Extra-Curricular Scuffle Fires Up Harris, Penn

PHILADELPHIA, Penn.—In an otherwise unexciting first half of the Harvard men’s basketball team’s Ivy battle at Penn, tempers flared between junior forward Evan Harris and Quaker sophomore Justin Reilly.

With 9:03 remaining and Harvard in possession, Harris and Reilly got tangled up at the top of the key in front of the Penn bench. As the scuffle escalated, Reilly was called for the foul as the two tumbled to the ground.

After the fall, Harris and Reilly exchanged words. Harris’ teammates had to pull the forward back from the confrontation, while members of the Quakers bench began to lunge onto the court to protect their teammate. Officials immediately restrained both players, halting any further activity.

“I think both teams competed and that’s what happens sometimes—guys get tangled up, and I don’t even know what transpired to lead to that,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “But the officials were right on top of it and did a tremendous job of not letting anything escalate to any further hype.”

While Reilly was whistled for the initial personal foul, Harris was tagged with an intentional foul. Penn forwards Andreas Schreiber and Brennan Votel were both immediately ejected for leaving the bench and entering onto the court.

“We’ve never had a player leave the bench, and two guys definitely left the bench,” Penn coach Glen Miller said. “I have no argument with it. I was very concerned about our lack of depth as a result of that.”

While the crowd taunted Harris for the rest of the evening, booing every time he touched the ball, the altercation and crowd seemed to motivate the junior. He finished with 11 points and nine rebounds in 35 minutes of action, and he also sunk 5-of-6 free throws in the face of constant heckling from a raucous Penn crowd.

Just two minutes into the second half, Harris stole the ball at the top of the key and rushed ahead to a breakaway dunk, momentarily silencing the crowd’s mockery.

“I just told [my guys] that we need to keep our poise, and I thought we did for the most part,” Amaker said. “I’m sure that Glen said the same thing to his kids, and they did. I thought the game was played very well and hard, but clean from that point forward.”

PLAYING WITH MORE H-UNGER

Slowed by a foot injury that caused him to miss the team’s first six games, captain Brad Unger had been unable to make a consistent contribution to the Crimson rotation.

But, with sophomore center Pat Magnarelli sidelined due to a knee injury, Unger was the man down low for Harvard, notching a career-high 17 points. The captain led by example, hustling to loose balls and taking the ball aggressively to the hoop, drawing fouls.

“I thought he played fairly well on the offensive end,” Amaker said of Unger. “Even though he had 17, I honestly thought he could have had probably 25.”

Despite the solid scoring effort, Unger had a bit of difficulty converting. In a two-minute stretch to open the second half, Unger was the Crimson’s most aggressive player, attempting four shots but only sinking one. He finished 5-for-12 from the field before fouling out with 2:06 remaining.

“I don’t think he finished particularly well,” Amaker said. “He missed some shots that I think he would be the first to admit that he would probably make the majority of the time. He missed mostly jump shots.”

Unger’s biggest shot was a three-pointer from the top of the key with 4:03 remaining to put the Crimson on top, 65-64.

“Certainly as a senior—our captain, obviously—scoring 17 in just 22 minutes, he played very solid basketball,” Amaker said.

SLAM DINC

Junior transfer forward Cem Dinc saw his first action of the season on Friday night after missing the entire first semester’s slate of games with a bout of pneumonia.

He checked in with 6:44 remaining in the first half for Unger, and he wasted no time tallying his first field-goal attempt, a missed turnaround jumper from the middle of the key. The 6’11 forward played just 38 seconds.

“We’re looking to see if we can work him back in,” Amaker said of Dinc. “Obviously, it’s going to be a while to see if he gets up to speed and gets his timing and conditioning, but we’ll see if we can work him back in.”

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.