Crusaders Don’t Look Good Winning
WORCESTER, Mass. The two locker rooms were almost opposite sides of the spectrum on Tuesday night. If you spoke to anyone from Harvard, you might get the sense that the Crimson won the game, and likewise, if you spoke to anyone from Holy Cross, you might think the Crusaders lost the game.
If the game was about 30 minutes long, you would be right – at least if those 30 minutes were the last 30 minutes of the game. But the game was 40 minutes long, and the Crusaders had enough from a strong start and a late surge to take home an 80-69 victory over Harvard.
The Crusaders got off to a fast start, shutting down Harvard at the defensive end and scoring off turnovers. With 8:04 left in the first half, the Crusaders had a 27-12 lead and were clearly in control of the game. They eventually got the lead back up to 15 with under three minutes to play in the half. At halftime, the Crimson had nine field goals and 10 turnovers.
“We got a 15-point lead, then we really stopped focusing on the defensive end of the floor,” said Holy Cross head coach Ralph Willard, who was happy with the win but clearly disappointed with the fact that they had to hang on at the end.
Harvard didn’t come back with a big run, instead steadily cutting into the lead in the second half. Behind the backcourt of Jeremy Lin (15 points) and Drew Housman (19 points), as well as the play up front of improving sophomore Pat Magnarelli (12 points, seven rebounds), the Crimson eventually rallied to tie the game at 62 and had a chance to take the lead on a free throw. Then Holy Cross took over in the final minutes, scoring ten unanswered points to turn a one-point game into a safe cushion.
“I thought we battled, scraped and clawed, fought our way back in it,” said Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker. “We had a chance to take the lead, and I thought that psychologically that would have been a big hurdle for us.”
For Harvard, it was almost like winning the game, although Amaker wasn’t happy with the loss. Naturally, he wanted to win the game and not get a “moral” victory of having come back, but expending too much energy to get over the top after tying the game. Still, the contrast between the coaches was noticeable.
“We took things away from them for the first 13 minutes of the game, and then once we got a 15-point lead, it was like, okay, now we can just play,” said Willard, who twice alluded to their practice the next morning. “That’s not who we are, it’s not who we want to be. We don’t want to be that. We want to be a team that continues to get in your face, follow the scouting report on the defensive end that will take things away from you. We reacted to them the whole game.”
The tale of two halves for the Crusaders didn’t just come in terms of overall success, but also in who led the way. Alex Vander Baan was the star in the first half, as he was active and found the ball often to the tune of 14 points and four rebounds. In the second half, it was Tim Clifford who came alive, as he scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half.
But the big focus was on the fact that Holy Cross didn’t win this game the way Willard wants to see them win. Looking at the bigger picture, he knows that an effort like tonight won’t lead to win against some other teams.
“I’d rather win 70-58 than win 80-69,” said Willard. “I just know we took a step backwards tonight mentally.
“I told them tonight, we won the basketball game, but we didn’t get better.”
