Junior co-captain Siyani Chambers, shown in earlier action, has been instrumental on the floor against Northeastern.

“We can't expect him to be Superman every night and to put us on his back with an offensive explosion,” said Harvard coach Tommy Amaker of senior wing Wesley Saunders. “It will find its way to him.”

Three weeks ago, with the game on the line, Saunders dribbled the ball at the top of the key in the Boston TD Garden. Down just two, Saunders was unable to save the day, as Harvard’s top-25 ranking vanished in a loss to Holy Cross.

While Saunders dropped 24 points that night, it was those last two that his team needed most. Nonetheless, the senior, who was named to the Naismith Award Top 50 Watch List earlier on Wednesday, has done just about everything for the Crimson since then.

The reigning Ivy League Player of the Year was averaging 21.8 points going into Wednesday’s contest, good for seventh in the nation. Against UMass, Saunders scored the final six points for Harvard, including two clutch free throws to win the game, 75-73.

Fast forward to Wednesday night. Saunders is 0-for-3 in the first half and has committed a charging foul. Meanwhile, Northeastern (5-2) has crawled back into the game and made it a five-point contest, silencing the home crowd.

“I wasn’t too worried…. I could have played a lot better in the first half,” said Saunders. “But I know though that there’s two halves and wanted to go back into halftime reenergized, and we came back out as a team.”

Perhaps the statistic most indicative of Saunders’ success is his field goal percentage. Many of the nations top scorers shoot in the low 40 percent range and take 14 to 18 shots per a game. Saunders is currently shooting 55 percent from the field and takes fewer than 13 shots per a game.

"One thing about Wesley is that he is an even-keeled person,” said Amaker. “The highs and the lows aren't drastic with him, which is a tremendous quality for someone to have of his ability and he takes it in stride.”

What makes Saunders so invaluable to Harvard is his ability to understand his role and his incredible feel for the game.

When his squad is rolling and scoring with ease, he is perfectly comfortable with playing hard-nosed defense and rebounding the basketball (see his five steals, the most by any Harvard player since Jeremy Lin in 2010). When it needs him to score, he has no problem stepping up and doing that either, as he dropped 12 points in the second half.

However, don’t mistake Saunders’ patience and discipline for a lack of talent. With 7:04 remaining and up just nine, Saunders caught the ball in front of the Harvard student section in the corner. With just one dribble, #23 picked up the rock, cuffed it in his right hand and floated up and under the hoop for the reverse layup.

It’s those type of plays that have earned Saunders a top-50 player ranking on ESPN. His talent and finesse are undeniable, and when Saunders flies through the lane and goes into attack mode like he did against the Huskies, he really is Harvard’s Superman.

IN DEFENSE OF STATISTICS

33.3 percent from the field, 17-for-51 shooting, and 14 turnovers. Numbers don’t lie.

On Wednesday night, Harvard’s defense shut down Northeastern. For the first four minutes of the game, Northeastern couldn’t even score, and it looked like it might not for the entire night.