NOTEBOOK: Harris Lone Bright Spot For Crimson

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—While the rest of the Crimson (8-4) struggled mightily in the 89-55 loss to No. 14 Boston College last night, freshman Evan Harris seized the opportunity to make a name for himself.

Harris came off the bench to score a game-high 18 points in just 18 minutes and added a team-high seven rebounds. He shot 7-of-11 from the field and connected on four of his five opportunities from the line—three of which capped off three-point plays.

“I was fortunate that they fouled me a lot, and my shots fell in, so I got a lot of and-ones,” Harris said.

The 6’8 freshman’s athleticism in the low post posed one of the few matchup problems for the Eagles (8-2) all night. Harris hauled in five offensive rebounds, using his long arms to cover more ground underneath the basket.

“He certainly played very well tonight in a game where he was up against bigger, stronger people,” Sullivan said. “He got to rebounds out of his space, and he wasn’t afraid to take the ball to the basket.”

“The ball just kind of fell to me,” Harris said. “Of course, I have long arms, but most of the time it just involved reaching out. I tried to do whatever I could to help the team, and if I have to grab seven rebounds, I’ll grab seven rebounds.”

The highlight of the night for Harris came with just over 10 minutes remaining in the contest. After captain Matt Stehle had his layup opportunity partially deflected, Harris snatched the miss off the rim and threw down a two-handed slam.

That dunk came four minutes after he had attempted to posterize BC forward Jared Dudley on a fast break. Dudley fouled Harris to disrupt the jam attempt.

BRICK HOUSE

It takes a near-flawless performance to hang with a squad like the Eagles, and shooting 33 percent from the field doesn’t quite resemble perfection.

Even worse, the Crimson shot 2-of-18 (11 percent) from three on the contest, as the starters combined to go 1-for-10.

“Certainly we had to make some threes to neutralize a lot of those things that were going on,” Sullivan said. “So two wasn’t going to be good enough.”

Much of the problem derived from a lack of offensive rhythm and an inability on Harvard’s part to run its offensive plays. The Crimson had little difficulty breaking the BC press, but by the time Harvard got set on the offensive side of the court, the shot clock had usually ticked down inside 20 seconds. This caused the Crimson to rush to look for an open shot and disrupted the flow off the offense.

“We had some easy looks at the rim, and I thought we had some good shots early on, but I think we got frustrated that we couldn’t finish at all,” Sullivan said. “We’re most concerned with the fact that we couldn’t score points or get into any rhythm, whether it was against the press or in the half-court game.”

Harvard went 8-for-32 from the floor in the first half, while the Eagles hit 17 of its 29 shots to take an 18-point advantage into the intermission.

DUDLEY BOYS

BC forwards Jared Dudley and Craig Smith had their way with the Crimson interior defense throughout the contest.

Dudley and Smith logged 26 minutes each and combined to score 30 points on 14-of-19 shooting. Dudley also pulled down eight boards and dished out five assists.

“They’ve got a lot of tough covers, and they pass really well,” Sullivan said. “It’s not a fluke that they’re ranked.”

Smith stole the show, however, as he nailed a shot from the left baseline while lying down after he tripped when making a move to his left. After stumbling to the ground, Smith lofted the ball toward the hoop. It hit the front rim and bounced straight up in the air before rattling around and falling.

FOUR SCORE

Junior guard Jim Goffredo joined Harris as the only other Harvard scorer in double-figures with 11 points...Freshman point guard Drew Housman played all 20 minutes of the first half, but only saw action for eight minutes in the second...The Crimson can still set the mark for the best non-conference winning percentage under coach Frank Sullivan with a win over Southern Methodist on Wednesday...BC recorded assists on 28 of its 38 baskets, including seven from freshman Tyrese Rice.

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