Lafayette Laffer
Everything that was missing from the Crimson attack Saturday night, however, was present Thursday at Briggs Athletic Center as the cagers hosted Lafayette.
Despite a two-week layoff, Harvard's scoring touch was intact, as the squad hit at a .455 rate from the floor.
And thanks to a sparkling second half (.538 shooting, 42 points) the Crimson succeeded in doing what it hadn't done all season--rallying to victory from a halftime deficit.
"I'm happy because of the circumstances, the fact that we were coming off some inconsistent performances, and because we played a pretty damn good basketball team," Roby said.
The Leopards, 5-3 entering the contest, opened up with a bruising attack. A 14-5 run late in the first half pushed the visitors to a 12-point lead, which proved to be the largest of the game.
A pair of Fred Schernecker free throws and hoops by guards Smith and Keith Webster cut the margin to six at the buzzer.
And when Harvard took to the court again in the second stanza, it kept right on rolling. The cagers clung close to the Leopards, with the edge fluctuating between three and five points for most of the half.
But with 7:07 remaining on the clock, Phillips sunk an 18-ft. jumper from the left side--and within the next one and a half minutes, the freshman sensation added six additional points to give the Crimson a 50-47 lead it never relinquished.
Webster--who became the first Harvard player to play a full 40 minutes this season after 50 such ironman performances by last year's squad--added eight points of his own in the final four minutes to seal the victory.
St. Mike's Stumper
The Crimson must have wished it had left early for winter break like the thousands of Harvard students who didn't crowd Briggs on December 19, as the hosts stumbled to a disappointing 70-64 loss to St. Michael's.
Although the Cantabs managed to come back from a 33-29 deficit at the half, pulling to as much as a three-point lead midway through the second half, the cagers could never put the contest away. The Green Knights (6-2 with the win) charged back in the final minutes on a string of free throws to nail the hosts.
"When you just let a team hang in the game, hang in the game, hang in the game, why shouldn't they think they'll beat you," Roby said.
One bright spot for Harvard, however, was the play of Dodson, who registered a career-high 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
THE NOTEBOOK: The Crimson hosts Lehigh tonight, with a 7:30 p.m. start slated in Briggs...Roby received his first technical of the year in the first half of the Lafayette contest, and the Leopards proceeded to hit a pair from the charity stripe to increase their lead at that point to seven points. "I try not to have my players do a lot of yapping at the refs," Roby said afterwards, "but unfortunately I got a technical at the wrong time of the game." ...In six home games, Harvard has averaged just 575 fans per game--with a large boost from the 1000-plus crowd at the Stanford contest. In its four away contests, the Crimson has attracted an average attendance of 1035...The cagers have averaged 65.9 points in their 10 contests, while opponents have scored an average of 66.5 per game.