Gellert then picked up his pivotal fourth foul a minute later when he fouled sophomore Paul Vitelli. As a result, Sullivan sat Gellert in favor of junior guard Bracy Merchant and the senior captain did not return to the game until the 7:23 mark. In his absence, the Elis reeled off an 18-6 run to take a 49-46 lead.

“We definitely need Drew on the court with us,” Harvey said. “He’s pretty much our defensive stopper and without him we were running around with our heads cut off out there.”

Aside from defensive issues, another contributing factor to the stunning turnaround was problems with offensive execution. Compared to the respectable 48 percent shooting from the field in the first half, the Crimson only converted on 30 percent of its shots in the second half (20 percent from the three-point line).

Yale’s switch to zone—a defensive scheme against which Harvard is not accustomed to playing—was chief among the explanations behind the Crimson’s offensive woes.

“The biggest thing was that we haven’t seen zone that much in game-time situations this season,” Sullivan said. “Combined with our ill-timed turnovers, I thought Yale had timely three-pointers and timely extra passes for easy baskets.”

Yale made use of its talented backcourt to upset the Crimson in the second half. Ivy Rookie of the Year candidates Edwin Draughan and Alex Gamboa combined for 24 points, five rebounds and four steals. Playing with no seniors, the Elis were able to get solid veteran contributions from Leanza and junior center T.J. McHugh (team-high 14 points).

After the game, the players said they were intent on not letting a repeat performance of last year occur. In the 2000-01 season, the Crimson had not dropped two consecutive games until a crushing last-second loss to Princeton at home precipitated a five-game losing streak that included road trips to Cornell-Columbia and Penn-Princeton.

“Coach talked about last year after the game and that is definitely something we’re thinking about,” Harvey said. “[Coach Sullivan] wanted us to keep our heads up.”

Harvard 89, Brown 81

Entering the game against the Bears, much of the hype was focused on junior All-Ivy guard Earl Hunt and rightly so. The 6’4 scoring machine posted a 33-point effort in his last outing, versus Yale, and had a career-high 39-point effort two years ago in Lavietes Pavilion.

Hunt scored 30 points in one half in that game. On Friday, he only mustered one point in the entire first half against a swarming Crimson defense.

Hunt finished with a season-low six points on one-of-10 shooting from the field and was heckled mercilessly by the 1800 in attendance.

“[Hunt] is one of the best players in the League and everyone did a good job of holding him down,” Gellert said.

Picking up the slack for the Bears was rookie sensation Jason Forte. The 6’0 guard, who is the younger brother of former UNC standout and current Boston Celtics guard Joseph Forte, netted a career-high 25 points to lead all scorers and also contributed four steals, four rebounds and three assists.