SAN JOSE, Calif.--When crunch time came for the Harvard men's basketball team at the Cable Car Classic, the Crimson looked to its perimeter players to make the plays down the stretch.

When they came through against Santa Clara, it meant Harvard's first tournament win outside Boston in 23 years. When they didn't against St. Joseph's, it meant a 19-point blowout loss.

Against both Santa Clara and St. Joseph's, Harvard was overmatched inside. Santa Clara center Alex Lopez led the Broncos with 13 points in the first-round game and St. Joseph's center Damian Reid led the Hawks to the tournament championship with 17 points and 18 rebounds. Both the Broncos and the Hawks outrebounded the Crimson by 10 boards.

Captain Paul Fisher, who has been Harvard's most reliable force inside this season, averaging 12.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game at center, struggled at the San Jose Arena. While he pulled down seven rebounds in both tournament games, he managed just five points against St. Joseph's and six against Santa Clara.

He committed four fouls trying to contain Lopez the first night and fouled out with 3:55 left in the championship game.

Against St. Joseph's Fisher tried to establish himself in the post but the Hawks--with three players taller than the 6'8 senior--swarmed around him. Reid blocked several of his lay-up attempts. At one point in the first half Harvard tried to break the St. Joseph's press with a length-of-the-court inbounds pass to Fisher, but he missed that lay-up as well.

Backup center Bill Ewing has shown flashes of potential in the post all season, and that pattern continued against St. Joseph's. He scored seven points in the first half, including a two-handed dunk, and recorded one of his trademark elections, but only saw six minutes of action in the second half and did not score after halftime.

Sophomore Tim Coleman began the season as the starting power forward but only scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in 17 minutes of action at the Cable Car Classic. Sophomores Chris Lewis and Ethan Altaratz have not had enough significant playing time to establish themselves as solid big men for the Crimson.

Without a dominant low-post game, Harvard has become a guard-oriented team. Coach Frank Sullivan moved 6'7 sophomore Dan Clemente from swingman to power forward and inserted a third guard--6'2 junior Damian Long--into the starting lineup against Northeastern and has stuck with that lineup over the past three games. That meant the Crimson started three players smaller than 6'3 against St. Joseph's, even though seven of the Hawks' top nine players are at least 6'5.

But the perimeter play was strong enough to defeat host Santa Clara. Senior shooting guard Mike Beam knocked down six three-pointers and led Harvard with 20 points. Clemente added three treys and finished with 12 points. Beam and Clemente were the only Crimson players to score in double figures in the Harvard victory.

Harvard's guards were simply better than Santa Clara's backcourt, which was without the services of All-West Coast Conference point guard Brian Jones. Although senior point guard Tim Hill was just 2-of-7 from the floor and scored five points, he still contributed seven assists as Beam and Clemente used screens and Hill's penetration to create open three-point shots.

And Harvard is deep at the guard position. Long scored only two points against Santa Clara, but all three freshmen on the roster saw significant minutes in the Crimson backcourt. Both Andrew Gellert and Patrick Harvey hit three-pointers and finished with five points. Gellert and Alex Lowder each contributed a steal as Harvard used a full-court press to challenge the Broncos' ball-handlers.

"Santa Clara looked like a team that would be vulnerable to full-court pressure," Sullivan said. "We really don't press very often and the element of surprise probably played a part in its success for us."

While Harvard shot 42.3 percent from behind the arc against Santa Clara, and 46.7 percent in the second half, the Crimson made just 30 percent of its three-pointers against St. Joseph's--including a 20 percent clip in the second half against the Hawks. Thatcost Harvard even though the Crimson shot betteroverall against the Hawks (40.6 percent) than itdid against the Broncos (37.0 percent).

Beam hit only on three-pointer against St.Joseph's and Clemente knocked down two treys, butHarvard's perimeter players were still its mainoffensive forces. Both Clemente and Hillpenetrated and created shots for themselves offthe dribble, finishing with 18 and 15 point,respectively.

Clemente finished second in the tournament MVPvoting to St. Joseph's Frank Wilkins. Hill becamethe third player in school history to record 500career assists against St. Joseph's and made theall-tournament team. Beam won the Kevin O'ConnorAward for the tournament's most inspirationalplayer.

Fisher may have turned in two poor performancebecause Santa Clara and St. Joseph's had bigger,more athletic post players than the typical IvyLeague center. Still, everyone on the Harvardsquad was overmatched against St. Joseph's and theCrimson looked to Clemente and Hill--its tworeturning All-Ivy League players--for offenseagainst the Hawks.

Gut check: the Crimson lost its lastnon-conference game at Navy Monday night, 75-71.As Harvard gets ready to return to Ivy League playat Cornell on Friday, it can expect solidperimeter play from its shooters and its pointsguard.

If Harvard is to recover from its loss toDartmouth in the conference opener and competewith Penn and Princeton for the Ivy League title,it will need Fisher and the rest of its big men toestablish a post game that will complementHarvard's streaky shooters