Reeling from the devastating loss of Dan Clemente for the season and the embarrassing loss to Colgate, the best the Harvard men's basketball team could hope for coming into this game was to find some semblance of poise and try to put in a good showing against Ivy power Dartmouth.

Or was it really the best they could hope for?

The Crimson shocked the Big Green, 66-59, last night at Lavietes Pavilion. Leading 58-48 with 4:12 remaining, the Crimson withstood a furious Dartmouth run that cut the lead to 58-57 with two minutes to go.

But Harvard pulled it out by shooting well from the free-throw line while containing Dartmouth's outside shooters.

Even more importantly, Harvard got to the long rebounds when Dartmouth's shooters missed their three-point shots.

Do the hustle

The most telling difference in this game was Harvard's domination of the boards. The Crimson grabbed 41 rebounds to the Big Green's 29.

Harvard limited Dartmouth forward Ian McGinnis to just eight rebounds. The junior center, who was the leading rebounder in the NCAA last season, tallied 19 in a game against Harvard last year.

All of Harvard's players crashed the boards last night. Junior center Tim Coleman finished with a team-high nine boards, and the rest of the starting five finished with at least seven rebounds.

"Dartmouth takes a lot of threes." Coach Frank Sullivan said. "We knew coming into this game that there would be a lot of long rebounds and it was just a matter of getting to them."

With Dartmouth limited to just 7-of-30 shooting from behind the three-point arc, the Crimson simply outhustled Dartmouth to the loose ball.

The Big 'D'

Harvard held the Big Green to 23.3 percent shooting from behind the three-point line.

"We worked a lot in practice on recognizing their three-point plays so that we would be ready to contest their shots," Sullivan said.

In the last 1:30, the Big Green missed three three-pointers, which let Harvard out the game away from the charity stripe.

Also, freshman forward Sam Winter held Shawn Gee, who came into this game averaging 25 points per game, to seven points on the night.

Gee fouled out with 4:12 to go in the game, collecting three fouls in just over a minute, showing apparent frustration along the way.

"It was a brutal assignment for Sam Winters, guarding Gee and replacing Dan Clemente, but he really stepped up," Sullivan said.

A balanced attack

Coming into the game, the big question for the Crimson offensively was how it could make up for the loss of Clemente's point production.

But the Crimson found a committee of players willing to step up last night.

"With all five starters in double figures, the team replaced Clemente's scoring," Sullivan said.

The scoring was remarkably balanced among the starters--Coleman lead the Crimson in with 14 points, but the other starters had either 13 or 12 points on the night.

Harvard also had to make up for Clemente's three-point prowess. Again, the Crimson rose to the occasion, shooting 53.8 percent from three-point range, including three treys from captain Damian Long.

Freebies

Free throw shooting was the key to the end of the game.

Harvard shot 89.5 percent from the free throw line on the night, with four out of the five starters shooting 100 percent.

With 17 of Harvard's 66 points coming from the charity stripe, free throws were hugely important down the stretch as the Crimson protected its lead.

From two minutes to go, with Harvard leading by a slim one point, Harvard scored two field goals and made 5-of-6 free throws to ice the win.

Inexperience, Schminexperience

At times, Harvard played a lineup consisting of four freshmen and one sophomore. Although this unit looked a bit confused on a few plays, they performed well.

"We consider ourselves a work in progress," Sullivan said. "We're going to have patience with our young kids."

Certainly, if this game is any indication, the Crimson will be able to rely on these players for the next four years without any worries at all.