The Harvard men's basketball team received a lesson in nature this past weekend: Bulldogs are faster than Bruins.
Friday night in Providence, R.I., the cagers used their quickness on both ends of the floor to run up 108 points and snap a 22-game road losing streak, defeating the Brown Bruins, 108-90.
Saturday night in New Haven, Conn., the Crimson poured in another 95 points, raising its seasonal average over the 85-point mark; the only problem for Harvard was that the Ivy League leading Bulldogs of Yale were just as intent to run.
And they were faster.
As a result, Yale--on the strength of 22 points from center Chris Dudley and guard Ken Wheeler--knocked off the Crimson, 106-95, before 1745 fans at Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
The game was highlighted, however, by the efforts of Yale guard Peter White, whose 17 assists established a new single-game Ivy League record. White eclipsed the old mark of 15--a record which had stood for 15 years.
White, who leads the Ivies in assists, also scored 12 points and made good on two of his three point attempts.
Harvard, now 3-4 in the Ivy League (8-10 overall), fell behind by 11 points at the half and never got closer than 10 the rest of the way.
"We have to influence more how the other teams shoot," Harvard Coach Pete Roby said. "We didn't get out and pressure them enough. Still, when a team shoots as well as Yale didand plays with as much confidence as they'replaying with now, they're very tough to beat."
With the win, the Bulldog's improved to 6-2 inthe Ivies (12-7 overall) and kept pace withCornell--which swept Penn and Princeton over theweekend--atop the Ancient Eight standings.
Harvard was led by sophomore guard NeilPhillips, who netted 18 points for the secondstraight night and also grabbed a team-high ninerebounds.
Co-Captains Arne Duncan and Keith Websterchipped in with 16 points apiece in the losingeffort.
With Harvard trailing, 24-19, with 11:32remaining in the opening stanza, the Elis rippedoff 12 unanswered points to take a commanding17-point advantage.
Webster, who connected on six of his 10 fieldgoal tries, scored eight of his 16 points in thefinal five-and-a-half minutes of the first half tobring the cagers back into contention.
After Yale embarked on a 16-6 run at the startof the second frame to move ahead by 21 points,the Crimson steadily chipped away at the Eli lead.
A pair of Duncan free throws pulled Harvard towithin 86-76 with 4:54 remaining, but that was asclose as Harvard would get.
Duncan went eight-for-nine from the foul lineon the night, while also recording six reboundsand two steals.
Sophomore guard Mike Gielen followed up his24-point Friday night performance by scoringanother 15 (on six-for-11 field goal shooting)against the Elis before fouling cut down thestretch.
THE NOTEBOOK: Tedd Evers--who pumped ina season-high 13 points at Brown--was two-for-twofrom three-point range and scored 10 pointsoverall, including a game-ending 30-ft. shot atthe buzzer....Sophomore forward Fred Scherneckerstarted for the second straight game
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