In Princeton on Friday night, a second-halfcharge led by the starting front-court of Ewingand Clemente was not enough to overcome an18-point halftime deficit as Harvard came upshort, 66-60, to the defending Ivy champions.
Clemente--who added two steals and twoassists--finished with 18 points.
Ewing pulled down seven second-half rebounds,tallied eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, andcommitted only one turnover. The center, makingonly his second start of the season, helped holdPrinceton freshman center and three-time IvyRookie of the Week Steve Young to threesecond-half points.
After trailing 39-21 at the break, Harvardmounted a comeback behind 13 second-half points byClemente. Harvard closed to within six points at64-58 with 1:30 remaining but could inch nocloser.
With just under two minutes left, Ewing tippedhome a missed free throw by freshman PatrickHarvey to bring Harvard within eight. Following aPrinceton timeout, the Tigers had troubleinbounding the ball against tenacious Crimsonfull-court pressure. Princeton was forced to takea second timeout when it could not cross the10-second line.
Princeton freshman point guard Ahmed El-Nokalithen threw the ball away, and on the ensuingpossession, Harvard again went to Ewing on theinterior, who was fouled by Princeton freshmancenter Steve Young. Ewing, a 55 percent free-throwshooter a year ago who has improved to 83 percentthis season, calmly knocked down both attempts tocut the Tiger advantage to six.
After fouling Princeton freshman forward ChrisKrug, who connected on one of two to push the leadto seven, Hill was unable to knock down adifficult fadeaway from the right elbow.
Princeton again missed one of two free throwsafter a Crimson foul, but a swarming Tiger defenseforced a turnover to end the threat.
The Tigers pounced on the Crimson from theoutset. Harvard handled unexpected Tiger pressurecompetently but clearly looked rushed anduncomfortable at the offensive end. In the openingeight minutes, Harvard found several good looksfor Clemente and its guards, but no one could findthe net. Harvard connected on only one of itsfirst eight from the floor, mostly from theperimeter.
Meanwhile, Princeton came out unconscious fromthe floor despite solid defensive pressure. TheTigers made 6-of-8 to open the night, including acouple of tough long-range bombs as the shot clockexpired.
After the Crimson held the much biggerPrinceton lineup to only four points in the paintin the first eight minutes, Young started to dosome damage.
In the second half, as Clemente and Ewing gotthe Crimson going offensively, Coleman and Ewingstepped up the job defensively, holding Young andfront-court-mate Chris Krug to just four pointsafter intermission.
After giving no fouls in the first half, Ewingroughed up the opposition with three personalfouls and appeared more aggressive and physicalafter the intermission.
PRINCETON, 66-60 at Jadwin Gym, Princeton, N.J.
Harvard 21 39 - 60Princeton 39 27 - 66
PENN, 81-58 at the Palestra, Philadelphia Harvard 30 26 - 56Penn 42 39 - 81