NOTEBOOK: Captain Finds Stride in OT

DURHAM, N.H.—No one in Lundholm Gymnasium was happier to see Wednesday night’s game go into overtime than Harvard captain Jim Goffredo.

The extra session offered a chance at redemption for Harvard’s leading perimeter threat, and Goffredo seized his chance with just over a minute to play, knocking down his first three-pointer of the night at the most crucial moment. The shot re-tied the game at 81 and sent the Crimson (3-3) on to an 83-81 victory over New Hampshire (1-5).

Goffredo had spent most of the game’s first 40 minutes shaking his head, with a look alternating between frustration and astonishment, as shot after shot clanked off the rim. He was just 2-of-12 entering the extra session, and 0-5 from three-point range, and he added to his malaise by misfiring on his first attempt of overtime, another three-pointer.

Goffredo’s rough performance was an extension of a shooting slump that began in Harvard’s last game, a win over Lehigh on Saturday, when he scored a season-low five points on 1-of-8 from the floor and 1-of-6 from downtown. But rather than pull his captain from the game, recognizing that it was simply not his night, Harvard coach Frank Sullivan kept Goffredo out on the floor—an unspoken message to play on and not worry about the misses.

“I didn’t say anything to him,” Sullivan said. “What I was doing to him was continuing to play him. And that was the message—keep going. I didn’t say a word about ‘keep shooting.’ The validation to him of my confidence was the fact that he remained on the floor.”

Goffredo played 16 of the 20 minutes in each of the two halves, and Sullivan then elected to keep his captain on the court for all five minutes of overtime.

The 6’1 guard rewarded that confidence just at the point when it looked like the game, seemingly well in hand for Harvard when it held an eight-point lead midway through the second half, had escaped from the Crimson in brutal fashion.

With the score tied at 78 and a minute and a half left in overtime, Wildcats guard Jermaine Anderson pulled up at the top of the key, several feet beyond the arc, and buried the three to ignite the suprisingly vocal 642 fans in attendance and give New Hampshire an 81-78 lead.

The Crimson did not panic, and the two most experienced Harvard players on the court, Goffredo and senior center Brian Cusworth, executed the two-man game brilliantly. Guarded on the perimeter, Goffredo gave the ball up and swung around a screen from Cusworth, who had ventured out to the three-point line to pick off Goffredo’s man. With a precious few feet of open space around him for seemingly the only time all night, Goffredo got the ball back and calmly shot down UNH’s final lead of the night.

“In a situation like that, you’re not really thinking about the shots you missed before,” Goffredo said. “I was able to get an open look off Brian’s screen, and a chance to step up and hit a three to tie the game. Those six [missed] threes before weren’t really going through my mind.”

REVERSED FIRST

The Crimson’s victory broke an 11-game losing streak in games where the team trailed at halftime, dating back to last season. Harvard was down 37-34 after a first half in which it shot just 39 percent from the floor, including a dismal 0-of-9 from three.

The Crimson stopped the trend thanks in part to a reversal in fortunes from behind the line. Havard went 2-of-4 from deep in the second half, with crucial makes by sophomore point guard Drew Housman and freshman guard Jeremy Lin.

Housman nailed another trifecta with three minutes to go in overtime that tied the score at 76, setting the stage for Goffredo’s huge hit.

“Even more so than coming from behind, it was making big plays to remain close in the game,” Sullivan said. “We made some big plays, and hopefully that helps the confidence factor with the guys.”

—Staff writer Caleb W. Peiffer can be reached at cpeiffer@fas.harvard.edu.