Penn, Princeton Top M. Basketball

PRINCETON, N.J.--The game of basketball, for all its complex zone defenses, backdoor cuts and pick-and-rolls, has one beautifully simple axiom: to score, the ball must go through the net.

The Harvard men's basketball team learned this the hard way this weekend, losing to Ivy League-leading Penn, 79-52, Friday night and then dropping a 73-55 decision to Princeton the following evening. Both games were marked by intense Crimson defense for the first 10 minutes, combined with an anemic offense for the entire game.

Princeton 73, Harvard 55

Following the rough loss to Penn 24 hours earlier, the Crimson had to travel up the Jersey Turnpike to take on an equally-tough Princeton squad on Saturday. While last year Harvard may have beat the Tigers in Cambridge, it didn't stand a chance in Jadwin Gymnasium and 6,500 loud Princeton fans.

Harvard (8-13, 3-5 Ivy) started out strong defensively, limiting the Tigers' motion attack. Both teams went early with the 3-point shot and it paid dividends. Captain Damian Long hit three early 3-pointers, but Princeton center Chris Young responded with the same feat--leading to an early 13-13 tie.

But while the Crimson was able to contain the Princeton offense for a short time, it couldn't take advantage of the situation on its own offense. The two-point shot was almost non-existent, and the layup proved to be quite a hindrance as well. For the game, Harvard had 11 offensive rebounds and scored zero points off those chances.

With the lack of an inside game, Harvard couldn't hold off Princeton (13-8, 5-1) forever. Young had 20 points in the first half alone and the Tigers found their shooting touch from guard Ahmed El-Nokali who added seven more. For the Crimson, junior forward Dan Clemente, junior center Tim Coleman and freshman guard Brady Merchant went a combined 2-for-20 from the floor and Harvard finished the half down 29-17. The Crimson had gone only 4-of-25 (16 percent) from inside the arc.

"We shot absolutely poorly on two-point shots," said Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan. "I think we had something like 11 offensive boards and they didn't amount to anything."

The rout continued in the second half. Princeton began to pull away and only Long, who finished with 15 points, was able to keep it somewhat close. The Crimson finally went to the line for the first time in the game with Coleman's attempts three minutes into the half.

The Crimson's shooting percentage picked up considerably in the second half as the Princeton reserves made their defensive presence felt by letting the Crimson shoot 60 percent from the floor in the second half. It didn't matter because the Tigers still one-upped the Crimson, shooting 61 percent in the latter half.

Young was the answer Saturday night. The center finished 4-of-5 from 3-point land and 10-of-11 overall for a career-high 30 points. The 3-point shots were especially amazing, considering they came off screens and were always set shots from the top of the key. Young made a mockery of everyone who tried to guard him, including Coleman and Clemente.

"We were incapable at the five-spot tonight," Sullivan said. "We put a smaller guy on him, a bigger guy on him. Young was absolutely terrific."

The Crimson defense overall in the second half was equally as incapable. None of Sullivan's permutations seemed to work on the Tigers' variation of the motion offense. When Harvard went into the zone, it initially frustrated the Tigers, but they easily recovered and El-Nokali hit the outside shots and finished with 13 points. When Harvard went into a full-court press, the results were almost comical, as Young had a slam dunk off an easy break and the Tigers also completed a "home-run pass" play behind two Crimson defenders.

Harvard came up short on the offensive end and the Tiger defense capitalized on the fact that the Crimson attack is very limited. Only Long was "on" the whole night, and the result was an 18-point defeat.

Penn 79, Harvard 52

The Friday night game provided an almost perfect template for the Princeton game. Harvard and Penn both played tight defense early in the first half, but the Crimson was unable to score inside, leading to an early 20-9 deficit.

Sophomore guard Drew Gellert showed off amazing defensive skill from the tip-off, constantly frustrating star Penn guard Michael Jordan--no relation to His Airness. However, Harvard switched to a zone midway through the first half and Jordan was able to break free from Gellert to finish the first half with 13 points.

While Jordan scored, the Crimson, and especially Clemente, faltered. Layup after layup rimmed out and Harvard went 9-of-29 from the floor, including 1-of-9 (11.1 percent) from behind the arc. Clemente couldn't buy a bucket except for a short jump shot and had two points in the half. It would be the only points he scored.

Harvard was lucky to go to the locker room only down 32-19 at the half, considering it shot so poorly. In addition, Penn (12-7, 5-0) went 9-of-9 from the free throw line while the Crimson didn't even get one trip.

"We were solid defensively and held them to under 40 percent shooting in the first half," said Sullivan. "But we just couldn't score."

The Crimson's woes continued in the second half as the Quakers pulled away. Timely basket after timely basket by unheralded players like forward Frank Brown, who had 15 points on 3-of-3 3-point shooting, and guard Matt Langel, who added six assists, kept any hope of a Crimson comeback on the bench. The Quakers, in fact, used 13 players, including playing guys normally reserved for junior varsity.

While Jordan's 20 points overall weren't that impressive, his ball-handling and off-the-ball movement showed why he is the best player in the Ivy League. On one sequence in the second half, he made several ankle-breaking crossover dribbles to embarrass Harvard defenders. While Sullivan made sure his players always kept two eyes on Jordan, the Penn offense set screens and picks to set him free. Once he had the ball, he showed off his experience, either on crisp entry passes or forays into the lane.

"We had no answers for anything," Sullivan said. "We didn't play well at all. We've never seen guys hold on to the ball so well."

Clemente had the first of his two poor nights. He finished 1-of-9 overall and 0-of-6 from downtown. He fouled out with six minutes left in the game, and his two points were a season low.

In reality, the two poor nights weren't all his fault. The Quakers had Clemente marked from the beginning, and he got few quality shots off. Most defenses Harvard had faced played a collapsing defense, leaving Clemente to drain his long-range shots.

"Both teams guarded us very well," Sullivan said. "And we showed we don't have many answers when Dan isn't on."