Upset of the Year: M. Hoops 78, Yale 71

Watching Yale coach James Jones as he sat stunned in the fourth row of the Lavietes Pavilion bleachers, it was clear that this was not where he had expected his season to die.

A week earlier, Yale had embarrassed then-Ivy leader Cornell, thumping the Big Red 67-48.

A night earlier, Yale nearly doubled up Dartmouth en route to a 78-40 victory. The Bulldogs—winners of four of their last five contests—were back in the Ivy race with a 4-3 record, just 1.5 games back of league leading Princeton.

Harvard was headed in the other direction. The Crimson came into the game winners of zero of its last five and fresh off a 91-67 drubbing the night before at the hands of Brown. Yale came into the game searching for its 10th win of the season; Harvard sought its third.

After five minutes of play in the first half, everything was as expected. Yale held a 13-4 lead, and Harvard had already lost a key player to foul trouble in junior guard Kevin Rogus, who had to take a seat after a blocking foul and a technical.

“I took a charge, I hit the ground,” Rogus said. “I didn’t say anything to the ref, didn’t say any curse words, didn’t say anything, I just hit the ground. And then they call a [technical]. There’s nothing you can do.”

But over the next five minutes the tide shifted. The Crimson role players came in and filled roles perfectly. Junior guard David Giovacchini knocked down a jumper, while sophomore forward Luke McCrone and freshman guard Jim Goffredo each knocked down threes to keep Harvard within six.

After sophomore forward Matt Stehle chipped in two buckets from close range and Rogus hit two threes, the Crimson had squared the contest at 24. Harvard pressed its advantage, taking a 35-30 lead into the locker room.

“I don’t think we came out with a great deal of intensity to start the game,” Jones said.

The halftime break did little to halt the Crimson’s momentum as it jumped out to a 46-36 lead with 16:38 remaining and appeared to be in total control. But that’s when things began to fall apart.

Yale guard Edwin Draughan went off, converting a runner in the lane, a three-pointer and a layup to pull the Bulldogs within four. Coming out of a media timeout, Yale guard Scott Gaffield stole the ball from Giovacchini and hit Draughan, who finished the fast break with a dunk. On Harvard’s next trip down the floor, Draughan stole the ball from McCrone and raced down the other end of the court, finishing a layup while drawing a foul.

“We asked Edwin at halftime to be a leader and be one of the best players on the floor—which he is,” Jones said. “And he stepped up and he made some plays.”

All told, the Bulldogs had posted an 18-5 run, had erased the double-digit deficit and had managed to forge a three-point lead of their own.

Two weeks earlier, Harvard held 14-point leads over Cornell and Columbia on consecutive nights, only to lose both games by double-digits. After watching Yale steamroll the Crimson during the middle portion of the second half, a similar fate seemed to be lurking on the horizon.

In this contest, Harvard managed to stave of that final blow. With just 5:35 remaining in the game, Rogus nailed his fifth three of the night to give the Crimson a 63-62 lead—its first in nearly seven minutes. Draughan immediately answered with a three of his own to put the Bulldogs back ahead. After the two sides traded baskets, it was Rogus’ turn once more, as he hit his sixth and final three of the night to give Harvard a 68-67 advantage.

But this time, Yale had no answer.

The Crimson scored two more buckets to push its lead to five with 2:08 to play. After a Bulldog layup, Harvard junior center Graham Beatty hit one of his two free throws to keep the Crimson ahead by two possessions.

The chants began to rise from the crowd. The sense that something special was about to happen pervaded the building.

But Draughan would have none of it. The Yale guard sliced to the basket and finished an easy layup to draw the Bulldogs to within two, 73-71, with exactly one minute to go.

Harvard remained calm on the ensuing possession, intent to play keep away until the shot clock had been sufficiently consumed. With about 10 seconds left—and 35 ticks remaining in the game—junior captain Jason Norman took his defender to the hoop. His layup bounced off the backboard and rolled off the front iron, giving Yale one final chance.

Draughan quickly brought the ball up the court for the Bulldogs. He drove to his right and then cut towards the basket, but was immediately met by sophomore guard Michael Beal. Draughan attempted to put a shot up, but Beal ripped the ball out of his hands. He dribbled to the corner, where he was fouled by Yale’s Paul Vitelli.

In a final dramatic moment that matched the intensity with which this game was fought, Jones leapt out of his seat on the Bulldog bench, ran out on to the court to protest the non-call and was hit with a technical foul, effectively clinching the game for Harvard.

As Rogus strolled down to the other end of the court to take his free throws, he raised his hand to the crowd. The Lavietes faithful roared back and the electricity that had left the building along with the five seniors last season had finally returned. Rogus nailed his two free throws and Beal hit his two as well, as the Crimson iced the 78-71 win.

And as the crowd filed out of Lavietes Pavilion, one man remained in the stands, with a look that said it all.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.