Division III Babson Shocks M. Cagers

All the Division III Babson men's basketball team wanted to do was keep the score close against the more powerful Division I Harvard squad.

They couldn't.

Instead, the Beavers scored 63 points in the second half on their way to an unbelievable 100-80 triumph over the Crimson last night at Briggs Cage.

"It was a perfect game for us," Babson Coach Serge DeBari said.

Beaver guard Erik Dellasanta scored a game-high 31 points on 13-for-16 shooting. He was joined by Jim Pierrakos and Matt Miller, who pumped in 20 points each.

Center Mike Minor led the Crimson with a career-high 19 points on 8-for-8 shooting from the floor. Tyler Rullman scored 18 in the loss.

Disaster Strikes

For the Crimson, the game was an absolute disaster.

"It was a devastating loss--no ifs, ands or buts about it," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said.

Nothing--repeat nothing--went right for Harvard. Even Minor's perfect game was tainted by foul trouble, as he fouled out with 7:20 to play in the second half.

Foul trouble was one of Harvard's big problems. Not only did Minor foul out, but Captain Ron Mitchell (with 3:59 to go) and Jared Leake (with 11:58 to go) also joined him on the bench.

Leake's dismissal was the crippling blow. With him went the hopes for a comeback, as reserve Dave LaPoint came in to run the point. LaPoint had one assist and six turnovers, while Beaver point guard Scott Leip exploded for 13 points.

"Dave did the best he could, but he was in difficult circumstances," Sullivan said.

Harvard did not get production from many of its key players. Perhaps feeling the pressure of a starting role, freshman James White scored just three points. Leake, battling foul trouble, tallied four. Mitchell scored nine.

The scene was even worse on defense. Babson back-door cuts and sharp passing scored many points in the paint, an area where Harvard was expected to have an unbeatable advantage.

With the scale of the massacre so large, it may seem surprising that the Crimson was actually ahead in this game for a while.

It was not until there was 16:09 left in the second half before Miller nailed a baseline jumper to put Babson up for good, 50-49.

Falling Apart

From there, the Crimson defense, already suspect, disintegrated completely. Babson's slick interior passing and heads-up fast breaks left Harvard in its wake.

A wake might be an appropriate ceremony right now for the Crimson.

"We caught Harvard at the right time," Leip said. "All you have to do is give a Division III team a chance."

"It was a storybook win for them," Sullivan said.

Babson had Harvard on its heels from the opening tap, not letting the Crimson take the lead until 7:41 in the first half, when Peter Condakes buried a foul-line jumper to put Harvard up, 22-21.

"After the first ten or 15 minutes, we knew we were in it," Leip said. "We found that while they were better athletes, we were better basketball players."

Harvard widened its lead to eight, 38-30, with 2:45 to play in the first half, and it looked like the Crimson had finally reasserted itself. But Babson closed out the half with a 7-2 run.

"We got caught in a bad situation, and Babson capitalized," Sullivan said.

Opposite Directions

Babson raised its record to 6-0 with the victory, while the Crimson dropped to a pitiful 0-6.

For Harvard, the magnitude of the loss goes beyond anything that has happened thus far this season. Babson was the easiest opponent on the entire schedule and just a few weeks ago, a Beaver upset seemed unthinkable.

If the Crimson cannot beat Babson, it is going to have trouble beating anybody. The Ivy League portion of the Harvard schedule begins next week, and teams such as Brown, Princeton and Yale have already shown that they can do battle with the Division I heavyweights. For now, Harvard has to address the fundamentals.

"It's back to basics," Sullivan said. "Unfortunately, we have nothing to draw on to bounce back."

Mitchell declined to speak to the press following the game.