NOTEBOOK: Harvard Shooters Find Outside Touch

NEW YORK—After last week’s narrow 62-58 win at Dartmouth, Harvard was left scratching its head. The Crimson’s offense was able to create seemingly open looks but shot a season-worst 39.0 percent from the field and 11.8 percent from three.

To its relief, Harvard found its stroke on Friday. The Crimson knocked down its first four shots and did not look back, hitting 55.6 percent on field goals and 50 percent on three-pointers.

The damage on the perimeter came from two unlikely sources. For the first time since November, sophomore guard Oliver McNally hit multiple treys. McNally hit his first three midway through the opening half to extend a four point lead to seven, and minutes later knocked down another to bring the lead to 10.

Sophomore forward Andrew Van Nest experienced a similar run in the second half. The big man hit two threes in the span of a minute—both in front of the Harvard bench—to break the game open. Van Nest had previously been one for his last seven after coming back from a shoulder injury in December.

“We’ve been trying to find a way for him to get back on track,” Crimson coach Tommy Amaker said. “His ability, as you witnessed this evening, to stretch the defense and to make open shots is a big weapon.”

Ironically, while Harvard had a prolific scoring night, it was a missed shot, that excited the crowd. Five minutes into the second half, sophomore forward Keith Wright had a wide-open, fast break lay-up. But as he jumped, the ball slipped out of his hands and rocketed off the backboard for a highlight-reel blooper.

MILLER TIME

With senior forward Pat Magnarelli nursing a sprained ankle, Harvard needed to spread his minutes around to the other big men. Van Nest responded by knocking down a pair of open triples, but co-captain Doug Miller filled the void in the paint.

“I thought Doug was tremendous,” Amaker said. “He played strong around the basket.”

Miller, who entered the game averaging 3.3 points per game, scored a season-high eight points, including four of the team’s first 11.

After his initial spurt, Miller was quiet for much of the first half—until the closing seconds. Co-captain Jeremy Lin was in the familiar position of holding for the last shot, but he passed it off to freshman Brandyn Curry, who then found Miller in the post. From the right block, Miller finished a lefty reverse, sending the Crimson into halftime with a 41-26 lead.

On top of his post scoring, Miller provided some needed muscle on the boards, corralling five rebounds as Harvard edged Columbia, 29-25, on the glass.

“He embraces his role and does a tremendous job with that,” Amaker said.

LOPSIDED LIONS

In the first half, the offense that the Lions did generate came almost exclusively from its two guards, Patrick Foley and Noruwa Agho.

The pair combined for 22 of Columbia’s 26 points and took 14 of their 19 shots in the opening frame.

But the second half proved to be far more difficult. Less than a minute into the action, Foley separated his shoulder and left the game.

“It popped out,” Lions coach Joe Jones said. “It’s the shoulder he got surgery on two summers ago...I can’t see him trying to play with that.”

Agho, who started the game hitting four of five shots, missed his next five attempts and did not score in the second half.

“Early in the second half, we thought we were right there, if we could string a couple stops together,” Columbia guard Kevin Bulger said. “We just weren’t able to do that, and that coupled with missing some really makeable shots [made a comeback] difficult.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu.