The Harvard men's basketball team will attempt to ride the wave of a shocking 79-78 comeback victory over Dartmouth tonight at home against Vermont.

Harvard (4-3, 1-0 Ivy) was down four points with 6.3 seconds remaining in the game at Dartmouth on Saturday when Crimson captain Dan Clemente drained a three-pointer to cut the lead to one. Sophomore guard Pat Harvey then stole the ensuing in-bounds pass and made two free-throws under immense pressure to give Harvard a one-point advantage. Sophomore guard Brady Merchant stole Vermont's long out-of-bounds pass after the second free-throw to seal the victory for Harvard.

"The win was huge for us," Clemente said. "This league is going to be so close this year. Every win is important."

Harvard returns to its non-league schedule tonight against Vermont (4-3). The Catamounts lost on Sunday to Holy Cross, 87-73. The defeat snapped Vermont's three-game winning streak, which included a 93-90 overtime victory over Yale.

The Catamounts are led by freshman point-guard T.J. Sorrentine, who was voted the America East Rookie of the Week for the first two weeks of December. He scored 22 points in the loss to Holy Cross and averages six assists per game. Crimson junior guard Andrew Gellert will have the unfortunate challenge of guarding Sorrentine, who played 43 minutes against Yale.

While Sorrentine quarterbacks the team, Vermont has a high-powered, multi-faceted offense that will be difficult for Havard to contain. Senior guard Tony Orciari scored 20 points against Holy Cross and had 31 in the victory against Yale. He leads the America East conference in scoring, averaging 19.9 points per game and was voted an AP Pre-season All-American.

In the front court, Vermont boasts junior forward Trevor Gains, who pitched in 17 points and 10 rebounds against Yale, and sophomore power forward Scott Jones, who had 18 rebounds against the Crusaders.

Vermont lost its first game of the year at home against Holy Cross. The Crusaders jumped out to a 49-23 halftime lead, but Vermont clawed its way back into the game, cutting the lead to five with 6:57 remaining. That would be as close as the Catamounts would get, however, as Holy Cross went on a 9-3 run to put the game out of reach.