“We played awful in the first half,” Stehle said. “I didn’t do what I was supposed to. I just wanted to go out and...play a lot tougher. I realized that [the Tennessee Tech forwards] were real athletic, so they would jump and I got to the line and slowed things down a bit.”

The Golden Eagles maintained a comfortable lead throughout the early portion of the contest until junior forward Zach Martin nailed a three and Stehle followed with a layup to pull the Crimson back within three, 26-23. Tennessee Tech responded with four straight baskets from within two feet, including a thunderous two-handed dunk to push its lead to 11. Harvard clamped down and stopped the run, but went into the intermission down 36-27.

“Coach [Sullivan] put three things on the board at halftime,” Norman said. “‘Defend,’ ‘Rebound’ and ‘Willingness to Win.’ And we just wanted to execute those three things and come out stronger than we did in the first half.”

The two squads may have combined for 191 points on the evening, but neither side could find the bucket at the outset, as the game remained scoreless until Fisher hit two free throws with 17:04 left in the first half.

The Crimson’s offense continued to struggle after the first media timeout, as Harvard recorded two straight 35-second violations.

Tennessee Tech took advantage, jumping out to a 16-8 lead, including seven straight points by forward Willie Jenkins. Jenkins had 21 points in the Golden Eagles’ opening round loss to St. Peter’s and finished with 15 against Harvard.

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