Story By: Richard Thomas
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
If you are looking for a story line about the Hoyas in postseason play, I would be titled Capitol L, as in loss after loss after loss in games that mattered.
Tonight the Hoyas had the higher 3 Seed in the First Round of the NIT Tournament at their on campus McDonough Arena, but that didn’t seem to bother the Tommy Amker led Harvard Crimson, who with Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagen behind the bench cheering on Harvard on to a 71-68 victory, moving them on to a match-up with N.C State on Sunday in Raleigh.
Harvard was able to control the Hoyas go to guys late in the game in Josh LeBlanc and Mac McClung, leaving just James Akinjo to do the bulk of the scoring for the Hoyas. He finished the game with 25 points.
“Made mistakes, made mistakes the whole game,” Ewing said, flatly. “Didn’t make the right plays, didn’t make the right shots, they out-rebounded us . . . I believe where we lost the game is we kept shooting threes when we should have penetrated with the ball and drive in and get to the paint. They did that.”
Harvard got the best of the Hoyas late into the game and forced them into two big turnovers in the final two minutes that gave the Crimson a 4 point advantage with a little over a minute remaining on the clock. This forced the Hoyas to put the ball into Akinjo’s hands again, but it was the final shot by Greg Malinowski that kept the Hoyas from forcing overtime.
“This was extremely frustrating,” Akinjo said. “I felt like we had an opportunity to do something really big, not just for ourselves but for the program, and it didn’t end the way we wanted it to end.”
For the Hoyas, its time to look forward to the young talent on the team and to see if Ewing can finally get past the what ifs on court and move forward with the guaranteed resurgence they have been looking for.
