NOTEBOOK: Men's Hoops Has Its Way in the Paint

The Crimson couldn’t have asked for a better start to the new year and its Ivy League slate. Harvard played a near-perfect game in an 82-56 thrashing of league foe Dartmouth.

The Crimson won both the turnover and rebounding battles and shot 51.8 percent from the field. It also benefited from an 83.3 shooting percentage from the charity stripe and 32 points from its bench.

The victory in the team’s Ivy opener snapped a seven-game losing streak that dated back to Dec. 1.

“My focus is allowing our team to have the right mindset and the right spirit,” coach Tommy Amaker said. “There is no better way to do that than to get your first conference win.”

The Crimson built a first-half lead with crisp passing that set up high-percentage looks at the basket inside. Big Green leading scorer Alex Barnett poured in Dartmouth’s first six points to keep his team within range in the early going, but the Harvard frontcourt responded to hold him to 8-for-21 shooting in accumulating his eventual game-high 18 points.

The Crimson cruised to victory after taking a 47-26 lead into the break, never letting the lead dip below 19 points and pushing the cushion as high as 32 points in the second half.

“We were able to come out and finish this game in the manner in which we started,” Amaker said.

The strong finish came on the heels of Harvard’s game the previous weekend against UC Irvine, when it let an 18-point second-half lead slip away.

PAINTED MASTERPIECE

Solid frontcourt play allowed the Crimson to take control of the contest, as Harvard’s forwards dominated both on offense and on the boards.

Sophomore forward Pat Magnarelli led the squad with 17 points, junior Evan Harris contributed 10 points, and captain Brad Unger added eight.

Freshman forward Kyle Fitzgerald provided a spark off the bench in the second half, making two shots from the floor and shooting 6-for-6 from the line to chip in 10 points.

“Everybody was looking for the big guys inside,” Unger said. “We seemed to have success that way.”

The major distributor was sophomore guard Jeremy Lin, who dished out nine assists on the day. Overall, Harvard outscored Dartmouth, 44-26, in the paint.

“It helped us that we were able to throw it in there,” Amaker said. “And our guys, they finished this afternoon.”

The Crimson, led by Unger’s nine rebounds, won the battle of the boards, 41-29, and limited the Big Green to five second-chance points.

“When we played solid defense and limited people to one shot, we were able to get out in transition,” Amaker said.

BREAKING THE HABIT

The victory against Dartmouth snapped Harvard’s month-long, seven-game losing streak.

“I don’t think we thought of our team today as a team that was on a losing streak,” Amaker said. “We looked like a team that could have been on a winning streak.”

The Crimson started the game on fire. On its first offensive possession, Unger received a pass from Lin and converted a thee-point play by making a short jumper, drawing a foul, and converting the free throw.

The Crimson never trailed after that basket, and racked up 47 points in the first half.

“Our kids...had a great spirit about not hanging their heads or feeling sorry for themselves,” Amaker said. “I think it’s evident in the way in which we’ve played.”

Harvard will look to keep its head up against Colgate tomorrow night at Lavietes before traveling to Dartmouth on Friday for a rematch with the Big Green.

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu