“Brian did a good job defensively and his awareness was very good tonight,” Sullivan said.
Harvard 55 Cornell 46
After an Elliott Prasse-Freeman jumper gave the Crimson an early 2-0 lead, Harvard’s shooters went cold. The Big Red held the Crimson scoreless for a 5:39 span and built up a seven-point lead with a 9-0 run.
“Our confidence was shattered losing three games in a row...so we came in a little tentative,” Sullivan said.
But Cornell was equally bad shooting the ball, allowing the Crimson to climb back into the game despite shooting just 28.9 percent in the half.
Harvard experimented with over 10 different lineups in the first half, as no combination was able to score consistently.
“Because we were so slow getting out of the gate. I thought I’d give everyone a chance,” Sullivan said. “Nothing was stable. I was just trying to generate energy giving the guys off the bench a shot.”
Right out of the gate in the second half, the Crimson found its scoring touch and stabilized its lineup. Harvard opened the second half with a 13-2 run and seemed to finally be breaking away from the Big Red.
But, in a scene eerily reminiscent to Mike Bechtold’s outburst for Princeton and Andrew Toole’s offensive explosion for Penn, Cornell guard Jacques Vigneault went on a personal 11-0 run to bring Cornell back within three at 34-31. Cornell would continue to claw back, and a three pointer by Ka’Ron Barnes would put the Big Red down only one at 40-39, with 8:21 left in the game.
But that would be as close as the Big Red would get as the Crimson capitalized on a 13-4 run to put the game away.
Harvard’s big men dominated the second half, converting on easy inside opportunities. Winter scored 10 of his game-high 12 points in the second half, and Coleman added nine of his 11 points. The 6’8 senior from Bellevue, Wash., finished the game with a double-double, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds.
The inside contributions offset a tough outside shooting night for the Crimson. As a team, the Crimson made just one three-pointer in 13 attempts, and Harvey, Harvard’s scoring leader in each of the last 12 games, managed just six points on 3-of-10 shooting.
“If Pat’s not going to be able to generate these three-pointers for us from behind the line, there is another way to get three points on a possession and that would be from the low post,” Sullivan said. “And Sam and Tim were effective from the low post.”