It may have been against a Division-III team, but the Harvard men's basketball team definitely made a statement Saturday night at Lavietes Pavilion.

With help from a talented freshman unit, the Crimson (1-0) used tenacious defense to spark a 16-0 second-half run and ran the Generals (0-1) out of the building with an impressive 72-43 victory.

Junior forward Dan Clemente scored a game-high 19 points despite making just 8-of-21 from the floor, and captain Damian Long added 11 points and four rebounds in a swingman role.

And highly-touted freshman point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman impressed, collecting eight rebounds and eight assists in only 21 minutes.

Although the Crimson this year is focusing more on development after the loss of three senior starters, including point guard Tim Hill, who is the school's all-time assists leader, don't tell that to this year's squad.

"We realize we're a work in progress," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "Our goal is consistency and growth, but we're going to go into the Ivy League looking to win it all. We realize that anything can happen."

Despite outplaying the Generals in every facet of the game in the first half, the Crimson found itself up only by three points going into halftime, 31-28, after giving up eight unanswered points in the last two minutes.

Harvard used the halftime break to regroup and came out with plenty of fire.