Crimson Mounts Rally, Falls Short

Nineteen minutes to play, Vermont 46, Harvard 29—the scoreboard did not lie. The Crimson was down, and down big.

But the squad was not out. Using a 24-3 run over the next seven minutes of play, Harvard stormed back to take a 53-49 lead.

It would have been historic—if there weren’t 12 more minutes of basketball to be played.

Despite its best efforts, the Crimson (4-8) came up short in its comeback bid against America East rival Vermont (3-6) in a 73-68 loss yesterday at Lavietes Pavilion, its fourth straight defeat.

Had Harvard won the game, it would have been the largest comeback in team history. With seven minutes to play in the first half, the Crimson was behind by a score of 32-13.

The 19-point comeback would have surpassed Harvard’s 18-point recovery last year against Central Connecticut State.

“We sort of got pushed around in the first half—they had a lot of intensity,” junior Drew Housman said. “We showed what we can do. Over that solid 10 minutes there, we played pretty good. Hopefully we can build off of that.”

The game fell in line with the drama of the last two meetings between the Catamounts and the Crimson. Last year, Harvard won, 84-76, in overtime behind 25-point performances from Housman and Brian Cusworth ’05-’06. Two years ago, Harvard also pulled away in the final minutes in a close game.

The excitement was the same yesterday. Unfortunately for the Crimson, the result was not.

Harvard was at the brink twice, and both times, the team was able to respond. And if it had not been for one play, the Crimson may have pulled out the victory.

“If we could correct the little things, I thought we could make this an interesting game, and they certainly did that,” coach Tommy Amaker said. “But interesting is one thing, winning is another.”

After storming back from 17 down to take a 53-49 lead, Harvard seemed to run out of gas. Over the next 10 minutes, the Catamounts dominated the Crimson, breaking down the defense for easy layups, while Harvard struggled to make shots.

With the score tied at 55, Vermont went on a 14-6 run to race past the struggling Crimson and open up a 69-61 lead with 2:30 to play.

But as Harvard responded at the beginning of the second half, the team bounced back again.

It began with a driving layup from sophomore Jeremy Lin, who finished with a team-high 18 points, his best effort in weeks.

“We were pleased he was taking his open shots, and taking them with confidence,” Amaker said. “I thought [Lin] played a lot better for us today.”

Seconds later, Housman fought for a steal on one end, dribbled down the court, and hit a pull-up three in his defender’s face.

On the other end of the court, sophomore standout Pat Magnarelli got a steal of his own, dribbled down the court, drew a foul, and made both free throws.

In a matter of 90 seconds, the lead had been trimmed to 69-68, and a storybook ending seemed possible again.

But one play doomed the squad. Housman fouled Vermont’s Nick Vier on a three-point attempt, putting the Catamounts guard at the line with 30 seconds remaining. Vier made two of three attempts to put Vermont up by three.

And after Housman’s desperation three at the other end failed, the Crimson’s fate was sealed.

“We’re down by a lot in the first half and fighting and scrapping our way to the lead, but we weren’t able to execute down the stretch,” Amaker said. “A lot of little things contributed to the victory for Vermont.”

It was a tale of two halves, however, as the Crimson failed to show signs of life until the second frame—a trend that has plagued the team over its current four-game skid.

Harvard went into the break reeling, down 42-27 after getting outplayed, out-muscled, and out-rebounded the entire first half.

“I think it comes down to how bad the guys want it,” Lin said. “Obviously the issue right now is defensive rebounding, and that’s all about heart.”

The Crimson gave up 13 offensive boards to Vermont in the first half while only securing seven total rebounds itself.

The Catamounts shot over 50 percent from the field, led by All-America East guard Mike Trimboli, who notched 23 points on the day.

“Their offense is totally predicated around him,” Housman said.

One bright spot for the Crimson over the course of the game was the play of Magnarelli, who followed up his 22-point effort against Long Island on Thursday with a 14-point, eight-rebound performance.

“Every time we work it down low, good things are happening,” Magnarelli said. “Hopefully, it will keep working out.”

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.