Deja Vu

It began to look strangely familiar.

In its Ivy home opener, the Harvard basketball team came back from a deficit against the team favored to win the Ivy League, and forced the game into overtime.

With time running out in the extra period and its opponent leading, the Crimson made a big steal and scored the key basket.

But instead of clinching the game after one overtime, as Harvard did against Penn in 1987, the basket simply tied the score. In 1988, Dartmouth won in double OT.

The outcome changed, and some of the names were different, but the similarities were remarkable. In both cases, the first hero was a big man who made a big shot.

Against the Quakers on January 9, 1987, Harvard came back from a 19-point hole to pull within a basket when forward David Lang hit a 16-ft. jumper to knot the score at 89, and send the game into OT.

Tuesday night, Harvard trailed the Big Green by two with a minute left on the clock. Tri-Captain Bill Mohler got the ball in the paint and fired in a jump shot over Dartmouth center Jason Lobo, sending the game into the extra period.

In overtime, the hero was a guard who single-handedly dominated play on the court.

In 1987, Co-Captain Keith Webster made the biggest steal of his Harvard career. With less than 10 seconds left in overtime and the game tied at 91, Webster swiped the ball from Penn guard Chris Elzey and swished a shot at the buzzer for one of the greatest victories in Harvard basketball history.

While Ralph James was not as dramatic as Webster against the Big Green, he was simply the most dominant player on the court.

With the Crimson trailing by eight big points and just one minute left on the clock, James hit three straight three-pointers, helped force a steal, and made the layup that tied the score.

But that's where the similarities end.

After one overtime, the 1987 Crimson had won the game; after one OT, the '88 squad was tied.

And after two, Dartmouth's Jim Barton had performed his own heroics.