NOTEBOOK: Strong Individual Performances Can’t Tame Tigers

As he has done for most of the season, junior guard Jeremy Lin led the team offensively in its 76-70 loss at home to Princeton Saturday, this time with a game-high 27 points, the most he has scored in an Ivy League game. During a seven-minute stretch in the second half, he truly left his mark on the game as he scored 14 straight points for Harvard.

Down 41-40 with 15 minutes to play, he hit a floater in the lane to give his team the lead. Several possessions later, he dribbled around and hit a jumper from the key. Then it was a pull-up just inside the arc. Then two free throws, followed by a bank-shot. He followed that with another jumper, then hit both ends of a one-and-one. When his one-man run ended, he had kept the team close, as it led 54-52 with eight-and-a-half minutes left.

“I was trying to stay aggressive and take what the defense gave me,” Lin said. “They had to respect [junior forward] Doug [Miller] down low and had to respect our shooters so the mid-range was wide open and I was able to find a rhythm and take advantage.”

BACK AT IT

In his penultimate game against the Tigers, senior guard Drew Housman turned back the clock to his sophomore season as he put in another solid offensive performance against Princeton. Back in 2007, he lit them up for 33 points in Jadwin Gym in a crushing double-overtime loss, then scored 20 in a winning effort in the return game at home.

After two nondescript performances last season against the Tigers in which he had just seven points combined, he was back to his best Saturday, scoring 15 points—11 in the second half on perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the floor—in 27 minutes. He also dished out a season-high six assists against just one turnover.

In his games sophomore year, he constantly beat his defenders to the basket for lay-ups and there was more of the same this time, twice beating speedy opponent Doug Davis to the hoop and laying it in.

“I don’t think Princeton’s guards have ever been able to stay in front of Drew,” Lin said.

His other three baskets came in the last three minutes as he tried to keep it close. He answered Tiger guard Dan Mavraides’ three that put the visitors up six with his own big three, making it 66-63 with 2:13 left. He drove for hoops with 23 and 13 seconds left and his team down six both times, though on the second, he missed the and-one attempt.

He made just 2-of-5 free throw attempts in the final four-and-a-half minutes of the game, the only blemish on a fine night.

“Drew did a tremendous job breaking their team down, getting into the heart of their defense, making plays, making lay-ups, finding people,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “I’m sure he’ll be the first to tell you he should have shot better from the foul line, but he played a very solid game.”

FOUL TIDINGS

After two miserable foul shooting performances in losses to Dartmouth and Princeton, the Crimson put forth an improved effort from the line Saturday, though it still left something to be desired.

Harvard made 20 of 27 free throws, good for 74.1 percent, an improvement on the 17-of-27 performance last Saturday against the Big Green and much better than the 7-of-16 stinker the previous night against the Quakers. Unlike those two games, the team was perfect in 1-and-1 opportunities, making both shots in all four of those trips.

But not all was well from the stripe as in addition to Housman’s late misses, the team blew four shots in the first half, including a pair by Lin in the final minute that could have ensured the Crimson went into the locker room with a lead.

“We did a better job tonight, but there were misses during key stretches, including when we could have built up our lead,” Amaker said.

Harvard got many chances to redeem itself at the line as the game was filled with fouls on both teams. Princeton committed 25 fouls, with 12 in the first half and 13 in the second, while the Crimson had eight in the opening frame and 10 more after the break.

“It was definitely physical,” Housman said. “Much different than the out of conference stuff. It’s something we need to get used to.”

The Tigers went to the line 24 times and hit 19 of them, including all six in the final four minutes. Their junior center Zach Finley was the only player to foul out, though not until he had driven from near halfcourt and threw down a slam over freshman forward Peter Boehm.

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