“We turned it over way too many times,” Amaker said. “They knocked it off of us…. We got frustrated at times when we couldn’t really pull away from them enough, when we had chances to do that.”

In the first half, a Crimson nine-point advantage was quickly transformed into a one-point lead as Cincinnati’s trapping press led to several bad passes and ill-advised decisions for Harvard.

With less than seven minutes left in the opening period, Curry attempted to pass out of a Bearcat trap, but his try was deflected, and a Cincinnati fast break ended with an emphatic alley-oop from forward Shaquille Thomas.

In a 28-second span from 4:42 to 4:14, Harvard committed three forced turnovers, equaling its total number of mistakes up until that point. And, thanks to a three-point dagger from Kilpatrick along with a Troy Caupain layup at the 3:57 mark, the Bearcats had made it back into the game. The score was 24-23, and Harvard looked rattled.

The defensive success was nothing unusual for a Cincinnati team that ranks 20th nationally in steals per game with 7.94. Accordingly, in the second half, when the Bearcats needed to pull another trick from up its sleeve, they turned once more to their press.

With just over three minutes remaining in the contest, two free throws from Caupain brought his Cincinnati squad within one, 54-53—the closest the spread had been since the first half. Nine seconds later, junior Steve Moundou-Missi was feeling the pressure that comes with facing one of the best defensive teams in the country. The forward caught the ball about 80 feet from his own hoop, and threw an errant pass that landed near Bearcat co-captain Justin Jackson.

Cincinnati had the ball with the chance to take the lead. Only 120 ticks remained in the game.