As the start of Ivy League play nears, senior point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman likes the idea of the Harvard men’s basketball team in the underdog’s role.

At this rate, that’ll be a tough sell.

The Crimson extended its unbeaten streak to five games Thursday night at Lavietes Pavilion, winning 86-74 over Mercer. Harvard led by 23 at halftime and withstood a furious second-half surge by the Bears to earn the victory, which saw a number of Crimson players set career highs.

Through its first nine games, the Crimson (7-2) is off to its best start since the 1984-85 season, when the team opened up with an 8-1 record. Harvard owns the best non-conference mark in the league right now, despite Prasse-Freeman’s wish to remain off the radar screen.

“I would personally rather have every team think that we're garbage so that we can sneak up on them,” said Prasse-Freeman, who broke his own school record for single-game assists Thursday with 16.

The Crimson scored 53 points in the first half Thursday, shooting 57.6 percent from the field and draining five treys, all while holding the Bears to just 30 points.

The first half also propelled several Harvard players to their best games in their time in Cambridge. Besides Prasse-Freeman, senior guard Patrick Harvey scored a career-high 29 points and senior center Brian Sigafoos pulled down a career-best 15 rebounds to go along with 17 points.

Captain Brady Merchant (16 points) and senior forward Sam Winter (11 points) also scored in double digits.

"It certainly was a great offensive game," said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. "To have four guys in double figures, and another in double-figure assists, is really something special."

But despite its remarkable offensive display, the Bears still managed to make the game interesting.

Trailing by 53-30 at halftime, Mercer came storming out of the locker room, led by forward Scott Emerson—-who had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds—-and guard Clarence Baker, who added 17 points.

Following a fast-break basket by Baker that capped a 14-3 Mercer run, the Bears shrunk the Crimson’s lead to just three points, 71-68, with 4:49 to play.

"The three games where we've had double figure leads—Lehigh, Vermont, and again tonight—we didn't manage the clock well," Sullivan said. "We kind of lost of our focus. But to the defense of the team, we haven't been in this situation very often. It seems like it's always been close over the years. And it’s one of those situations you don't practice very often."

A three-pointer by Merchant and a lay-up by Winter stopped the Mercer rally and secured the Crimson victory. After that, the closest Mercer came to approaching Harvard was 80-74, as the Crimson finished the game with a 6-0 run.

The players attributed their coolness in the face of the Bears’ threat to the team’s veteran leadership.

"I think that's the one of the advantages of having five seniors out there," Sigafoos said. "We realized that they were going to make a couple of runs, but we're not going to lose our poise. We've got enough experience out there to hold them off. We certainly don't want it to be that close at the end, but we're an experienced team."

Though Harvard’s defensive schemes were similar to the ones it used in the opening period, Mercer, with its up-tempo pace, found holes in the Crimson defense in the second half. The Bears outscored the Crimson, 44-33, in that second frame en route to a 44-percent shooting night.

"I don't know why we were playing that way," Prasse-Freeman said of the Crimson’s late softening on defense. "That's something we're going to have to figure out on the practice courts [Friday]."

There will be plenty to figure out in preparation for the Crimson’s biggest opponent of the season thus far, crosstown rival Boston College (7-2). The Eagles are coming off of a 79-61 win over Stony Brook, in which guard Troy Bell scored his 2000th career point. He is only the fourth BC player to do so.

"We're very confident in terms of the way we're playing," Prasse-Freeman said. "But at the same time, BC is BC. We're going to play as hard as we can, and hopefully we can play with them."

--Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.