B-Ballers Stomp St. Francis

Inspiration comes hard on Saturday mornings in early December when you're playing against a team called St. Francis in Brooklyn, N.Y.

It gets harder when you're playing in front of just 288 fans in a building called the Physical Education Center. Oh, yeah, and you're coming off a night spent in a New Jersey hotel.

But neither time, nor place, nor an uninspiring opponent were enough to stop the Harvard men's basketball team on Saturday as it upped its record to 2-1 with a 79-68 win over St. Francis (0-1).

Led by sophomore forward Kyle Snowden's career-high 23 points and nine rebounds, the Crimson shot almost 70 percent from the field in the second half to overcome a Terrier team that seems to have improved significantly since last season.

"We came out at the beginning of the game sort of flat, and St. Francis was really pumped up," said junior forward Darren Rankin, who chipped in 16 points and seven rebounds on the afternoon. "We didn't match their enthusiasm at first."

Four Harvard turnovers in its first six possessions set the tone for a sloppy first half in which St. Francis led the entire way after breaking an early 2-2 tie.

"We didn't really get into our set offense in the first half," said junior swingman Mike Gilmore. "They were pressing, and we got kind of disorganized. Jared [Leake] and Dan [Morris] were penetrating a lot in one-on-one situations, but we didn't run many set plays."

Guards Leaks 16 points, six rebounds, four assists, four steals) and Morris (six points, two rebounds, two assists), in addition to backcourt mate James White (11 points, three assists), did enjoy highly productive afternoons. Trailing 40-31 at halftime, however, Harvard clearly needed to make adjustments.

Enter Coach Frank Sullivan. Calling for a switch at halftime from man-to-man to zone defense, Sullivan watched his team rally at the beginning of the second stanza to seize a 50-45 lead with 12:27 left in the game.

Although St. Francis fought back gamely to lead, 53-54, with 10:05 remaining, Harvard's withering 1-3-1 trap ultimately proved too much to handle, and the Crimson pulled away down the stretch.

"It was unbelievable how disorganized they got, once we put in the 1-3-1," Gilmore said. "The key to the win was definitely the defense."

Harvard triumphed despite strong performances by a couple of new faces on the St. Francis roster. The Terriers surrendered meekly in a 25-point blowout to the Crimson last season at Briggs Cage, but they were bolstered this time by two transfers, Robert Bailey and Harlon Lewis.

Bailey, who transferred from Boston University, scored 22 points on eight-of-16 shooting from the field, including four-of-10 from three-point range.

And, although Lewis played only 18 minutes, scored eight points and grabbed two rebounds, in addition to adding some much-needed size to the St. Francis front line.

St. Francis aside, though, the bottom line for Harvard now is the victory. With it, Harvard sets the stage for a three-game homestand that begins tomorrow night at 7 pm against Holy Cross.

This was a huge win, getting us even 500," Rankin said. "Once you get a losing record, things tend to snowball, so it was important for us to get this one. We can build on it from here with the games this week." Harvard  79 St. Francis  68