NOTEBOOK: Tiger Defense Stifles Harvard Shooters

Princeton’s defense—holding its opponents to a national-best 54 points per game—had a singular objective in mind Friday night.

Wary of the threat presented by co-captain guard Jeremy Lin and his fearless forays to the hoop, the Tigers clogged the middle of the lane and dared Harvard to make open shots.

“They packed it in a lot,” rookie forward Kyle Casey said. “Every time Jeremy drove, they were triple- and double-teaming him.”

The Crimson was not up to the challenge, particularly in the first half. The hosts shot a middling 7-of-27 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, allowing Princeton to pull away to a 29-20 lead at intermission.

“We didn’t really have a good rhythm,” Casey said. “For some reason tonight we were a little stagnant and taking shots we weren’t used to taking.”

The majority of the squad’s troubles took place behind the arc, where Harvard missed all but three of its 15 attempts. Most crippling was a string of seven straight long-range misses over a span of six minutes late in the first half, a drought coinciding with a 13-0 run by the Tigers.

Of the seven Harvard players to attempt a three in the first half, only shots by Lin and sophomore guard Oliver McNally found the bottom of the net.

BIG HOLES TO FILL

The shooting woes were exacerbated by the fact that three of the Crimson’s top four frontcourt players were in the worst place possible—on the bench and out of uniform.

Starting big man Keith Wright missed his first game of the season with a case of Achilles tendonitis, which first flared up in the team’s league opener against Dartmouth. Wright said before the game that he is scheduled to see a doctor on Wednesday.

Fellow sophomore Andrew Van Nest was sidelined with a case of pneumonia that had kept him at University Health Services for three days and left him unable to practice throughout the week. He expressed hopes that he would be able to return to action today.

Those injuries, plus the loss of senior forward Pat Magnarelli to a high ankle sprain suffered at Dartmouth, meant that the Crimson was forced to rely on a rotation of only three front-court players.

After providing valuable minutes off the bench all year, Casey received his first start of the year and experienced a rough shooting night, going 3-of-9 from the field, including three missed three-pointers.

Classmate Jeff Georgatos—averaging just over four minutes per game coming into the night—was called into action for 13 minutes, but the forward had no points or rebounds.

Co-captain Doug Miller was his usual workman-like self, picking up two early layups in the first three minutes of the game, but went scoreless after that. Miller also collected five rebounds.

The lack of an inside presence limited Harvard’s offensive options, but it wasn’t making any excuses.

“We don’t have the depth that we used to have; we don’t have bigger bodies, and it hurts,” Lin said. “But we have enough guys to win this game.”

SLOW AND STEADY

With their opponent struggling to put the ball in the basket up until the last few minutes, the Tigers had no such troubles.

Predicated on ball movement, the traditional Princeton offense went an efficient 9-of-18 from the floor in the initial 20 minutes.

Coming out of the locker room, the squad’s philosophy grew more conservative. Looking to protect its lead—which reached 14 with 12 minutes to play—Princeton did its best to make the most of every possession, content to hold the ball into the late seconds of the shot clock.

Defensive breakdowns by Harvard eventually left shooters wide open, and they hit on several open looks from behind the arc. The Tigers sank four of the five three-pointers it attempted in the second half.

Once the desperate Crimson turned up the defensive pressure, Princeton began to break down with the ball, committing multiple shot clock violations and missing wide-open looks. But with Harvard forced to foul, Princeton took advantage of strong free throw shooting to put the game away.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.