M. Hoopsters Repeat .500 Performance

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--It's a record that the Harvard men's basketball Class of 1999 started building four years ago. HARVARD  70 BROWN  64 HARVARD  81 YALE  58

After a pair of road wins over small-timers Brown and Yale, five Harvard seniors can finally claim it: the winningest four years in school history.

The Crimson (13-13, 7-7 Ivy) posted its 58th win since the beginning of the 1995-96 season and, by finishing .500, earned its fourth straight non-losing season--the first time since 1928 that's happened.

Harvard also secured fourth place in the Ivy League by outlasting a late Brown (4-22, 2-12) rally 70-64 on Friday night and then routing Yale (4-22, 2-12) 81-58 on Saturday.

"On Friday, it was amazing how

focused everyone was," said sophomore forwardDan Clemente. "We knew we wanted to go out and getthe record, and it's great for the seniors that wedid."

Clemente poured in 42 points on the weekend,shooting 15-of-26 from the floor and making seventhree-pointers. Shooting guard Mike Beam added 38points, going 10-of-18 from behind the arc to tiethe single-season mark for threes with 73.

Harvard 81, Yale 58

Clemente keyed a 22-0 second-half run byhitting 4-of-5 from three-point range, and theCrimson hit a school-record 15 treys to round outthe season with an 81-58 blowout win over Yale atLee Amphitheater.

Clemente finished with 25 points on 8-of-11shooting and Beam added 17-shooting 5-of-9 fromdistance-as Harvard outscored Yale 56-32 after theinter-mission.

"There's not much to say," Clemente said. "Thefirst couple of threes I shot felt good, I keptmaking them and then it was like, whoa! Zonecheck!"

Harvard trailed 26-25 at the break and allowedthe Bulldogs the first three points of the secondbefore launching the run that put the game away.

After senior center Bill Ewing's baselinejumper and senior guard Tim Hill's drive pulledthe Crimson even at 29-29, Clemente corralled aloose ball several feet behind the top of the arcand launched a 25-foot attempt with the shot clockexpiring, shockingly familiar to his make lastweek against Princeton.

This time, however, Clemente got nothing butair, and the 2,419 in attendance let him know it.

"That one, I rushed a little bit," Clementelaughed. "[Senior point guard Tim Hill] kind ofrolled it to me and the shot clock was almostgone."

But Clemente was untouchable on every otherattempt, thriving in the mismatch with Bulldogcenter Neil Yanke. He scored 12 of the Crimson'snext 18 points, all on spot-up threes generated byhis characteristic head fake and good offensiverotation.

Senior center Bill Ewing added four of his 10second-half points on a turnaround jumper from thelow post and a 10-footer from the baseline and theCrimson established a 47-29 lead with 11:42 toplay.

"Our first half was definitely sloppy," Hillsaid. "But in the second we switched to a zone andI think that took away some of their momentum anddemoralized them. That and the fact that we werehitting so many threes--Clemente and Beam justcaught on fire."

The Bulldogs never got closer than 15 the restof the way. Harvard outpaced Yale and demonstratedterrific ball movement, particularly from Hill,who finished with 13 points and 10 assists.

Yale shot just 34 percent from the floor and anugly 9-of-28 from behind the arc. Swingman CharliePetit was the most liberal of the Chuckers, makingonly 3-of-11.

Harvard 70, Brown 64

Harvard began its season's final weekend ofhoops Friday night in Providence, taking on lowlyBrown.

And despite some lights-out shooting early onfrom Beam and Clemente, the Crimson just barelyhung on to defeat the Bears 70-64 at the PizzitolaCenter in Providence, R.I.

"Brown didn't start out too well, but then theyplayed very aggressively," said Harvard CoachFrank Sullivan. "They put out a little more thanme expected, but we retained our poise throughoutthe evening."

In the previous match-up between the two teams,Hill smoked the Brown defense for a career-high 28points, scoring seemingly at will. But from theoutset, it became clear that the Bears would notallow that to happen again--as it pressured thesenior point guard whenever he got the ball.

"Brown was really aggressive swarming [Hill],probably because of his performance against themlast time, and his games last week," Beam said."So every time he penetrated they surrounded him,and he could kick it out to us for some good openlooks."

