SIDEBAR: Newcomers Dominate in Harvard Victory

Harvard’s Class of 2012 was supposed to wait.

Freshmen don’t come into their first game, playing on the road, and drop 17 points on the home team.

Freshmen don’t bury dagger threes to end any threat of a comeback.

Freshmen don’t pound on the blocks like they were a baby Barkley.

Fortunately for the Crimson, this is not your normal group of rookies.

Message to the Ivy League: Tommy Amaker’s highly touted recruiting class is for real.

With three freshmen starting—guards Max Kenyi and Oliver McNally and power forward Keith Wright—the coach did not wait to bring in his young guns.

And they did not disappoint, leading the Crimson to a resounding 80-69 win.

Kenyi came out firing, dropping 12 points in the first half in route to a team-leading 17-point night. Kenyi was also 3-3 from behind the arc.

McNally was a leader, filling the point guard position as an injured Drew Housman sat for most of the game.

And Wright, battling on the blocks all night, looked superb down the stretch, tallying 15 points despite being in constant foul trouble.

On top of this, freshman swingman Peter Boehm came of the bench and stepped in to play the role of closer.

Boehm sank two late threes in the middle of the second half to silence New Hampshire’s only attempt to get back in the game.

“All our freshman played well,” Amaker said. “Boehm had some great shots, two big threes, [Wright]’s presence on the inside allowed the perimeter players to do some big things. I thought [McNally] was tremendous with his presence as well.”

But it was one sequence, which told the tale of the class’ dominance.

At the 10-minute mark in the second half, the Wildcats (1-1, 0-0 AE) moved to within seven of the Crimson (1-0, 0-0 Ivy) at 62-55.

New Hampshire had the momentum, having strung together a 7-2 run in just three minutes prior to the play.

But Harvard was able to answer, as Boehm lobbed a great pass into Wright, who laid the ball in over two defenders, drew the foul, then unleashed a resounding yell to cap off the play.

After nailing the free throw and then grabbing the rebound on the other end, he passed up to Kenyi. The guard then kicked the ball over to an open Boehm, who caught, shot, and drilled a three from 24-feet out.

Game, set, match: Crimson freshmen.

“I couldn’t play scared,” Wright said. “My team needed me. We all need each other. I got in a little foul trouble, but they picked me up and we did well.”

And it wasn’t just the freshmen getting in on the action. New starting junior Doug Miller came out strong in the first half, tallying eight points, many on layups after beating the Wildcats down the floor. It was Miller’s most significant work for the Crimson—in only his first start.

Still, the story on the night was the freshmen. While Kenyi dominated in the first half, and Boehm put the nail in New Hampshire’s coffin, one player stood above the rest—both literally and figuratively.

The 6’8”, 240 lbs. Keith Wright was, to put it mildly, a beast on the post. He made his first three shots, missing only one on the night in a 6-for-7 performance, and played his best at the end.

But Amaker knows that Wright, like all the freshmen, still have a lot of work to do.

“I wasn’t pleased with only five rebounds, but other than that, I thought he played very well,” Amaker said.

With junior forward Pat Magnarelli having re-injured his knee, which cut his season short last year, and captain Andrew Pusar out for the game, the freshmen had an opportunity to shine.

Magnarelli will be out indefinitely, but when Pusar comes back and senior guard Drew Housman recovers from injury, the team will change dramatically.

“[Housman] played exceptionally for us in practice, before he was injured,” Amaker said. “And we expect him to play a lot as we go down the stretch of our season.”

Or it may not. If these freshmen continue to play well, the upperclassmen will be the ones coming off the bench.

For now, the team will revel in its newfound talent.

A message to the rest of the Ivy League: watch out.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.