Bears Upset Bid of Harvard Falls Short 74-68

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

If Brown’s game at Harvard a couple of weeks ago was Bud, then last night’s game between the two teams in Providence was Bud Light.

Two weeks ago, the Bears dominated the Crimson in the first 20 minutes of their game taking a 22-point to the locker room at halftime 53-31. Harvard would return the favor in the second half with a dominant performance of their own outscoring the Bears 54-25 on their way to an 85-78 win.

Last night’s game didn’t quite feature the dominance by either team but it did take on a similar complexion. The Bears played a solid first half of basketball and led the Crimson 41-30 at the break. Harvard outscored Brown 44-27 in the second half and won again 74-68.

Unlike the first match-up at Harvard, Brown kept Crimson big men Keith Wright (12 pts) and Kyle Casey (9 pts) in check for most of the night. Oliver McNally did most of the offensive damage for Harvard scoring a team high 20 points on 7-13 shooting, including 3-6 from three.

McNally’s offensive performance was not as impressive as that of Bears’ sophomore forward Tucker Halpern who scored a career-high 29. Halpern went 10-15 from the field including 6-9 from three. Some of his three’s were from long range but it wasn’t enough to lift the Bears.

Harvard made it difficult for the Bears to run their offense in the second half by defending Brown point guard and Ivy League rookie of the week Sean McGonagill closely. McGonagill still managed to put together another terrific game scoring 12 points while pulling down 6 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. With three games left in the season, he has to be considered the favorite to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

Harvard’s Keith Wright may be the slight favorite for Ivy League Player of the Year honors but that could be determined by the outcome of the race for the Ivy League title.

Harvard (21-4 overall, 10-1 Ivy League) currently has a half-game lead over Princeton (21-5 overall, 9-1 Ivy League. Harvard visits Yale tonight while Princeton hosts Columbia.

The Tigers defeated the Crimson 65-61 on February 4th at Princeton. The two teams will meet again one week from tonight at Harvard.

As for the Bears, they close out the home portion of their schedule tonight against Dartmouth at 6pm. It’s senior night at the Pizzatola Sports Center as Brown’s four seniors will be honored prior to the game.

Co-captain Peter Sullivan is Brown’s 8th all-time leading scorer. Adrian Williams has played in more games (112) and is 6th all-time in career threes at Brown. Garrett Leffelman was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American this year with a 3.89 GPA in Economics and Political Science. And Chris Taylor has been a key contributor off of the Brown bench this season on both ends of the floor.

But as well as the four have performed on the court and in the classroom, they have done and even better job representing themselves, their families and Brown University with tremendous class. They will be missed on a variety of levels.