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]."

Must-Win Situation

The game against Northeastern (2-5, 1-0 America East) was the type of game Harvard has to win this season to gain any type of success. After coming off an emotional victory in its first Ivy League game against Dartmouth, the Crimson was unable to muster the same type of second-half intensity on Saturday when the Huskies didn't roll over like the Green did. Northeastern seemed to be easier bait, a non-conference team with one win and a losing history against Harvard (Harvard leads the series now 32-11).

Instead, Northeastern's experience up front, in the form of 6'10 junior center George Aygar and forward Tyrone Hammick, outlasted the Harvard offense. The Huskies finished with 11 blocks and 24 defensive rebounds.

"They've just got bona fide shot-blockers over there," Sullivan said. "They put more traffic inside in the second half and that hurt us."

Young at Heart

Sullivan can look at some of his younger players with satisfaction, however. Freshman point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman has grown into an assertive and confident ball handler who has a penchant for razzle-dazzle. In one sequence in the second half, junior forward Bryan Parker missed a cut because of miscommunication and the play ended up in a turnover.

During the next stoppage of play, Prasse-Freeman went up to Parker and chewed the upperclassmen out in front of the 649 fans in Lavietes Pavilion.

While Prasse-Freeman's shooting is still suspect (4-of-12 on Saturday, including 0-of-3 from three-point range), his assist-to-turnover ratio has improved, going 9-to-7 against Northeastern. He continually impressed with no-look bounce passes inside that led to easy lay-ups, and while he made some ballhandling errors late in the second half, Sullivan said he isn't worried.

"He's going through it for the first time," Sullivan said. "In fact, all the freshmen, plus some of our other younger guys are going through a situation like this for the first time."

Prasse-Freeman's freshmen classmates didn't fare as well on Saturday. Forward Sam Winter, who replaced Clemente in the starting lineup, picked up four fouls and had only two rebounds. Center Onnie Mayshak was more aggressive against Northeastern, fighting his way for five offensive rebounds in 14 minutes. He also continued his poor free throw shooting, however, being the only Crimson player to miss a free throw in going 1-for-4 from the line.

Brady Merchant played his second game after recovering from an ankle injury, getting in five minutes of play and picking up a foul.

Giving Credit

The Crimson didn't just lose the game, though. The Huskies also beat them. Northeastern stayed pretty even in the first half, only down six at halftime, but the jump shot became their best friend in the second half. The Huskies shot 65.4 percent from the field in the second half. Guard Terry Kringe led all scorers with 19 points on 5-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Jean Bain scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, including a sequence in the second half where he scored nine straight points to give Northeastern the lead.

Near the end of the game, with the Crimson attempting a comeback, the Huskies also showed off their poise and experience. Even though they had been outrebounded all day, with 2:06 to go the Huskies got three straight offensive rebounds which took 1:21 off the clock and left the Crimson with almost no time left to overcome the deficit. Hammick had two of those rebounds, including one off his own shot.

The Huskies also overcame the poor play of Aygar, who often looked like a giant waste of space out on the court. Despite being 6'10, he only weighed 200 pounds and got pounded underneath. He only managed four six points and four rebounds while playing shoddy defense, and Coach Rudy Keeling played him only 25 minutes.