KIRBY'S DREAMLAND: At Jadwin, Painful History Repeats Itself

It looked like it could have been Harvard’s first win at Princeton’s heralded Jadwin Gym since 1989—the same year the Berlin Wall fell.

The Crimson was coming off a confidence-building, 65-64 win over Cornell at home last Saturday, while the Tigers entered the game 0-4 and last in the Ivy League, having scored 35 points in a loss to Yale and lost by 15 at Brown, arguably the worst team in the league.

After a back-and-forth first half, it seemed like Harvard was on its way to its first win at Princeton since the 80’s when sophomore guard Drew Housman’s layup with 14:53 left in the second half gave the Crimson a 42-34 lead. Harvard had been strong on both ends of the floor and its Achilles’ heel—three-point shooting defense—appeared to have been fixed, as the Tigers had made only 6-of-17 shots from long range up to that point. What’s more, Jadwin Gym was not as loud as it had been in years past, with only 2,810 fans in an arena that can fit several times more.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, Princeton—the team that dealt it heartbreaking losses on a 25-foot desperation shot at the buzzer by Kyle Wente at Lavietes Pavilion in 2001, Scott Greenman’s scoring explosion in the second overtime in 2004 at Jadwin, and, just last year, a Noah Savage jumper with 0.2 seconds left that propelled the Tigers to a 60-59 road win and sent Harvard into a tailspin—is never out of it.

All of a sudden, the Princeton defense tightened up, the Crimson had trouble finishing, and it wouldn’t be until the eight-minute mark that Harvard would score again, on a jumper by Housman. Luckily for the visiting team, its defense had covered up that offensive drought as best it could, and the Tigers managed just eight points over that timespan.

A chance for the Crimson to pull away had been wasted and the game was heading towards crunch time, where, with the exception of a 61-57 Harvard win in Lavietes in 2005, Princeton could always be counted on to pull out the win. But the Crimson found a solution to Princeton’s tough defense in Housman, who repeatedly beat his man off the dribble for layups or jumpers. Scoring 12 of Harvard’s last 14 points in regulation, he tied the game at 56 with a pull-up three-pointer with 1:46 left.

Then, with 58 seconds left, junior forward Brad Unger was fouled and had a chance to put the Crimson up by two. If Harvard has Tiger demons, those demons were certainly present at the line, as Unger missed both free throws. But hope was not lost for the Crimson—sophomore forward Evan Harris then made the type of play that Princeton always seemed to make. He stripped Tigers forward Justin Conway of the ball with 30 seconds left and gave Harvard a chance to hold for the last shot.

Just last weekend, the Crimson had won a game in the final seconds against Cornell on a layup by Harris. Housman dribbled the ball for 20 seconds then, as he had done all night, beat his man off the dribble and had a path to the basket.

This time, a Princeton player made a play; Princeton players are used to making plays against Harvard. Senior Kyle Koncz, whose name you will hear again later, got a hand on the shot and tipped it away.

When captain Jim Goffredo turned it over and the Tigers called timeout with two seconds left, it looked like we would be in for a repeat of the 2001 game. Yet neither Koncz, nor Savage, nor anyone else on Princeton got off a shot from halfcourt. Or anywhere.

Having avoided the fate suffered by the 2001 and 2005 teams, Harvard hoped to make the most of its second life in overtime. With 31.6 seconds left in overtime and the Crimson down 60-59, Housman drove the lane and was fouled by Conway. Housman, a 79 percent free-throw shooter on the year, could have given his team the lead with two makes. But his first attempt rolled off the rim, drawing chants of “Choke!” from the Tiger faithful. They were referring to Housman, but could just have easily been reminding Harvard of its history against their team.

Housman made the second, but it just seemed to be leading up to the inevitable buzzer-beater, as Princeton had 30 seconds to set up a winning shot. Yet the Crimson survived again, with the Tigers just passing the ball around for 28 ticks until realizing, too late, that it was time to shoot.

An airball set up a second overtime. In 2004, Princeton outscored Harvard, 12-4, in the second overtime, with seven of those points coming from Greenman, including a huge three with 1:10 left to give his team a six-point lead. This time, it was Koncz, whose three broke a tie with 2:59 left.

With fifty seconds left the Tigers held a 68-64 lead. Last year, Princeton had overcome a six-point deficit in the final minute to win on Savage’s jumper. Perhaps Harvard could force two turnovers like the Tigers had in that matchup. Or Princeton would miss its free throws to give Harvard a chance to tie? Neither of those happened. The Tigers got a fast-break layup by Conway and four straight free throws from Savage to pull away.

A friend who knows about as much about Harvard basketball as anyone suggested we run the story from 2004, only without the player names. He would not have been far off. New day, similar script, same result.

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