men draw a lot of contact,” Lin said. “That was a huge part of this game, getting to the free throw line.”

BAND TOGETHER

Despite the rainy New England weather and impending Thankgiving break, a strong crowd of 1,321 fans showed up. Most noticeable of all was the Harvard Band. Not a common presence at Lavietes Pavilion in seasons’ past, the band definitely made the rest of the arena aware of them with their constant songs throughout all the breaks and loud cheering when there weren’t breaks. In addition to songs like “It’s My Life,” “Don’t Stop Believing,” and “Shipping Up to Boston,” the band also completely befuddled one Crusader as they counted down the shot clock several seconds earlier than the real clock and then watched the Holy Cross player miss a desperation shot with several seconds actually left on the clock.

The band’s enthusiasm did not go unnoticed by Amaker, who went over to the members of the band as they were leaving to personally thank nearly every one of them.

“I was very appreciative of their presence here and wanted them to know it from me and told them that they helped us with this win,” he said. “They can generate some energy and they did. It was nice to have them here and I’m very grateful.”

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