And Beam made sure to make good on those looks,as he led the Crimson out of the box, as Harvardjumped out all over the Bears. The Crimson openedthe game on a 20-9 run over the first six minutesof the contest.

Over that span, Beam netted 11 points hitting4-of-6 from the field, including 3-of-4 frombehind the arc, to pace the Crimson.

Brown did not crumble after the earlyonslaught. Instead, led by senior center KamalRountree, the Bears slowly began to claw their wayback into the game.

After missing his first two shots, Rountree--whoat 6'8 plays more like a small forward than acenter--began to heat up. Taking advantage of hissuperior quickness and his nice touch from theperimeter, Rountree hit 5-of-6 from the field therest of the half for 11 points, to help the Bearsgo into the break trailing just 34-27.

"Kamal is a very versatile player," Hill said."Anytime you get a guy who's 6'8 can move andshoot like he does, he'll be real tough to guard."

At the intermission Beam led all scorers with14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-6from distance. Clemente was also hitting on allcylinders, as he entered the half with 11 pointson 5-of-7 shooting, including one from downtown.

"I had big guys on me all night, who probablyaren't used to covering guys who can shoot likeme," Clemente said. "So theydidn't really put their hands up on me when I wasoutside, and I got some good looks."

Hill, although not scoring, was effectivelyrunning the offense for Harvard, dishing out eightassists by the break, against only one turnover.

With his seventh assist in the game--a feed toBeam for a trey to give Harvard a 30-20 lead--Hillmoved into second place all time in the Ivy Leaguewith 578 career assists. This came a week afterHill became the all-time assist champion for theCrimson.

In the second half, things didn't come so easyfor the Crimson however, as the Brown pressure, aswell as the fast paced nature of the game, seemedto take its toll on Harvard.

The Crimson shot 60 percent from behind thethree-point arc in the first half on 6-of-10shooting. After the break, however, Harvard nettedjust one trey in seven attempts for a slim 14.3percent clip.

Brown, on the other hand, started to heat up.After shooting just 38.7 percent from the field inthe first, the Bears hit on 46.7 percent in thesecond, including 5-10 from three-point land.

Leading the way for Brown as usual wasRountree. He improved on his already solid firsthalf performance, by netting 16 more points afterthe intermission. Rountree finished the contestwith 27 points, on 11-of-21 shooting, to go alongwith seven rebounds.

"We knew it would be a challenge to cover[Rountree]," Sulivan said. "I thought Bill Ewingdid a pretty good job on him, though. Rountree isgoing to get his points, because he's as good ascorer as there is in the league."

Harvard, meanwhile begun showing signs offatigue, as its play was marred by poor shooting,poor ball-handling and just sloppy play overall.

Brown capitalized knotting the game at 45, but,led by some aggressive play on the offensiveboards, the Crimson answered with an 11-2 run toonce again extend its lead.

But Brown once again showed surprisingresilience, scratching its way back to tie thegame at 59-59 with 3:00 remaining in the game.

"Brown played really hard and aggressively allevening," Sullivan said. "But I liked the way westayed focused and in control, even when they tiedit up. A big key for us was getting so manysecond-chance points."

With the game knotted at 59, Harvard looked toits strongest scoring threat--Clemente--for a lift,and the sophomore delivered. Receiving the ball inthe post, Clemente muscled inside for a toughlay-up, picking up a foul in the process. He madegood on he free throw, putting Harvard up forgood.

"In the second half I saw some of our guysgetting winded," Hill said, "so I tried to slow upthe pace, which might have hurt our rhythm. But Ithink down the stretch it helped us out."

Over the last two minutes Hill took control ofthe offense, scoring he Crimson's eight finalpoints. He knifed through the lane for a lay-up,and hit all six of his free throws down thestretch to clinch the win for Harvard.

Hill finished the game with 16 points and nineassists. Clemente scored 17 points on the night on7-of 15 shooting. And Beam led the Crimson with 21points, hitting on 8-of-15 from the floor,including 5-of-9 from distance. Beam also addedseven rebounds.

