Following its opening season victory over Maine on Saturday, the Crimson will look to gain another win against BU at Lavietes Pavilion at 7 p.m. tonight.

After a surprising 75-71 victory over Maine last Saturday at Lavietes Pavilion, the Harvard men’s basketball team looks to continue its successful start against local rival BU at home tonight at 7:00 p.m.

The Crimson (1-0) will also look to snap a five game loosing streak in the series. Harvard’s last win against the Terriers (0-1) came in December of 2000.

Last year, in Boston, BU downed the Crimson 72-63. Among returning players, captain guard Jim Goffredo scored 10 points and sophomore guard Drew Housman had 12, along with 5 steals.

The defeat in Boston was the first game last season Harvard played without senior center Brian Cusworth, who had injured his hand in the previous game. This year, the Crimson will have its 7’0 big man in the lineup.

The senior is off to an excellent start in his final season in a Harvard uniform. He led the Crimson with 20 points, including 13 after halftime.

This season, the Terriers were picked to finish fifth in the American East. They are led by its two captains, guard Brian Macon and forward Omari Peterkin.

In BU’s only game of the season to date, it lost at home 70-57 to George Washington, a team that reached the second round of the NCAA tournament last year. Freshman guard Carlos Strong scored 19 points, including 5 of 8 from three-point range to lead the Terriers in scoring in his first collegiate game.

More than half of BU’s points came from three-pointers. The Terriers made 10 of 27 long range attempts against the Colonials.

In last year’s game, BU made 61.5% of its threes, going 8 for 13 from beyond the arch. Last year, the Crimson had a hard time behind the arc-- it ranked seventh in the Ivy League last year in three-point field goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot 36.8 percent from downtown.

Vast improvement was shown against Maine. Going up against a team with several athletic, talented shooters, Harvard forced the Black Bears to miss 15 of their 20 three-point attempts.

One area the Crimson had problems with against Maine was on the glass. The Black Bears grabbed nineteen offensive rebounds, which led to 20 second chance points.

“[Rebounding] is probably the biggest thing we really need to work on,” Cusworth said. “That is something that can really hurt us.”

The game with the Terriers could help clear up Harvard’s logjam at the three and four spots. At power forward, four players saw action against Maine, with junior Brad Unger and sophomore Evan Harris on the court the most.

At the three guard position, freshman Jeremy Lin played well in his first collegiate game, grabbing six rebounds to go with six steals. He played 25 minutes, the same amount the other two contenders for the three guard spot, sophomore Andrew Pusar and junior James Lambert, played between them. He isn’t sure, however, whether his performance will result in more playing time.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Lin said. “If I get to play, that is good. If my teammates get to play, that is good too.”

A win will make the Crimson 2-0 for the second straight year. Before the 2005-2006 season, it hadn’t won its first two games since 1999. Last year, Harvard won its first five non-conference games.

“When we look at the non-league schedule, the [goal] is repeating what we did a year ago,” Sullivan said.



—Staff writer Ted Kirby can be reached at tkirby@fas.harvard.edu.