The four-point differential is an improvement from the 29-point loss dealt to the Big Green (4-12, 0-2 Ivy) by the Crimson (13-3, 2-0 Ivy) on Jan. 9, one day after former head coach Terry Dunn stepped down. The Big Green has now had two weeks to adjust to new interim head coach Mark Graupe.
"I give them a lot of credit for how tough they were," Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker said. "I thought they played inspired basketball."
Dartmouth was helped by an energetic home crowd of 1,555 fans that made a strong home court advantage, but Graupe still fell to 1-1 as interim head coach.
Two weeks earlier, Harvard had dominated the paint, outscoring Dartmouth down low, 50-22. The Big Green improved in this area on Saturday, however, narrowing the margin from the paint to 32-26.
Dartmouth applied pressure on the perimeter and limited the Crimson to just 23-59 from the field and only 2-17 from the three-point range no small feat since the Crimson leads the Ivy League in shooting percentage.
"I think the pressure helped us out a lot on defense," captain Robby Pride '10 said.
Pride contributed 15 points, following up his career-high 21 points in Monday's victory versus St. Francis University. Pride had not practiced since the game against the Terriers due to a groin injury, Graupe said.
Ronnie Dixon '11 also added 15 points for the Big Green and Jabari Trotter '12, who also missed practice all week due to an ankle injury, scored 12 points.
Harvard senior Jeremy Lin, the Crimson's main playmaker on offense, was able to penetrate and break through the Dartmouth pressure, finishing with 19 points and six assists.
In the second half, Lin either scored or assisted on nine of Harvard's 11 field goals. He ranks fourth in the Ivy League in scoring, with 17.0 points per game, and second in assists.
Freshman Kyle Casey also contributed 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Crimson, including an alley-oop dunk from Oliver McNally's feed.
The Big Green started strong, opening with a 13-2 run. Harvard recovered quickly, however, and Dartmouth trailed 31-27 going into halftime.
In the second half, the game appeared to be over when the Crimson sophomore power forward Keith Wright converted a free throw to give Harvard a 57-49 lead with under a minute to play.
Trotter answered with a layup and Pride added two of his own to make the score 60-55. After Lin made one of two from the line, Trotter hit a crucial three-pointer with 0:17 to go, cutting the deficit to three, but final three-point attempts by Pride and David Rufful '12 were offline, sealing the victory for the Crimson.
"We believed that we could win the game," Dixon said. "We were down 10, and we didn't give up on it."
Poor free-throw shooting by Harvard allowed Dartmouth to hang around the Crimson made just 14 of 26 shots from the line.
Harvard's 13-3 start is the best in the program's 99-year history. The team has won five in a row since falling to No. 12 Georgetown on Dec. 23.
Dartmouth travels to New York next weekend as it faces Cornell University in Ithaca on Friday and Columbia University in New York City on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m. tipoffs.
