Perhaps the most important aspect of Albany's inside game, however, was its second-half defense. Harvard's interior players--bailed out most of the game by Harvey, Prasse-Freeman and Gellert--were almost nonexistent offensively late in the game.

Sophomores Sam Winter, Onnie Mayshak and Brian Sigafoos played center-by-committee Saturday night, and none of the three had impressive games. They combined for eight total points, but nine personal fouls. Only Mayshak had much success rebounding, getting four defensive boards in ten minutes.

Instead, it fell on Clemente to do much of the work in the post. He scored only 17 overall points, reminiscent more of the season opener against Holy Cross (a loss) than the 20-point games he had versus Lehigh and Northeastern. Even more importantly, 16 of Clemente's 17 points came in the first half. The forward only got off one shot in the entire second frame, a missed three-point attempt with four minutes left in the game.

"They just played me man-to-man in the second half," Clemente said. "It wasn't a box-and-one, but they were in my face, and it was tough to get the ball."

The quiet assassin of the Crimson's chances against Albany was not in fact rebounding or defense but may have been, in the end, free-throw shooting. Along with Merchant's miscues, the Crimson as a team shot 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from the charity stripe.

In a four-point game, 13 missed free throws make a large difference.

"That is absolutely ridiculous," Clemente said in reference to the Crimson's free-throw woes. "It is unacceptable, and I guarantee it won't happen again. We are not a 23.5 percent free-throw shooting team."

Playing a road game in a neighboring state against a non-conference team may have distracted the Crimson and lessened its intensity. Unlike most weekends, when the Crimson play both Friday and Saturday night, the Great Danes were Harvard's sole opponent. Albany, N.Y. is more than three hours away, a long round trip for a loss.