PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Garrett Leffelman's fade-away
desperation 3-pointer with no time left gave Brown a 61-59 victory
over Harvard Friday night at the Pizzitola Center.
The victory turned the tables on Harvard,
which defeated Brown three weeks ago thanks to a free throw shot
with no time on the clock. Brown moves to 8-19 overall, 2-11 in the
league with the win while a tough loss sends Harvard to a 13-14
record, 5-8 in the Ivy.
Trailing throughout the opening half, Brown
started the second stanza on a 10-2 spurt to take its first lead
since the opening possession of the game. Part of a 19-4 run to
start the half, Brown claimed a 46-39 lead with 11:18 left.
The Crimson was 1-for-10 from the floor and
2-for-4 from the free throw line to start the last half before the
Crimson guards got rolling. Jeremy
Lin swished a jumper with 10:58 to go and then bullied his way
to the rim for two more on a double clutch for a 46-43 deficit.
After a third straight empty possession for Brown, Lin kicked out
to Andrew
Pusar who drained a triple to tie the game with 8:48 to play.
A 3-pointer from Steve Gruber gave Brown a
50-46 lead with 7:18 left but free throws from Lin and a pull-up
triple from Drew
Housman forced a Bears' timeout. Coming out of the
timeout, a miscommunication led to a turnover and an easy layup for
Oliver
McNally and Brown called another timeout with 5:10 left..
Another turnover out of the timeout, on a steal from Lin, saw the
Crimson convert again on the other end with a pull-up jumper from
Lin to give Harvard a 55-50 following a 9-0 flurry.
The teams matched single free throws and
Leffelman drove for a lefty layup to make it 56-53 as the clock
wound towards three minutes left. McNally struck again, with a long
triple on a kickout pass from Lin for a 59-53 margin with 2:51
left.
Adrian Williams made it a three-point deficit
when Brown got two offensive rebounds and three different looks at
the rim with 1:21 left. Williams quickly earned his fourth foul
against Housman, sending the senior to the stripe where he misfired
on his first look. Matt Mullery bullied his way to a baseline layup
for a 59-58 margin as the clock moved to an 11-second differential
on the game clock. The Crimson could not connect, setting up
Leffelman's off-balance distance shot as the clock expired.
Housman finished with 12 points as four
Crimson players finished in double figures. Lin had a big night
with 10 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals. Pusar
and Wright finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Mullery came up big for Brown time and time
again and finished 9-of-9 from the floor for 21 points while being
credited with 20 rebounds.
A two of early triples from three different
players staked Harvard to an 11-8 lead but Brown consistently
answered in the paint. A bucket in the paint for Keith Wright gave
the Crimson an 18-12 lead and prompted a Brown timeout at the 10:34
mark.
The lead grew to 25-14 when Lin came down with
a rebound in traffic, drove the length of the floor and dished to
Pusar for an easy deuce before Lin got on the board himself with a
fade away triple at 7:30. The Bears cut the deficit to four on one
occasion but the Crimson stiffened, finishing the frame with six
big blocks on the interior – two from Max Kenyi – en
route to a 35-28 halftime lead.
Harvard returns to the court Saturday at Yale
in a 7 p.m. start.
