ITHACA, N.Y—Considering the way the Harvard men’s basketball team has performed on different nights during the week, the athletics department should think about revising the team’s schedule next season.

“It’s been three weeks now where we’ve played a lot better on Saturday than we did on Friday,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “We’re picking the pieces up after the loss [Friday] night and certainly played a terrific game [Saturday night].”

The rest of the team echoed the sentiments of their coach.

“We’re all-Ivy Saturday, I’m not going to lie to you,” junior guard Kevin Rogus said.

Harvard has played up to the ability of its Saturday-night opponents, beating Cornell this weekend, Yale last week, and taking Ivy League-leading Princeton to double-overtime two weeks ago.

“Every win has come down to the wire this season,” sophomore forward Matt Stehle said. “That’s kind of been our MO this season: play tough on Saturday.”

The Crimson shot 48 percent from the field last night and connected on 89 percent of its opportunities from the charity stripe, as opposed to Friday’s night’s loss to Columbia, in which Harvard shot just 40.4 and 64.3 percent in the those two categories, respectively.

Those numbers reflect a growing trend for the Crimson. In the past two weeks Harvard has shot 48.7 percent from the field on Saturdays, but only 42.4 on Fridays. In those two contests the Crimson lost by an average of 16.5 points.

Harvard’s defense also clamps down on the second nights of the Ivy weekends, holding its Saturday opponents to just 40.3 percent shooting from the field.

“You know it feels great, knowing that [our opponent] just lost to the second-worst team in the league again,” Stehle said, in reference to the victories over the Bulldogs and the Big Red.

(DON’T) LEAN ON ME

After hitting the ground hard in the game against Yale last Saturday, Rogus’ right ankle has been bothering him to the point where it was necessary for him to use crutches early in the week.

That injury slowed Rogus significantly against Columbia, as he went 0-8 from the field and had just two points—a season low. The physical Lion defense—which relies on obstructing cutters as a means to disrupt the timing of an opposing offense—forced Rogus to fight for every three-point look, rarely allowing him to set up for an uncontested shot.

And while he may have played a better game on Saturday, scoring 12 points, his ankle took another pounding.

After being knocked down hard while drawing a foul with 4:23 to go in the first half, Rogus got up slowly and was in obvious pain while limping to the free throw line. And though he missed his second free throw, Rogus managed to chase the ball down and was knocked down hard while drawing a foul—again.