Prasse-Freeman Passes Them All

It was one small step for Dartmouth’s Charles Harris, and one giant leap into the record books for Elliott Prasse-Freeman.

The heady senior point guard dished out seven assists Saturday to become the Ivy League’s all-time leader in that category as the Harvard men’s basketball team barely edged the Big Green, 69-68, in Hanover, N.H.

The Crimson (10-5, 2-0 Ivy) was clinging to a three-point lead with two seconds left when Dartmouth’s Harris sank what he intended to be a game-tying three-pointer. Harris, who was guarded by Harvard senior forward Sam Winter, took one extra dribble before he released the shot, just stepping inside the line and allowing Harvard to hang on by the slimmest of margins.

“Sam did an awesome job defending Harris out on the perimeter,” senior center Brian Sigafoos said. “He was in his face contesting the shot. Harris took two dribbles and the second one brought him just inside the line. The Dartmouth bench was celebrating like they had just tied the game, but we knew it was a two. It was too bad for them.”

Harvard senior guard Patrick Harvey posted a game-high 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting. He nailed 4-of-5 critical free throws down the stretch as the Crimson improved to 2-0 in league play heading into first-semester exams.

The Crimson will resume its conference season in three weeks with what is perennially its toughest test, the road trip to Princeton and Penn.

“It’s a great thing,” Prasse-Freeman said of the earlier-than-usual visit to the Killer P’s. “It’s a chance to go after the hegemons of our league right away and make a statement.”

Prasse-Freeman made a statement of his own Saturday when he officially moved ahead of Yale great Peter White ’87 on the all-time assist list. The record-breaking pass came on an inbound play, when Prasse-Freeman took the ball quickly from the referee and found captain Brady Merchant (14 points) on a baseline cut for a layup.

“I’m just relieved and glad to get it out of my head so I can focus on the Ivy League season,” Prasse-Freeman said of the milestone. “I did a bunch of interviews with hometown papers and with Channel 5 from Boston lately, so I was ready to just get it out of the way.”

Not even six turnovers or an 0-for-5 three-point shooting effort could spoil Prasse-Freeman’s historic night. His teammates made sure of that, committing just four additional giveaways and hitting eight of their 20 shots from beyond the arc.

“Elliott takes a lot of chances, but most of the time they pay off,” Sigafoos said. “His passes are always two steps ahead of the defender and even before the offensive player makes his move. A lot of times, the defense is just in shock because they thought nothing was open.”

Harvey spearheaded the Crimson’s effort from downtown, knocking down five three-pointers. His three-point binge came much to the chagrin of Dartmouth’s defense, which in the course of one week has been damned when it did overplay Harvey and damned when it didn’t.

In the Crimson’s 67-50 win last weekend, Dartmouth coach Dave Faucher committed his defense to stopping Harvey and the rest of the Harvard backcourt, instructing his forwards to cheat off their inside assignments to help out on the Crimson guards. That strategy backfired, as Harvard’s guards simply fed the ball into the post behind the Big Green’s hedging forwards for easy layups underneath. The biggest beneficiary of Faucher’s game plan was Sigafoos, who tallied a career-high 24 points.

On Saturday, Dartmouth (4-8, 0-2) played the Crimson frontcourt honestly—“they came after us right away because we put up such good numbers last time,” Sigafoos said about himself and Winter—but the Big Green paid for it.

“They definitely swarmed the post,” said Prasse-Freeman, who finished with six points. “They were fading on our guards a lot, too.”

Harvard needed to shoot well to keep up with Dartmouth’s free-wheeling barrage from outside. The Big Green, which runs a Princeton-style offense that uses screens to free up shooters along the perimeter, launched almost two-thirds of its attempts from the three-point line. Dartmouth converted 50 percent of those tries (14 for 28).

Big Green guard Mike McLaren (21 points) inflicted the most damage, hitting five of his six threes during a back-and-forth second half that saw seven lead changes.

But Dartmouth’s shooting tapered off as Harvard pushed its lead to nine, 65-56, behind a 9-2 run. Harvey had five points and Winter (15 points) added four during the spurt, while Dartmouth missed all four of its field-goal attempts, each of them from behind the arc.

But the Big Green responded with a run of its own, highlighted by two fearless treys by freshman Calvin Arnold, a contender for Ivy Rookie of the Year. The second of those buckets trimmed Harvard’s lead to two with 30 seconds left.

Give Dartmouth’s shooters an inch and they’ll take a three. But of all the activity happening beyond the arc Saturday, the Big Green’s most consequential three-pointer was the one that wasn’t.

When Harvey hit only one of two free throws with 10 seconds left, Dartmouth remained within one possession of the lead. The Big Green raced down the floor in eight seconds and Harris got off a good shot, but unleashed it just inside the arc. After Harvey inbounded the ball, Merchant held onto it as the final ticks expired.

For the game, the Crimson grabbed 13 offensive rebounds compared to just one by Dartmouth. That helped Harvard to a 9-0 advantage on second-chance points. Overall, the Crimson outrebounded the Big Green 35-25, with Sigafoos and Winter each corralling 11 boards.

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