First Half Run Seals Loss at Yale

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—With both teams riding three-game Ivy losing streaks, the Harvard men’s basketball team went to Yale on Friday night looking to turn its season around.

But after the Bulldogs (8-11, 2-3 Ivy) used a 20-5 run to finish the first half and the Crimson (6-15, 1-4 Ivy) turned the ball over 17 times before intermission, that turnaround will have to wait, as Yale knocked off Harvard, 83-70, at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.

With Harvard down 24-23 with 6:57 to play in the first half, Yale used solid pressure defense and outstanding rebounding prowess, especially on the offensive end, to make a huge run and extend its lead to 44-28 going into the locker room.

“I thought the difference tonight was our inability to take care of the basketball in the first half and keep them off the backboard,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “I thought the turnovers and second chance opportunities that they were able to get—but especially the turnovers—I thought we turned it over in the open court and had no chance of defending against our turnovers.”

Yale capped the run in a big way. With the Crimson in possession with less than 30 seconds to play, freshman guard T.J. Carey let the clock dwindle down so that Harvard could get the last shot. Carey attempted an entry pass into the lane with six seconds remaining, but it was intercepted by the Bulldogs’ Travis Pinick.

On the fast break, Pinick found Yale senior guard Eric Flato open behind the three-point line, and Flato sunk a trey as the buzzer sounded over the attempted swat of Harvard junior Cem Dinc.

The Crimson would stay close the rest of the night, but would never recover from the big run.

After trailing by as much as 21 early in the second half, Harvard would get within 10 at 61-51 on a quick release three-pointer by sophomore Dan McGeary with 8:47 to play.

But, the Bulldogs continued to outhustle the Crimson, seemingly scoring on every possession to keep the game out of reach.

“When you’re down by as much as we were, the object of the game is to try to have more and more possessions,” Amaker said. “We were hopeful that they would quick-shoot—and they did—but they made the shots.”

An impressive second-half effort by Yale freshman Porter Brasswell helped to keep the Bulldogs on top. He finished with three steals to go with 12 points—all scored after intermission.

“I thought the kid Porter Brasswell was tremendous for their team. I thought he was a big difference as he was able to go against any pressure that we had,” Amaker said. “He went by us, got to the hole—we lost him a few times and he scored some layups…I thought his play was the difference to be very honest.”

Harvard went down big again at 70-53, but kept fighting back to get within 10 again at 77-67. But with just 3:29 to play, time ran out on the Crimson’s run.

“I thought we gave great energy to try to scratch and claw to get back in it,” Amaker said. “But we dug ourselves too big of a hole.”

Evan Harris had a career night for Harvard. The junior forward finished with a career-high 23 points on 11-of-14 from the foul line. He also grabbed six rebounds, but finished with six turnovers.

“Luckily my teammates were just doing a great job—T.J. [Carey] and Drew [Housman] especially—just finding me and leading me well to the basket,” Harris said. “I just need to have confidence in running the offense that if I set good screens that I’d be open. Drew and T.J. are mostly responsible for those.”

Junior Andrew Pusar notched 14 points for the Crimson, and captain Brad Unger tallied 11. Sophomore Jeremy Lin—Harvard’s leading scorer—had just two points in only 22 minutes, limited by foul trouble.

Five Bulldogs scored in double-digits, led by sophomore guard Alex Zampier’s 18.

But rebounding was the difference, as Yale out-rebounded the Crimson 39-26 and grabbed 15 on the offensive end.

“It just seemed like every time a shot went up, it seemed like there were more than five people out there sometimes,” Harris said. “There were just so many people coming to the glass. It’s something we work on in practice every day, and hopefully we can work on it before we see these guys again.”

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.