Men's Basketball Triumphs After Falling Behind Columbia

NEW YORK—Once again, the Harvard men’s basketball team dug itself a big hole in Levien Gym.

But this time, the Crimson managed to claw its way out, using a strong performance from the free-throw line to forge a 69-59 victory over Columbia (8-10, 1-4 Ivy) on Friday night.

Harvard (12-6, 4-1) went 21-for-27 from the stripe on the game, including 9-of-10 over the final 5:39 to seal the win.

The Crimson held a 56-53 lead with under six minutes to go when freshman point guard Drew Housman poked the ball away from Lions forward Dragutin Kravic as he crossed half court. Housman scooped up the loose ball and raced down the floor, finishing the layup while absorbing a Kravic foul.

After Columbia center Ben Nwachukwu pulled down an offensive board and scored the putback to pull within four, Harvard put together a 10-2 run to grab a 69-57 lead, its largest of the contest, with 1:08 left. Housman went 6-for-6 from the line and added an assist during the run.

Housman finished the game with 20 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and hit 10-of-11 attempts from the line.

“Drew was terrific tonight,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “One of the goals tonight was getting to the line...and I thought through his dribble-penetration he was able to create fouls.”

Harvard fell behind by as many as 10 early on, but captain Matt Stehle triggered a 9-2 run to pull the Crimson back within three, 20-17. Columbia led by five with 4:03 remaining before the intermission, but an 8-0 Harvard run gave the Crimson its first lead of the contest.

“I felt we had no composure in the game at that point,” Sullivan said. “We needed something to happen, because we weren’t shooting the ball particularly well. We needed some rebounding as well, so we took a chance and put him in there.”

Two turnovers by freshman forward Evan Harris allowed the Lions to reclaim a 34-32 advantage, but a loose-ball foul on Nwachukwu sent Harvard center Brian Cusworth to the line with 0.1 seconds remaining in the half. Cusworth sank 1-of-2 to pull the Crimson within one at the break.

“Everyone was pretty pissed at each other during the last 30 seconds when we blew that lead,” Stehle said. “It was a big momentum thing.”

Stehle overcame the flu and early foul trouble to score 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting. His first basket of the game gave him 1,000 points for his Harvard career. He also pulled down six rebounds and dished out three assists.

“I didn’t make it to shoot-around or anything, and I was up the whole night throwing up,” Stehle said. “I got the flu last night, and the whole day I was wondering if I was going to be able to play.”

The three assists were tied for a game high, as the Lions and the Crimson combined for just 15 on the evening. Harvard’s eight assists as a team were the lowest number it had recorded in any game all season.

Harvard junior guard and Ivy League leading scorer Jim Goffredo had a tough night, hitting just 3-of-12 shots and just 2-of-8 from three. His 4-for-4 performance from the line pushed his point total to 12 on the game, extending his streak of consecutive games in double-figures to nine.

The Crimson overcame a halftime deficit for the win for the first time this season. Coming into the game, Harvard had been 11-0 when leading at the half and 0-6 when trailing.

“This halftime was a little bit odd, because we had good control at the end of the first half,” Sullivan said. “We got sloppy at the end of the half...but even though we didn’t have the lead, I felt we had control of the final segments. We came in thinking that we didn’t play that well, and we should have had the lead.”

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