His effort fell far short of last year's performance against the Crusaders, when he dominated the game, scoring 32 points in Harvard's easy 80-69 win.

"He was working too hard to duplicate last year's success [tonight] instead of letting the game come to him," Sullivan said.

"I've never seen Danny shoot like that," said sophomore guard Elliot Prasse-Freeman.

The rest of the team did not fare much better. Perhaps confused by Holy Cross's zone defense, Crimson players missed shot after shot. Only backup sophomore guard Brady Merchant found his range, going 4-of-6 from the field.

"We had open shots, but we just didn't make them," Prasse-Freeman said. "We never could drive the ball to the basket, and we settled for outside shots."

Harvard's shooting woes were complicated by the loss of backup sophomore shooting guard Mike Causey. The TCU transfer who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules surprisingly quit the team last week for unknown reasons. Causey had been expected to provide a scoring punch from long range.

Yet despite their shooting problems, the Crimson still had a chance to win the game late. Sophomore Onnie Mayshak's layup off a loose ball with just over three minutes left to play capped off a 7-0 Harvard run that put the Crimson up, 55-53. However, Mayshak's points would be the last Harvard score of the game.