After falling in a narrow road loss to Michigan last Saturday, returning home turned out to be more difficult than expected, as the Crimson proved unable to convincingly put away its Division III visitors. Boosted by McNally’s game-high 20 points and sophomore guard Christian Webster’s 17, Harvard ultimately came away with the 69-54 win—not to mention several areas to improve upon.

“Defensively, I think we need to be better—just staying in front of the ball,” McNally said. “And rebounding—we didn’t do a good job of either those two things.”

A big boost on both ends of the floor could come in the form of sophomore star Kyle Casey, who did not play against WPI and saw only seven minutes of action at Michigan due to a virus.

Amaker said that Casey—the league’s reigning Rookie of the Year—practiced Thursday afternoon and that he was hopeful he would be available tomorrow.

Harvard’s other front-court mainstay, junior co-captain Keith Wright, will attempt to have his way inside against O’Brien, who at 6’8 is the tallest player in the Terriers’ regular rotation. Look for Chambers to utilize a four-guard lineup versus his hosts, which will counter with plenty of backcourt firepower of their own.

Hot-shooting freshman Laurent Rivard, who was named league Rookie of the Week, not to mention McNally and Webster, will all have the green light to fire away as they try to lead Harvard to its seventh win of the year.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.