The offense found its rhythm and went on to score 60 points on the night, but the underlying indicators of offensive productivity were not so positive.
“In the second half, we started to pick it up,” Beal said. “We’re a new team, so everyone has butterflies in their stomach coming out...and also their up-tempo style of defense made us take a lot of shots we weren’t used to taking.”
The Crimson shot an anemic 25.7 percent from the field in the first half and 33.9 percent on the game.
Beatty and Stehle made only three field goals combined while taking 16 shots. Rogus contributed a solid performance from three-point range, netting three in seven attempts. However, he couldn’t continue that performance inside the arc, going zero-for-five.
In addition to the poor field-goal percentage, Harvard went three-for-seven from the free-throw line in the first half. The Crimson responded by converting 11-of-15 attempts in the second half, but the 63.6 percentage for the game is one that must concern Sullivan.
A Few Big Men
With the absence of sophomore center Brian Cusworth, defending the interior has become a major concern for Harvard.
Fairfield outscored the Crimson 28-16 in the paint, but that stat can be misleading as many of those points for both teams came on penetration from the perimeter and not from the low post.
The Harvard inside combination of sophomore forward Luke McCrone, Stehle and Beatty held their own against potent Stag forwards Deng Gai and Rob Thomson for most of the game.
But Stehle and Beatty found themselves in foul trouble down the stretch, limiting their freedom on defense. Thomson took advantage, scoring six points in a 93-second span and single-handedly shifting the momentum back to Fairfield.
The Crimson front court also had an extremely difficult time rebounding. The Stags front-court combo of Gai and Thomson grabbed 24 boards on the game, recording as many on the offensive end—10—as the Crimson trio of Stehle, Beatty and McCrone registered overall.
“[We] just didn’t get the defensive boards that we wanted,” Sullivan said. “We have to shoot for 70 percent of the defensive boards. Fifty’s not going to be good enough. It was 56.”
Harvard had essentially no interior game, as the three forwards scored a total of 14 points while taking 22 shots.
—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu