M. Cagers Drop Opener, Fall to Wildcats, 93-74

There are nights when everything goes right.

And then there are nights when everything goes wrong.

Last night was one of those nights for the Harvard men's basketball team.

In an ugly outing that had few brights spots, the Crimson suffered a 93-74 drubbing at the hands of the University of New Hampshire in front of 300 fans in its home opener at Briggs Cage.

The Wildcats (1-1), who posted a pitiful 4-25 record last year, put pressure on Harvard from the start and kept the Crimson (0-2) from ever getting into its rhythm.

On offense, on defense, and in transition.

The UNH press and poor Harvard shot selection kept the Crimson to a 36 percent shooting rate from the field.

"[Our press was] really relentless tonight," UNH Coach Gerry Friel said.

Meanwhile, the Crimson's defense let the Wildcats convert more than 50 percent of its field goal attempts. UNH also outshot the Crimson from the charity stripe, 71-58 percent.

To make matters worse, the Crimson committed 34 personal fouls, 17 in each half. Three cagers--Co-Captain Mike Gielen, senior forward Tedd Evers and freshman center Eric Carter--fouled out of the game.

"There were very few spots in which we can say we played very well," Harvard Coach Pete Roby said. "We had breakdowns offensively and defensively and in our mental game."

Friel, the losingest coach in Division I basketball--who has come under fire from the New Hampshire administration for not winning enough--was overjoyed by the outcome.

"I don't remember scoring 90 points in a long time," Friel said. "This particular win means as much as any we've had, given the conditions the kids were playing under. It was very important for us to get that first win."

After being down by seven points at the half, 39-32, the Crimson held the Wildcats' lead to under 10 points for much of the second half. Harvard narrowed UNH's lead to 63-57 with 9:18 remaining, but Friel, sensing a

Wildcats, 93-74 at Briggs Cage New Hampshire  39-54--93 Harvard  32-42--74

New Hampshire (93): Chris Perkins 7-4--18; Eric Thielen 4-1--9; Dave Marshall 5-3--13; Derek Counts 4-16--24; Keith Carpenter 4-1--9; Jeff Carr 4-0--9; Tim Lewis 0-0--0; Bob Cummins 1-4--6; Tommy Hammer 0-0--0; Mike Lunney 0-1--1; James Ben 1-2--4.

Totals: 30-59 32-45 93.

HARVARD (74): Ron Mitchell 6-3--15; Ted Evers 5-0--14; Fred Schernecker 1-0--2; Mike Gielen 5-0--13; Dana Smith 0-0--0; Eric Carter 4-7--15; Mal Hollensteiner 0-1--1; Scott Gilly 2-0--4; Neil Phillips 2-0--5; lan Smith 1-3--5; Brian Mackey 0-0--0.

Totals: 26-72 14-24 74.

Three-pointers: Carr, Evers 4, Gielen 3, Phillips. Fouled out: Thielen, Evers, Gielen, Carter. Total fouls: Harvard 34, UNH 24, Rebounds: Harvard 40 (Mitchell 9), UNH 45 (Carpenter 11). Assists: Harvard 19 (Evers, Gielen, DSmith, Gilly, ISmith 3), UNH 17 (Carpenter 8). Blocked Shots: Harvard 2 (DSmith, Cartern), UNH O. Turnovers: Harvard 26, UNH 25. A: 300. change in momentum, called a timeout.

The Wildcats responded with a 12-0 strike toput the game out of reach. Senior guard DerekCounts, who was the high scorer with 22 points,led the run with eight straight points--all ofthem coming on his four field goals in the game.Counts shot 16 for 17 from the foul line.

Both squads played sloppy basketball early on,with plenty of turnovers and poor passes. TheCrimson looked inside to freshman forward RonMitchell, who netted six of Harvard's first eightpoints, as Harvard tied the game at 5:31 into thegame.

The Crimson and the Wildcats exchanged leadsuntil Gielen nailed a three-pointer with 6:50 leftin the first half. But after a timeout, UNH wenton a 8-0 run to take a lead it would not give upagain.

Mitchell, who finished with team-highs inpoints with 15 and rebounds with nine, and Carter,who also netted 15 and grabbed eight boards in hisfirst collegiate game, were the main highlightsfor the Crimson.

The only other bright spot for Harvard was thereturn of Co-Captain Neil Phillips, who was backin uniform after recovering from football season.Although he was clearly not in peak form--shooting2-for-6 from the field--Phillips displayed flashesof the kind of exciting play that earned him aspot on the All-Ivy second team last year.

The Crimson will need Phillips to get back inbasketball shape in a hurry in order to avoidanother fiasco in the future. Fortunately, the IvyLeague season is still far away, and there areplenty of games before that in which Harvard caniron out its problems.

"The last thing we need to do is get down aboutthis," Roby said. "The great thing aboutbasketball is that you can come back in a coupleof days and redeem ourselves.