Nation’s Capital Unfriendly to Crimson

In a trip to face one of the top collegiate programs in the nation’s capital on Saturday, the Harvard men’s basketball team fell 78-63 to George Washington after a tough first half, despite a spirited comeback attempt late in the second half.

The Crimson was without freshman forward Keith Wright, who was sick. A starter in all seven games this year, Wright is second on the team with 10.3 points per game. He will be out indefinitely, a major blow for Harvard, who kept it close nonetheless against its talented hosts before falling away near the end.

“It’s not really a positive, because it was a 15-point loss, but we were undermanned,” senior guard Drew Housman said. “We caught them on a hot-shooting night, so we know we have a lot to work on, but we put forward a good effort.”

Against the athletic Colonials from the Atlantic-10, the Crimson (4-4) battled to a stand-still for the first 10 minutes of the first half, grabbing the lead on several occasions. But GW (4-2) went on a 13-6 run to go to the locker room with a 36-28 lead.

Coming out of the break, the Colonials appeared to be on their way to running their visitors out of town, scoring the first nine points of the second half to boost their lead to 45-28. The lead would eventually be pushed to 21 points at 53-32 with 13:16 left in the game.

But the Crimson did not go quietly into the dark afternoon. After facing its largest deficit, Harvard went on a 17-4 run, including 11 unanswered points, to cut the lead to 57-49 with just under eight minutes to play on a three-pointer by junior guard Jeremy Lin.

The team’s top performer on the season so far, Lin had been struggling from the floor before the run, in which he scored seven points on a jumper, fast-break steal and dunk, and a three, as well as finding freshman guard Oliver McNally for another three. But for the game, Lin shot just 4-of-10 from the field, including 2-of-6 from long range, and had five turnovers against four assists. He finished with 13 points, his second-lowest total of the season after an 11-point performance Nov. 22 at Colorado.

After the Lin-led run, Harvard would remain within striking distance for the next four minutes, closing the gap to eight at 62-54 following another three from McNally with 3:47 to go. From there, however, GW would pull away, going on an 11-2 run.

“The way we ended the first half and started the second half [was critical],” Housman said. “We went on runs, but it was too much of a hole to climb out of.”

Nine of GW’s 11 points in that run came from the foul line, as the difference in free-throw shooting was one of the key components in the game—the Colonials made 19-of-23 shots from the charity stripe. The Crimson had experienced big edges in points from the foul line in many of its games this season, but shot just 11-of-17 from the charity stripe on Saturday.

Housman led Harvard from the foul line, draining all four of his attempts on his way to a team-high 15 points. 12 of those points came in the first half, and he played just 21 minutes the entire game.

“The team wants to encourage Drew to score,” captain Andrew Pusar said. “We’re a better team when Drew looks to score. I’m not the least bit surprised with his play, having seen him these four years.”

Freshman forward Peter Boehm added a career-best 11 points in his first collegiate start.

“Peter, like all the other freshmen, is very mature,” Pusar said. “He’s a solid defender, solid inside, and a really good shooter outside. He’s shown the confidence to hit big shots late in the game.”

GW forward Damian Hollis had a game-high 22 points, and forward Rob Diggs and guard Tony Taylor also posted double figures with 12 and 11, respectively.

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