Climbing on Ivy

With the last few seconds ticking off the clock, Corey Hassan rebounded the ball and fed a pass to Ibrahim Konate, who was streaking up the court with no Harvard players in sight. Konate slowed up as he got closer to the hoop, leapt in the air, spun around and threw down a reverse two-handed jam.

The highlight-reel dunk was the perfect exclamation point for the Boston University men’s basketball team’s first win of the season, a 72-63 triumph over Harvard University at Case Gymnasium.

The Terriers (1-5) avoided becoming the first BU team since 1975-76 to start the season 0-6, doing it against a Crimson squad (5-2) that’s earned votes in the AP Top 25 Poll in the past two weeks.

“The monkey’s off our back,” said BU center Kevin Gardner. “It feels good. Finally we can take a deep breath. The first one is always the hardest to get. I’m glad we got it out of the way.”

Gardner was one of the main reasons why BU got it out of the way, backing players out of his way with an array of inside moves that translated into 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

Gardner and the Terriers took advantage of an injury to Harvard’s 7-foot center, Brian Cusworth, who’s averaged 12.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game this year.

Without its big man, Harvard was overmatched inside by Gardner and Omari Peterkin.

“Their big guys weren’t really as big as me and KG,” Peterkin said. “We tried to get in there and be a little more physical and aggressive.”

Peterkin’s aggressiveness earned him 26 minutes, the most he’s seen this season. The junior center made the most of it, snaring six boards and pouring in 12 points on his way to what BU coach Dennis Wolff called “the best game he’s played here.”

“I’d have to agree with that,” Peterkin said. “I took a good amount of shots and Coach told me if I was pretty aggressive and took the ball to the hoop and made my free throws, I’d be fine.”

With the Terriers’ inside game working so well, it’s no surprise the outside shooting improved.

BU shot an astounding 61.5 percent from 3-point range and 53.1 percent overall, easily surpassing its season averages of 29.9 and 39.1, respectively.

“Our outside game feeds off our inside game and our inside game feeds off our outside game,” said Hassan, who scored a team-high 17 points on 5-for-10 shooting (4-of-6 from downtown).

“I was in a bit of a shooting slump,” Hassan added, referring to his 1-for-7 and 3-for-9 efforts in the last two games. “It happens, but I thought I shot pretty well today. I’m not worried about it anymore.”

Hassan was joined outside by Shaun Wynn. The senior co-captain was all over the place, a jack-of-all-trades who scored 12, assisted on four buckets, grabbed four boards and made the game-changing play late in the second half.

With just under four minutes to play and with what was a 14-point BU lead whittled down to five, Brian Macon fired a short jump shot that clanked off the rim. Wynn, who was under the basket with two Crimson players, leapt as high as the two bigger men and wrestled away the ball.

With the two inside defenders now on Wynn, the senior guard threaded a perfect pass to a wide open Konate who emphatically slammed it home, sending the Terrier bench and the crowd at The Roof to their feet.

“Shaun made the big play in the game,” Wolff said. “The lead was five then that turned it to seven – that was big for us.”

But Wynn didn’t just do it offensively. He stayed in the face of Jim Goffredo all game, holding the Crimson guard to only 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting (1-for-8 from 3-point range).

“Shaun worked Goffredo the way he did, I’m very proud about that,” Wolff said. “Defensively we really worked hard. They shot 34 percent and that’s always the first number I look at after the game.

“We got a tremendous effort out of just about everybody,” he added. “Obviously, after winning a game, it feels pretty good.”