M. Hoops Remains At Home On Road

Lavietes Pavilion may have installed more comfortable bleachers this offseason, but the best place to watch the Harvard men’s basketball team continues to be on the road. After all, that’s where the Crimson has been the hottest.

Coach Frank Sullivan’s road warriors won their third straight game and stayed undefeated away from Cambridge with a 76-71 victory against Colgate Friday night.

Captain Brady Merchant led the Crimson (5-2) with 18 points and seven rebounds. Twelve of his points came in the first half, when Harvard used a 22-8 run to help turn a two-point deficit into a 40-28 halftime advantage.

The win improved Harvard’s road mark to 4-0 and wrapped up a two-game road swing that also included a triple-overtime win at Rider last Tuesday night.

“This was a huge game for us,” Merchant said. “Not only was it important to win on the road, but it got us over a hump that’s bothered us for a while. We haven’t beaten Colgate in five years.”

An inconsistent road team in the recent past, the Crimson is off to its best start away from Lavietes Pavilion since 1996. Harvard finished 10-4 in the Ivy League that year.

The Crimson was 4-9 on the road last season.

“We’ve always been strong in our gym,” said senior center Brian Sigafoos. “We feel like we can beat anybody there. What’s been important is to play well on the road.”

So far, Harvard has met that goal.

“What I’m seeing from us is consistency,” Merchant said. “I would say this is the strongest we’ve been [in the last four years]. I can’t picture any team that can put as much experience on the floor at once as we can.”

Senior point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman flirted with a triple-double for the second straight game Friday, dishing out a season-high nine assists to go along with eight points and six rebounds.

Against Rider last week, he had 14 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. He also had the game-winning basket in the 85-82 win.

“Something I see in his game is a new attitude—he really has a sense of urgency about him this year,” Merchant said. “I think he recognizes this is his last year to get to the [NCAA] tournament.”

After the game Friday, Colgate coach Emmett Davis told reporters he couldn’t have been more impressed with Prasse-Freeman.

“I think he is as smart a player as I’ve ever coached against,” Davis said.

Harvard senior shooting guard Patrick Harvey scored eight points in 27 minutes, good enough to reach the 1,000-point milestone for his career, but still well below his usual production. Harvey, who is just the 21st player in school history to reach that scoring plateau, netted half of his points Friday at the free throw line and had just four attempts from the floor.

Plagued by a foot problem this year, Harvey is averaging 13.4 points per game, almost five points below his scoring pace as a junior. He is shooting just over 32 percent (28-for-86) from the field through the season’s first seven games.

“It’s unfair to just look at the statistics because [Harvey’s] taking a lot of attention from other people,” Merchant said. “I’ve been able to score some points and Elliott has, too. When Elliott drives past a guy, we don’t have to worry about that extra defender.”

“For us, he’s the same Pat he’s always been,” Sigafoos added. “His numbers are down, but whatever.”

So far, the effect of Harvey’s quiet start has been alleviated by increased production from his teammates. That trend continued Saturday. Besides Merchant—whose game-high output Friday came on the heels of a career-best 25-point effort at Rider—Harvard received another healthy showing from its frontcourt. Senior Sam Winter had 12 points, freshman center Brian Cusworth contributed a career-high 11 points and Sigafoos added 10.

Sophomore guard Kevin Rogus also had six points off the bench on a pair of threes.

Colgate (3-5) outrebounded Harvard 35-33 and forced 17 Harvard turnovers, compared to just 12 by the Red Raiders. But the Crimson’s suffocating field-goal defense won out, as it held Colgate to just 37.9 shooting for the game, including 34 percent during the first half.

The Red Raiders shot just 1-of-9 from the three-point line in that frame, which proved decisive. Though the Crimson let Colgate creep to within two points after halftime, Harvard never relinquished the lead.

The Crimson returns home tomorrow night for a 7 p.m. meeting with Vermont. A year ago, the Catamounts scorched the Crimson 74-54 in Burlington, Vt., on the strength of a 23-4 first-half run.

After Vermont, Harvard will host Mercer on Thursday.

“These next two games are pretty big for us,” Cusworth said. “We’re 1-2 at home right now and we know we’re capable of a better percentage than that.”

—Staff writer Brian E. Fallon can be reached at bfallon@fas.harvard.edu.

M. HOOPS 76, COLGATE 71

at Hamilton, N.Y.

HARVARD (5-2) Prasse-Freeman 2-3 3-5 8, Merchant 8-11 0-2 18, Harvey 2-4 4-6 8, Winter 5-9 0-1 12, Sigafoos 4-5 2-2 10, Rogus 2-4 0-0 6, Stehle 0-1 0-0 0, Beal 0-0 0-0 0, Norman 0-0 0-0 0, Beatty 1-2 1-1 3, Cusworth 4-5 3-3 11. Totals 28-44 13-20 76.

COLGATE (3-5) Blue 6-13 6-9 18, Hardy 4-10 3-4 13, Linebaugh 3-12 2-4 9, Sullivan 2-7 0-0 5, Zidar 3-7 2-4 8, Ballard 1-2 0-0 3, Williams 0-3 0-0 0, Shirley 1-1 1-1 3, Marek 0-2 0-0 0, Reed 5-9 0-1 12. Totals 25-66 14-23 71.

Halftime—Harvard 40, Colgate 28. Three-Point Goals—Harvard 7-12 (Prasse-Freeman 1-2, Merchant 2-4, Winter 2-2, Rogus 2-4), Colgate 7-22 (Hardy 2-3, Linebaugh 1-6, Sullivan 1-5, Ballard 1-2, Williams 0-2, Reed 2-4). Fouled out—Sigafoos. Rebounds—Harvard 33 (Merchant 7), Colgate 35 (Blue 12). Assists—Harvard 15 (Prasse-Freeman 9), Colgate 12 (Linebaugh 3). Total Fouls—Harvard 19, Colgate 22. A—418.