The Harvard guard rotation took its most surprising turn with just over five minutes to go in the game and the Crimson up three. Fraschilla, whose last appearance of more than five minutes came against St. Rose last January, came off the bench to replace McCarthy after the freshman committed his third turnover of the game. The junior did not score but had an assist and, most importantly, zero turnovers.
“I thought [Matt] was a really big difference in us to win that game,” Amaker said. “I thought he made two really good decisions in the short time that he was on the floor.”
The last five minutes of the game were a mere subset of the many looks Amaker tinkered with on Saturday. He started with McCarthy, Johnson, and Okolie. He flanked McCarthy with Miller and Johnson, the team’s best shooters. Miller ran the point for a few possessions while McCarthy played off the ball. When Edosomwan left the game after a hard fall, Amaker went with the team’s three point guardsFraschilla, McCarthy, and Miller to finish off McGill.
The tinkering did work, as the team ultimately held on for the victory, but it was not always pretty.
“We were very disjointed at times and we still need to be more efficient just in terms of our offense with shooting the threepoint shots. Certainly the foul shooting was disappointing,” Amaker said.
—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at sgleason@college.harvard.edu.