The Mountain Hawks capitalized on the turnover, as Gilfillan hit center Jason Mgebroff for a layup on a well-scripted out-of-bounds play to pull within six, 59-53. But the Norman dunk and four free throws by Stehle pushed the Crimson lead back to 12 and put the game well out of reach.

Harvard set the tone of the contest right out of the gate, as senior guard Kevin Rogus nailed a three just nine seconds in. Rogus would add two more threes by intermission, scoring all of his 15 points in the first half.

The Crimson jumped out to an 18-11 lead, but Lehigh chipped away, closing to within five with just 4:04 left in the half. A Rogus three followed by a steal and a layup by Norman allowed Harvard to open up a 27-17 lead.

But the Mountain Hawks nailed two of their five first-half three-pointers, as they put together a 10-3 run to cut the Crimson lead to three heading into the intermission.Harvard clamped down after halftime, only allowing Lehigh to connect on two three-pointers during the final 20 minutes of the contest.

“We talked about the three-pointers at halftime, and that was really the only reason they were in the game in the first half,” Giovacchini said. “We knew if we could take away the three that they’d have a hard time scoring in general.”

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.