Offensively, the Crimson struggled from personnel problems as well. A questionable front-court weighing 40 pounds less than its Hartford counterpart was forced to play without junior center Paul Fisher, who finished with only five points and 12 minutes due to foul trouble.

Additionally, the nation's top long-range shooter at 60 percent, junior Mike Beam, clearly had not fully recovered from the flu that has kept him out of practice since before exams. Transparent for much of the time he was on the floor, Beam finished with only three shots in 25 minutes.

"The offense was fine," Sullivan said. "But there was certainly a missing element, [with Fisher out of the game]. We needed Beam to be 100 percent to win tonight [and did not have that]."

Captain Mike Scott had 18 points and eight steals for the Crimson, while Hartford senior Anthony Bethune led all scorers with 26.

HARTFORD, 93-82 at Lavietes Pavilion Hartford  48  45  --  93 Harvard  32  50  --  82

HARTFORD: Bailey 10-17 2-2 23; Bike 4-13 0-0 10; Howse 3-8 5-6 11; Bethune 11-18 4-6 26; Eames 2-3 2-3 6; Jackson 3-5 0-0 7; Brown 3-4 0-0 8; Juluke 1-2 0-0 2. TOTALS 37-70 13-17 93.

HARVARD: Hill 9-15 6-9 25; Beam 1-3 0-0 3; Scott 6-16 4-5 18; Clemente 7-12 0-0 18; Fisher 1-2 3-5 5; Long 3-3 0-0 3; Ewing 0-1 0-0 0; Coleman 2-4 2-3 6; Dexter 0-0 0-0 0; Lewis 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29-56 15-22 82.