M. B-Ballers Fall to Brown, End Season Tonight at Yale

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Harvard men's basketball team was overrun by Brown, 65-60, due to a second-half Bears surge here at Williams Center last night.

Brown (12-13, 6-7) overcame a 32-30 halftime deficit and outplayed Harvard (9-16, 5-8) in the second half except for a late Crimson rally. Harvard's loss is the fourth in its last give games.

"We had a stretch in the second half where they were able to take quick possession on offense and defense," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "But we bounced back."

Harvard and Brown both got off to quick starts on the offensive end. Only four minutes into the game, both teams were on a pace to score 100 points.

"I think we got off to a good start offensively," freshman Kyle Snowden (10 points, 4 rebounds) said. "[But] defensively we let down in transition."

"We had an [offensive] string at the beginning that got [Brown] going," Mike Gilmore (a team-high 12 points) said. "It set the tone."

Even so, the Crimson's offense was able to keep a step ahead of its counterpart throughout the first half.

The second half, however, was a different story. Brown gained the lead for good at the 15:07 mark and would slowly increase it to a 61-51 margin thanks to tough inside play.

The Bear defense, with five block's on the night, forced the Crimson's offense to move to the perimeter.

"There was a lot of pushing down there," Snowden said. "I was almost forced to shoot fade-away shots."

Harvard then tried to make a comeback, but it was too little, too late.

"We tried to run the same type of offense [as the first half]," Snowden said. "But when you get that far behind, it's hard."

The Crimson tried to come back behind some of the best defense the team has played all season. The Bears were held to two points in the last 6:07, both of which came from the free-throw line.

Those two points, however, came with nine seconds left and stretched Brown's lead to five, thus ending Harvard's hopes making a dramatic comeback.

"Both teams played good defense at the end of the ballgame," Sullivan said.

Brown, however, took its sweet time on offense. Even though the Bears were unable to score, they ran the clock down and avoided turning the ball over for the most part.

Harvard was also handicapped by the fact that it practically did not foul at all in the second half, thus making it difficult to force the Bears to the line in the closing minutes.

Sullivan nevertheless was pleased by his team's discipline.

"It was an unusual feeling [to have so few fouls]--there was more flow to the game," Sullivan said. "It definitely helped us for them not to be in the bonus offensively."

Sullivan also praised Harvard's intensity: "You can't quarrel with the effort. We feel disappointed about the loss, but we'll bounce back."

The Crimson's only chance to do that lies in New Haven. Tonight Harvard faces Yale in its season finale and for a chance to end the season on a positive note.