Two nights later, Harvard faced the only team on the trip the players felt had better personnel--San Jose State. The Spartans started a 6-10, 6-7, 6-5 front line which eventually wore down the under-manned Crimson.
As at Santa Barbara, Harvard stayed in the game for the first half. Unfortunately both Hardy and Gustavson blew layups off Dover assists so the Spartans owned a five point lead at the half, 41-36. Again, with the guards helping out and the forwards blocking out the big forwards. Harvard held the rebounding edge 17-15 after the first 20 minutes.
Hardy and Dover had 22 points between them for the period while 6-10 Colby Dietrich led San Jose with 11 and five rebounds.
With Gallagher in foul trouble and Hardy and Kanuth tired, the Spartans, throwing in platoons of tall, muscular forwards, went on a 7-2 tear to open the half and then exchanged baskets until Harvard tried to mount a counter-charge with 14 minutes left. Sophomore forward Mike Janczewski, bothered the whole week by a sore tendon in his foot, hit a jump shot and then Dover and Gustavson tipped in shots to cut the lead to nine.
San Jose came down the floor and passed the ball to its 6-7 sophomore star, a great leaper named Darnell Hillman. Hillman took the pass and then four steps from the foul line to the baseline before putting the ball either on the floor or in the air. Coach Harrison stormed the length of the bench to protest but Hillman's jump shot was counted and the Crimson momentum was gone.
Dover continued his impressive scoring with 27 points, hitting 11 of 14 shots and, at 6-1, led the team in rebounds with seven. Hardy had 13 points and Kanuth, playing tight defense against much taller men, managed 16 points on a combination of twisting underhand drives and jump shots from the key. Hillman led the Spartans at 19 points and three of his teammates followed in double figures.
Harvard lost the game despite shooting 55 per cent from the floor, because of the Spartans' offensive rebounding. San Jose had 19 more tries from the floor to balance its 48 per cent average.
The crusher came after a relaxing three days in the wonderful city of San Francisco. Of all the losses, this one hurt the most.
U.S.F. pulled out to a six point lead midway through the first half and then Dover, drawing repeated ovations from the 2000 fans, scored seven straight points on three incredible drives to put Harvard in the lead at 30-29. Then, after senior Paul Waickowski had come off the bench in fine style to replace a foul-laden Kanuth, Hardy sank a turn-around at the buzzer for a 39-37 half-time cushion.
In the second half, Harvard outplayed the Dons, but, perhaps under the spell of U.S.F. alumnus Bill Russell or, as Harrison would have it, some rotten officiating, the victory went to the lesser outfit.
San Francisco got just 15 shots in the second half, a tribute to stout Harvard defense and the rebounding of Hardy and Gallagher as well as Waickowski, but hit 10 of them, an impressive 67 per cent. Harvard took 33 shots and made nine.
The key to the outcome, besides the cold Crimson shooting eye, was probably San Francisco's shift from man-to-man to zone defense. Against the man, Dover had 16 points in the first half and Hardy eight. The pair had just five between them against the zone.
Still, with 2:15 to go, Harvard trailed by just four, 63-59. Gustavson--who had a poor shooting night with two of 10 from the field--converted a tip-in. Then the excitement began.
Dover, taking a pass from Gustavson steamed in for what looked like a routine layup for the talented guard from New York. But, experiencing the same difficulty with the backboards which had cost him two layups earlier, Dover missed and collided with reserve Don guard Charlie Dullea under the basket.
From Section B, row J, and from the Harvard bench, it was clearly Dullea's foul--and a nasty, dangerous low-bridger at that. But the referee saw otherwise and gave Dover an offensive foul, the sophomore's fifth and disqualifying personal.
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