Trailing 12-6 at the 12:45 mark, Roby inserted the foursome of Scott Gilly, Dave Lang, Tedd Evers and Scott Collins into the lineup to join Gielen.

"It was only because of fatigue," Roby said. "They were spreading their offense all over the place, and we wanted to keep the guys fresh. It was not a disciplinary thing."

The Crimson promptly executed a 26-10 run over the next eight minutes.

Evers, who started the game with three misses and was yanked after only 1:29 had elapsed, buried three consecutive long jumpers to knot the score at 12.

After a long jumper by Gilly, Collins (career-high 22 points on 10 of 13 shooting in 22 minutes) and James (17 points in 24 minutes) each erupted for their own six-point runs, with a Collins basket giving the Crimson its first lead, 18-16, at the 9:01 mark.

Although Harvard shot only 37 percent at the half, it led 39-32 buoyed by its work on the offensive glass. Harvard outrebounded Brandeis 19 to 6 on the offensive boards, and 41-28 overall for the game.

Second chances resulted in Harvard getting off 48 first-half shots (hitting 18) to the 25 shots (12 made) taken by the Judges.

Once the shots began to fall for Harvard in the second half, the Crimson was able to employ its full-court press regularly, forcing 19 turnovers.

"When you're missing shots," Roby said, "you can't get into the press."

The pressure defense forced the tempo and Harvard began to score at will, putting together 13 runs of at least four unanswered points.

With the score 43-36, Harvard put together its first nine-point run. Brandeis retaliated with its own sevenpoint run, which was then followed up by Harvard's second nine-point run.

Harvard then outscored Brandeis, 12-4, over the next six minutes to up its lead to 20.