Men's Basketball's Comeback Bid Falls Short at Northeastern

BOSTON—Time literally ran out on a strong comeback effort by the Harvard men’s basketball team, as the Crimson (4-9) fell to Northeastern, 76-73, at Matthews Arena on Wednesday night.

Trailing by eight with just over a minute remaining, Harvard battled back and had a chance to tie the game when Huskies guard Baptiste Bataille missed two free throws with his team up three points with 4.2 seconds left. Sophomore forward Pat Magnarelli grabbed the rebound and fed sophomore guard Dan McGeary, who had already hit four three-pointers in the game.

But as McGeary dribbled up court and found himself about 30 feet from the basket, the buzzer went off before he could get a shot off, as the Crimson suffered its fifth straight loss.

“Regardless of the score, we had to play 40 minutes to beat them,” Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. “They execute and scrap right to the buzzer.”

Harvard nearly scrapped and clawed its way back to an incredible win in the final minute.

Junior guard Drew Housman, who led the team with 16 points, dribbled around the Huskies (4-5) before hitting a jumper with 1:05 to play, making the score 74-68. Northeastern then ran 32 seconds off the shot clock before big center Nkem Ojougboh was fouled by sophomore guard Jeremy Lin on a dunk attempt. Ojougboh missed both free throws—breaking a string of six straight made by the home team—and Lin found McGeary in the corner for a three with 24 seconds left to make it a one-possession game.

Northeastern guard Matt Janning hit two free throws with 16 seconds left, but Lin made it a one-possession game again with a lay-up with 6.6 seconds remaining.

Bataille then broke away from the Crimson defense to bring in a long inbounds pass, forcing Housman to foul, setting up the final sequence.

“I thought we did some really good things,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “We stretched it as well as we could with the clock. They made their free throws but then gave us a chance at the end.”

The exciting final minute was not the only comeback effort from the Crimson. Trailing by as many as nine in the first half and down 43-38 at the break, Harvard stepped up its defense coming out of the break. Switching between man-to-man and zone, the Crimson limited the Huskies to just six points in the first seven and a half minutes of the second frame.

Overall, the hosts shot just 42.3 percent from the floor in the second half, compared to the 51.7 percent they shot in the first, and athletic forward Manny Adako—the game’s high-scorer with 19 points—had just six points after the break.

“We mixed it up a little bit, and I thought our kids played with a great deal of spirit to give us a chance at this game here this evening,” Amaker said.

Harvard grabbed the lead at the 15:11 mark when a pass to Magnarelli in the paint bounced off his hands straight to junior guard Andrew Pusar, who converted a lay-up for a 48-47 lead. After Northeastern retook the lead with a lay-up and the Crimson turned it over, Lin came up with a steal and fed Housman for a fast-break basket. On the team’s next offensive possession, Housman drove and dished to junior forward Evan Harris for a lay-up and 52-49 lead.

All the momentum seemed to be in Harvard’s favor when Lin swatted forward Eugene Spates’ shot out of bounds on the Huskies’ next trip up the floor. But Ojougboh took the inbounds pass and drove for a dunk, which would kick-start a 12-1 run for Northeastern that put the Huskies ahead, 61-53, with nine minutes left.

The Crimson came back and trailed just 65-62 after a basket by Harris with 4:48 left. But it wouldn’t get the ball back until 1:45 later. After Spates missed a three, the ball when out of bounds off Harvard with one second left on the shot clock. But McGeary fouled Ojougboh on the intended lob inbounds pass in front of the basket, resulting in a restart of the shot clock. Adako missed a shot but got his own rebound. Spates then missed a jumper, but Ojougboh grabbed another board. Spates completed this sequence by hitting a three with 3:03 left, making it a six-point game.

Overall, the Crimson did a solid job on the glass, grabbing 26 rebounds to Northeastern’s 28. But 13 of the Huskies’ boards came at the offensive end, with none more crucial than the last two by Adako and Ojougboh.

“I thought the difference in the game was scrapping for a few loose balls that they seemed to come away with and we didn’t,” Amaker said.

—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tjkirby@fas.harvard.edu.