In the first week of life without Dan Clemente, the Harvard men's basketball team has learned the hard way what Coach Frank Sullivan has known all along: it's a rebuilding year.

Saturday's 72-63 loss to Northeastern showed that without an offensive threat like Clemente to go to in the late stages, the Crimson (4-5, 0-1 Ivy) will have a tough time mounting comebacks or keeping leads. Clemente's 21.2 points per game and clutch three-point shooting often made up for other Harvard mistakes.

"We've lost our 'go-to' guy," Sullivan said. "Our inexperience reared its ugly head today."

No Go-To Guy

It sure did. After playing a solid first 25 minutes, including leading for the entire first half, the Harvard offense grew complacent and slow. Junior center Tim Coleman, who's picked up a lot of the offensive slack in the last week, went from 5-of-9 shooting in the first half to 4-of-11 in the second. While the junior finished with 18 points, his lack of inside aggressiveness led to a total of zero trips to the free-throw line.

"Our offense went flat," said captain Damian Long. "Things happened so easily on offense in the first half that we just didn't pick up the tempo later."

Long, the only senior in the starting lineup, has especially been attempting to compensate for Clemente's loss. He scored a career-high 18 points on fourteen shots. He also heaved up nine three-point attempts, though some of those were desperation attempts late.

"Only six or seven of those were really legitimate three-point looks," Long said. "I've been getting more looks now because I'm playing off Tim [Coleman]."