Notes

Senior guard Chris Dexter, who has beeninjury-plagued for the majority of his Harvardcareer, made 2-of-4 from three-point range in thewin against Yale, including he Crimson's last two,which provided the school mark.CrimsonAbigail H. ZobaTOWER OF POWER: Sophomore forward DANCLEMENTE, elevating in Harvard's 70-64 win atBrown, scored 42 points over the weekend.

focused everyone was," said sophomore forwardDan Clemente. "We knew we wanted to go out and getthe record, and it's great for the seniors that wedid."

Clemente poured in 42 points on the weekend,shooting 15-of-26 from the floor and making seventhree-pointers. Shooting guard Mike Beam added 38points, going 10-of-18 from behind the arc to tiethe single-season mark for threes with 73.

Harvard 81, Yale 58

Clemente keyed a 22-0 second-half run byhitting 4-of-5 from three-point range, and theCrimson hit a school-record 15 treys to round outthe season with an 81-58 blowout win over Yale atLee Amphitheater.

Clemente finished with 25 points on 8-of-11shooting and Beam added 17-shooting 5-of-9 fromdistance-as Harvard outscored Yale 56-32 after theinter-mission.

"There's not much to say," Clemente said. "Thefirst couple of threes I shot felt good, I keptmaking them and then it was like, whoa! Zonecheck!"

Harvard trailed 26-25 at the break and allowedthe Bulldogs the first three points of the secondbefore launching the run that put the game away.

After senior center Bill Ewing's baselinejumper and senior guard Tim Hill's drive pulledthe Crimson even at 29-29, Clemente corralled aloose ball several feet behind the top of the arcand launched a 25-foot attempt with the shot clockexpiring, shockingly familiar to his make lastweek against Princeton.

This time, however, Clemente got nothing butair, and the 2,419 in attendance let him know it.

"That one, I rushed a little bit," Clementelaughed. "[Senior point guard Tim Hill] kind ofrolled it to me and the shot clock was almostgone."

But Clemente was untouchable on every otherattempt, thriving in the mismatch with Bulldogcenter Neil Yanke. He scored 12 of the Crimson'snext 18 points, all on spot-up threes generated byhis characteristic head fake and good offensiverotation.

Senior center Bill Ewing added four of his 10second-half points on a turnaround jumper from thelow post and a 10-footer from the baseline and theCrimson established a 47-29 lead with 11:42 toplay.

"Our first half was definitely sloppy," Hillsaid. "But in the second we switched to a zone andI think that took away some of their momentum anddemoralized them. That and the fact that we werehitting so many threes--Clemente and Beam justcaught on fire."

The Bulldogs never got closer than 15 the restof the way. Harvard outpaced Yale and demonstratedterrific ball movement, particularly from Hill,who finished with 13 points and 10 assists.

Yale shot just 34 percent from the floor and anugly 9-of-28 from behind the arc. Swingman CharliePetit was the most liberal of the Chuckers, makingonly 3-of-11.

Harvard 70, Brown 64

Harvard began its season's final weekend ofhoops Friday night in Providence, taking on lowlyBrown.

And despite some lights-out shooting early onfrom Beam and Clemente, the Crimson just barelyhung on to defeat the Bears 70-64 at the PizzitolaCenter in Providence, R.I.

"Brown didn't start out too well, but then theyplayed very aggressively," said Harvard CoachFrank Sullivan. "They put out a little more thanme expected, but we retained our poise throughoutthe evening."

In the previous match-up between the two teams,Hill smoked the Brown defense for a career-high 28points, scoring seemingly at will. But from theoutset, it became clear that the Bears would notallow that to happen again--as it pressured thesenior point guard whenever he got the ball.

"Brown was really aggressive swarming [Hill],probably because of his performance against themlast time, and his games last week," Beam said."So every time he penetrated they surrounded him,and he could kick it out to us for some good openlooks."

And Beam made sure to make good on those looks,as he led the Crimson out of the box, as Harvardjumped out all over the Bears. The Crimson openedthe game on a 20-9 run over the first six minutesof the contest.

Over that span, Beam netted 11 points hitting4-of-6 from the field, including 3-of-4 frombehind the arc, to pace the Crimson.

