Crimson, Seniors Finish Trying Seniors

For a team that began the season expecting be playing for the Ivy League title this weekend, the stakes will not be quite that high.

Harvard (12-13, 4-8 Ivy) will instead be playing to finish above .500 for the first time since the 2001-2002 team finished 14-12.

To finish above par, the Crimson needs to halt a seven-game losing streak and defeat Cornell on Friday and Columbia on Saturday. Both games will be played at Lavietes Pavilion.

“We look to go into this weekend and send out a message that they can forget the last seven,” said junior center Brian Cusworth. “That’s not who we are. We plan on going out with two big wins and ending the season on a high note.”

It will not be easy. Cornell (11-15, 6-6) started Harvard’s downward spiral with a last-second 79-77 win in Ithaca on Feb. 4.

Columbia (11-14, 4-8) has been playing much better since the Crimson beat it 69-59 on Feb. 3, and is the only team to defeat league-leading Penn.

Cornell is the lone Ivy team, besides Princeton and Penn, both of whom won in Cambridge early on during the Crimson’s losing streak, with a winning record in league play on the road.

The Big Red is led by academic All-American senior swingman Lenny Collins, who is second on the team in scoring and rebounding and tied for the lead in assists. He tallied 20 points in the win over Harvard last month.

Cornell is very strong defending and shooting three-pointers, two of the Crimson’s biggest weaknesses. The Big Red hold opponents to 31 percent shooting from long range and hit an average of seven threes per game.

“We are in a guard-dominated league, where three-point shooting is absolutely critical, both defensively and offensively,” coach Frank Sullivan said. “It has been a very disappointing area of play for us. It has to be corrected.”

Columbia has been playing well recently, having previaled in three of its past four games, all against teams Harvard has fallen to—Penn, Princeton, and Brown.

“After our game [in New York City], I sensed after the game they were very discouraged,” Sullivan said. “The players were discouraged, and you could see the coaches upset.

“I give them credit. They bounced back nicely. They are young. They have two young frontcourt guys. They have young perimeter guys. And I think they are maturing.”

Against Penn, sophomore guard Justin Armstrong had 23 points of the bench on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor. He is averaging 10.5 points a game this season.

Sophomore forward John Baumann leads the Lions with 13.9 points per game, including a 45.5 shooting percentage from three-point range, and 5.9 rebounds per contest.

The games this weekend mark the final games in crimson for Harvard’s three seniors: Matt Stehle, Michael Beal, and Zach Martin.

“Here are three guys that when we recruited them, the program was winning,” Sullivan said. “This weekend is the finale of their experience at Harvard and I think it is real important for the three of them to go out with a winning season and feel the program is back to a winning level.”

Just because Harvard will not be heading to any postseason tournament does not mean these final two games will be used as preperation for next season.

“It is important for us to win this weekend,” Sullivan said.

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