NOTEBOOK: Defense Disappoints in Men's Basketball's 80-71 Loss to Northeastern

BOSTON—While the Northeastern men’s basketball team raised a banner in celebration of its Colonial Athletic Association title and NCAA tournament appearance last season, the Harvard men’s basketball team was fighting to rediscover the strengths that got it to the Big Dance four consecutive times.

Wednesday night at Matthews Arena, the Crimson showed flashes of promise that it could return to its dominant ways of old against in-state opponents. But Harvard’s 80-71 loss to the Huskies (6-1) proved that there remains a significant amount of work to do in Cambridge.

SHOWING ITS YOUTH

While the Crimson (2-5) lost the bulk of its production from the 2014-2015 season, a campaign which saw Harvard go down to the wire against North Carolina in the NCAA tournament, Northeastern returned three starters from its playoff run last season in seniors David Walker, Quincy Ford, and Zach Stahl.

Nonetheless, the Crimson had a dominant first half performance on the offensive end, shooting 62 percent in the first half behind 11 points apiece from senior forward Patrick Steeves and freshman forward Weisner Perez. But when the Huskies got into a groove, the young Harvard team was unable to slow them down. With just over six minutes to go in the second half, Northeastern had built up a 17 point lead, having held the Crimson scoreless for over three minutes.

“I thought once they had a chance to push the lead against us, boy, they seized it,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “That’s the mark of, I think, a veteran team and a good team.”

The Crimson’s inexperience was especially prevalent in the backcourt with the ball-handling of Harvard’s guards. Though freshman point guard Tommy McCarthy had a season-high nine assists, the Crimson turned the ball over 15 times, allowing Northeastern to convert the mistakes into 20 points.

“We got sloppy with [turnovers] at times, but they forced some,” Amaker said. “That’s a function of their ability to anticipate and dart in and out and make it difficult as we’re trying to make plays and handle the ball, which is not a strong suit of our team this year. And I think they knew that.”

Though the Huskies were able to utilize their veteran advantage, the Harvard freshmen provided a few bright spots. Along with McCarthy, Perez provided an offensive spark in the first half when many of the Crimson starters got into foul trouble. Perez scored his 13 points in just 12 minutes on the floor.

DISAPPOINTING DEFENSE

In his postgame press conference, the word that Tommy Amaker used over and over to describe his team’s performance was “disappointing.” Northeastern’s 80 points on the night were the most Harvard has allowed this season, four more than the Kris Dunn-led Providence Friars, now ranked No. 23 in the country. The Huskies also became the first of the Crimson’s opponents this season to shoot better than 40 percent from the floor.

Early foul trouble by the Harvard starters plagued the defense as Northeastern was able to attack the basket and get to the line in response. While Harvard only managed to shoot 3-for-8 from the charity stripe, the Huskies were much more frequent visitors to the line, where they shot 14-of-17.

“I wish we could have defended a little better, but they are a very difficult team to defend,” Amaker said. “They spread you, they have guys that can put the ball down and make a play…. I just think they are a difficult team to defend, and we were certainly hopeful that we could do a better job as we were scoring because we were having a good opportunity to put the ball in the basket on our end.”

Along with drawing fouls, the Huskies had their way with the Crimson on the glass, snagging 14 offensive rebounds. Junior forward Zena Edosomwan had just seven rebounds on the night, below his season average of 10 per game.

“We need more on the backboard [from Edosomwan],” Amaker said. “He knows that, and we’re hopeful that he can give us more, but he isn’t the only one that we need more from on the backboard against a team like Northeastern.”

Despite the fact that Amaker called his team’s showing on Wednesday one of his team’s weakest defensive performances of the season, Northeastern coach Bill Coen lauded the Crimson as one of the toughest defenses his team has seen this year.

“I think Harvard is one of the best defensive teams that we’ve faced,” Coen said. “I thought they won the majority of the 50-50 balls and really played with tremendous energy.”