GW and Harvard’s men’s basketball teams were locked in a tight game throughout much of tonight’s first half, trading baskets and leads a number of times as halftime approached. Then Crimson senior Jeremy Lin bled, momentum swung, and GW ended its calendar year with a loss.

After coming up with a steal off a loose ball, Lin came up with a nosebleed from a collision with GW freshman Dwayne Smith, had his injury tended to on the bench, and re-entered the game to make both free throws and give Harvard with just over a minute left before halftime. On GW’s next possession, the standout guard got a steal at the perimeter and broke away for a dunk, then sent his team into halftime with a three-point lead and control of the game’s momentum with a three-point basket as the half expired.

The Colonials came out flat to start the second half, never taking the lead back from Harvard en route to a 66-53 defeat.

“I thought that was sort of the difference in terms of momentum and tempo,” head coach Karl Hobbs said of Lin’s post-injury outburst. “It was a five-point swing and then him making the big three, I thought that gave them great confidence.”

The Colonials (9-3) struggled to play at the fast tempo to which they are accustomed, scoring just one fast-break basket all game. They had just two points in the second half’s first nine minutes of action, during which the Crimson opened a double-digit lead and put GW away for good.

Hobbs said his team’s lack of offense contributed to its inability to play its normal style of game.

“I felt that because we couldn’t score, it frustrated us and we weren’t able to get into our pressure,” he said. “We just had nobody that could just make the open shot.”

After going into halftime with 35 points on the board, the Colonials added a total of just 18 after the break. They shot just 36 percent from the field and made only two of 15 three-point attempts in the game, with senior Damian Hollis and freshman Lasan Kromah combining to miss all 10 of their shots from beyond the arc.

Hollis and Kromah have been the team’s leading scorers this season and their struggles to score against the Crimson left GW without any go-to scorers. Though Hollis finished with a team-high 11 points, it was yet another low-scoring night from Kromah, who had just two points. After getting off to a scorching start as a the team’s best three-point shooter, Kromah has gone three straight games without making one such shot, missing 10 in that span.

“Right now Lasan is kind of struggling with his shot, but I think he’ll be okay,” Hobbs said of the first-year guard. “That’s expected.”

Another problem for the Colonials was an accumulation of personal fouls throughout the first half. Hollis picked up three in the first half, while senior Hermann Opoku, junior Joseph Katuka and freshmen David Pellom and Dwayne Smith – all centers or forwards – each picked up two.

Not only did the infractions limit the personnel GW was able to put on the court, but Hobbs said it also impacted the way in which those on the floor were able to play.

“It really takes away our aggressiveness when the whistles are so fast,” he said. “Because of the fouls, it was breaking the momentum, it was breaking the pace of the game.”

“But we’ve gotta play a little bit smarter,” he added. “We’ve gotta not foul as much.”

After finishing a stretch of four straight games away from home with their first road loss of the season, the Colonials will return to the Smith Center Saturday for their final nonconference game against Howard. With the way his team struggled to score against Harvard’s defense, Hobbs said he knows what he will take away from the loss to the Crimson.

“We’ve just got to be able to make some shots, particularly against the zone,” he said. “So you know what we’re going to be working on these next couple of days.”

Saturday’s game is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start following a women’s basketball game against Rice at noon.

Game notes: Freshman guard Tim Johnson missed his second straight game after spraining his ankle last week at East Carolina. He is expected to return in a about a week… No GW player finished with more than four rebounds (Hollis, Opoku, sophomore Aaron Ware and freshman Bryan Bynes) or two assists (sophomore Tony Taylor, redshirt junior Travis King)… Besides Hollis, Taylor was GW’s only player to score in double figures. He had 10 points. King was next with eight.