Marist Outfoxes M. Basketball, 87-82

A lack of size, speed and ball-handling ability doomed the Harvard men's basketball team, as it lost for the first time last night, dropping an 87-82 decision to Marist at Lavietes Pavilion.

Marist (2-2) led for the entire game, and although the Crimson closed to 79-75 with 38 seconds left, Marist made 6-of-6 free throws after that to close out the win.

Junior forward Dan Clemente scored a game-high 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-10 from three-point range. Captain Damian Long had 16 points, while forward Tim Coleman and guard Andrew Gellert also finished in double figures for the Crimson.

Guard Rick Smith had 20 points in 22 minutes for Marist, including 7-of-8 from the line. Six players overall for Marist were in double digits in points, and forward Tomasz Cielebak had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

For the second straight game, Harvard scored 50 or more points in the second half, but with the Red Foxes muscling the ball inside and picking up offensive rebounds, the Crimson defense was unable to make Harvard's offensive prowess count.

The key statistic in this game was rebounds. Marist ended up outrebounding Harvard (3-1) 40-32 and getting 19 points off offensive rebounds. With Marist playing 6'9 Cielebak and 6'10 center Tom Kenney under the basket, the Crimson didn't have the size to get good position.

In its three previous victories, Harvard had averaged 36.3 rebounds to its opponents' 35 a game.

"They had too many second-chance opportunities," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "They had more height. We need rebounding out of the five and three-spot."

Coleman finished with only two rebounds and forward Bryan Parker had four. Harvard's leading rebounders were Clemente and Gellert with six and five, respectively, but they often just picked up long rebounds or loose balls.

Marist started off quick and built a nine-point lead early in the first half. Long started off slow, missing two three-pointers in the first three minutes. Harvard caught up, though, and stayed in the game in the early minutes on many trips to the free-throw line. In the first half, the Crimson shot 10-of-15 from the line.

The rest of the half resembled the Crimson's weekend game against Lehigh. In that game, turnovers and poor interior defense led to easy scores for Lehigh. Yesterday, Harvard again came out mistake-prone, turning the ball over 11 times in the first half and shooting only 9-of-25.

Marist scored 19 points off 17 Crimson turnovers on the night.

"The steals really hurt us," Sullivan said. "It's tough when the steals are so dramatic and lead to so many points."

Clemente's offensive ineffectiveness in the first half was also part of the problem. Marist played smaller, quicker forwards or guards against him, forcing him to go more to a post-up offense and taking away his outside shot. He had only six points in the first half and missed his two three-point attempts.

"I didn't get any good looks in the first half," Clemente said.

That was partly due to design.

"I think we did a good job defensively on him, at least in the first half," Marist Coach Dave Magarity said. "He may be one of the best offensive players we see this season. He's Larry Bird-like."

The Crimson was able to put together a small run near the end of the half and was down only seven, 36-29.

Coming out the second half, Harvard finally showed it could make a shot, but was still unable to stop Marist from scoring. Clemente hit his first three-pointer of the night early in the half, making it the 22nd straight game in which he hit a three and extending his own school record.

Harvard and the Red Foxes parried for the next several minutes, with the Crimson staying within 10 points of Marist.

One of the highlight-reel plays of the night happened with 14:58 to go in the game. After a particularly ugly sequence in which both teams turned the ball over and committed fouls, 6'8 freshman forward Onnie Mayshak read a Cielebak pass and picked it off at midcourt. With the crowd cheering and no defender in front of him, Mayshak finished off the fast break with a thundering dunk that brought down the house and the lead, to 47-38.

While Harvard tried going to the full-court press from time to time, Marist was able to break it with relative ease. The Marist defense, however, while not as strong, was nonetheless effective at getting Harvard guards like freshman Elliott Prasse-Freeman to make bad decisions. Prasse-Freeman turned the ball over four times, often on poor interior passes.

"I think they played a pretty bad defense, actually," Gellert said. "It was just that our offense wasn't as strong. We can't let them shoot 59 percent in the second half and expect to win."

Marist went 17-of-28 in the second, 60.7 percent from the floor.

The Red Fox offense was marked by excellent passing and good distribution. On many possessions, Marist got a good inside shot without the ball ever touching the floor--basically, the passes were crisp, quick and left the Harvard defenders confused.

In the last five minutes, Harvard went to Clemente and slowly chipped away at the lead, getting it down to five. However, time--and defense--was not on the team's side as it was forced to foul in the end and give up the close decision. Clemente was able to get 20 points in the second half and force up some shots from three-point range.

"In the last two games, our opponents' defense on us was good," Sullivan said. "But then it loosened up. Once we get in the rhythm, we're okay. We'll go through ups and downs, but tonight was a good, solid game."

"Rebounding and defense lost the game," Clemente said. "If we don't do those things, we're not gonna win the game. This is our first loss, and we're going to learn from it, definitely."

The Crimson will have to, if it hopes to do well in its next game against Patriot League power Navy on Saturday at Lavietes.