Harvard Loses to Huskies, 73-69, in Overtime

Coach Bob Harrison dug deep down into his bag of tracks Friday night and managed to find another was to blow a right game as the cagers lost in overtime to Northeastern 3.69.

With 48 seconds left in regulation time and Harvard in possession underneath their own basket leading 61.5 Harrison ordered a length of the court inbound pass to Jim Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons bobbled the pass and missed a twisting Lay-up. Northeastern came back and Mark Jellison hit a jump shot to make the score 61-59.

Harrison called another time out and incredibly the cagers ran the same play, this time with Fitzsimmons inbounding the ball to Marshall Sanders just over the midcourt line. Northeastern intercepted and Jellison came back to convert a one and one with 32 seconds left, tying the game at 61-61.

Harvard lost the ball again and Northeastern called time out with 19 seconds left in regulation time. The ball was passed to Jellison who missed a jumper from the foul line. The Huskies got two shots from underneath but failed to convert before the time ran out. Just as the buzzer a foul was called against Harvard, but the officials ruled that it had come after time had run out.

The overtime was anti-climatic as the Huskies opened up a four point lead midway through the stanza and held on to win the contest Jellison did most of the scoring for Northeastern from the 1:44 mark in regulations when Harvard 60, 53. The senior guard had 32 points in the contest.

In the overtime, Kenny Wolfe, who led the Harvard scoring with 14 points, fouled out as did Marshall Sanders and Jim Fitzsimmons.

Wild and Wesly

It was a wild and wooly game which saw both coaches argue vehemently with the officials on numerous occasions. In one instance, all three Northeastern coaches were out on the floor, protesting a decision. In another case, Harrison spent the better part of a time-out screaming at an official after a Floyd Lewis basket was nullified because he was detected goal tending. The call against Lewis came at a critical juncture in the contest with Harvard leading 61-57 and 1:02 left.

Midway through the second half the official lost control of the ballgame contest became very physical, with members of both teams hitting the floor and with no fouls being called. James Brown, who had his best rebounding game, was forced to leave the second hall with about 4:00 minutes remaining after getting a finger in the eye.

The Northeastern fans were in a frenzy throughout the game and almost started a riot late in the second half. Fitzsimmons made a jesture with the middle finger of his right hand at some black Northeastern fans under the Huskie basket.

The fans took exception to this action and began getting a little rowdy. Some white security men came love to try and escort the blacks out, but about 200 other black's came over to mediate the dispute. After a bit of pushing and showing, the security men decided to allow the fans to remain.

Harvard opened up a 35-32 halftime lead behind James Brown's 12 points. The Huskie's held a four point lead for the first ten minutes, but the Crimson came back in the latter stages of the period to take the lead.

Harvard opened a 45-35 lead with 13-31 remaining in the second half. The cagers fought off comeback efforts by the Huskies through the half and still held a 56-49 lead with four minutes remaining before Northeastern made their final surge.

Harvard was once again plagued by turnovers--a problem it faced earlier in the season. The Crimson committed 27 Friday, many of them coming at critical periods. Despite the lack of disciplined play. Northeastern coach Jim Calhoun said after the game that he was surprised how disciplined a game Harvard had played.

"I didn't expect Harvard to held up as will as they did against our defense," he said. "I thought they played good disciplined hall."

Blown Again

Once again, the Crimson lost to another squad which has nowhere near the amount of talent that Harvard has. Harvard did blow the game by ordering the two full court passes, instead of trying to freeze the ball when Harvard led late in the contest. But Northeastern really should not have been in the contest at that point.

Despite their 9-3 record this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Huskies, while this was the year Harvard was supposed to more up into the top 20.

As Gerry Alaimo, the Brown coach, said before the game when asked if he would like to have James Brown in his team, "James Brown? I'd take Tommy Musote." Mostoe is a reserve center who has seen very little action for the Crimson this season.

Harvard, with a 6-7 record will get a chance for revenge tonight when they face Northeastern in the finals of the Southern Tournament at the Boston Garden.