Brown did not crumble after the earlyonslaught. Instead, led by senior center KamalRountree, the Bears slowly began to claw their wayback into the game.

After missing his first two shots, Rountree--whoat 6'8 plays more like a small forward than acenter--began to heat up. Taking advantage of hissuperior quickness and his nice touch from theperimeter, Rountree hit 5-of-6 from the field therest of the half for 11 points, to help the Bearsgo into the break trailing just 34-27.

"Kamal is a very versatile player," Hill said."Anytime you get a guy who's 6'8 can move andshoot like he does, he'll be real tough to guard."

At the intermission Beam led all scorers with14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-6from distance. Clemente was also hitting on allcylinders, as he entered the half with 11 pointson 5-of-7 shooting, including one from downtown.

"I had big guys on me all night, who probablyaren't used to covering guys who can shoot likeme," Clemente said. "So theydidn't really put their hands up on me when I wasoutside, and I got some good looks."

Hill, although not scoring, was effectivelyrunning the offense for Harvard, dishing out eightassists by the break, against only one turnover.

With his seventh assist in the game--a feed toBeam for a trey to give Harvard a 30-20 lead--Hillmoved into second place all time in the Ivy Leaguewith 578 career assists. This came a week afterHill became the all-time assist champion for theCrimson.

In the second half, things didn't come so easyfor the Crimson however, as the Brown pressure, aswell as the fast paced nature of the game, seemedto take its toll on Harvard.

The Crimson shot 60 percent from behind thethree-point arc in the first half on 6-of-10shooting. After the break, however, Harvard nettedjust one trey in seven attempts for a slim 14.3percent clip.

Brown, on the other hand, started to heat up.After shooting just 38.7 percent from the field inthe first, the Bears hit on 46.7 percent in thesecond, including 5-10 from three-point land.

Leading the way for Brown as usual wasRountree. He improved on his already solid firsthalf performance, by netting 16 more points afterthe intermission. Rountree finished the contestwith 27 points, on 11-of-21 shooting, to go alongwith seven rebounds.

"We knew it would be a challenge to cover[Rountree]," Sulivan said. "I thought Bill Ewingdid a pretty good job on him, though. Rountree isgoing to get his points, because he's as good ascorer as there is in the league."

Harvard, meanwhile begun showing signs offatigue, as its play was marred by poor shooting,poor ball-handling and just sloppy play overall.

Brown capitalized knotting the game at 45, but,led by some aggressive play on the offensiveboards, the Crimson answered with an 11-2 run toonce again extend its lead.

But Brown once again showed surprisingresilience, scratching its way back to tie thegame at 59-59 with 3:00 remaining in the game.

"Brown played really hard and aggressively allevening," Sullivan said. "But I liked the way westayed focused and in control, even when they tiedit up. A big key for us was getting so manysecond-chance points."

With the game knotted at 59, Harvard looked toits strongest scoring threat--Clemente--for a lift,and the sophomore delivered. Receiving the ball inthe post, Clemente muscled inside for a toughlay-up, picking up a foul in the process. He madegood on he free throw, putting Harvard up forgood.

"In the second half I saw some of our guysgetting winded," Hill said, "so I tried to slow upthe pace, which might have hurt our rhythm. But Ithink down the stretch it helped us out."

Over the last two minutes Hill took control ofthe offense, scoring he Crimson's eight finalpoints. He knifed through the lane for a lay-up,and hit all six of his free throws down thestretch to clinch the win for Harvard.

Hill finished the game with 16 points and nineassists. Clemente scored 17 points on the night on7-of 15 shooting. And Beam led the Crimson with 21points, hitting on 8-of-15 from the floor,including 5-of-9 from distance. Beam also addedseven rebounds.

Notes

Senior guard Chris Dexter, who has beeninjury-plagued for the majority of his Harvardcareer, made 2-of-4 from three-point range in thewin against Yale, including he Crimson's last two,which provided the school mark.CrimsonAbigail H. ZobaTOWER OF POWER: Sophomore forward DANCLEMENTE, elevating in Harvard's 70-64 win atBrown, scored 42 points over the weekend.