Ivy’s Best Crushes Overmatched Harvard

ITHACA, N.Y.—Coming off a 1-4 home stand at Lavietes Pavilion, the Harvard men’s basketball team received a taste of a true home court advantage Friday night, falling to Cornell in a 96-75 blowout at Newman Arena. Led by all-Ivy forward Ryan Wittman’s 20 points, the Big Red (16-7, 6-1 Ivy) extended its home win streak to a school-record 18 straight games.

Although it put up its highest point total since defeating Boston College over a month ago, the Crimson (10-11, 2-5) also gave up the most points it has all season, allowing Cornell to shoot an astounding 62% from the field.

“Offensively they’re very efficient, and they have a lot of weapons,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “Overall we weren’t very good defensively. Perimeter, post, they broke us down.”

Facing the top offensive team in the Ancient Eight, the Crimson had no answers for a balanced attack that seemed able to score at will. Accumulating an impressive 31 assists, the Big Red made over half of its three-point attempts while dominating the paint, tallying 42 points inside to Harvard’s 30. Seven-foot senior Jeff Foote made a strong impact on both ends of the floor, pulling in a game-high seven rebounds.

“I haven’t seen any better big man in our conference yet,” Amaker said. “[Foote’s] a very good offensive player, and an incredible defensive presence for their team.”

Forward Adam Wire and guard Chris Wroblewski played key roles for the home team, combining for 31 points off the bench, as Wroblewski went an impressive five-of-six from beyond the arc.

Despite junior Jeremy Lin scoring a mere 11 points, the Crimson offense had a few bright spots. Senior Drew Housman’s veteran presence led the way with team-highs of 16 points and 6 assists, and freshman Max Kenyi used his athleticism to slash to the basket and draw fouls, going eight-of-nine from the charity stripe for a total of 14 points.

“That’s what we need from Max,” Amaker said. “We need him to make a splash and make his presence felt.”

Harvard made 21 free throws, double the number of its opponent’s attempts from the line, but the Crimson made only four three-pointers, going zero-for-six from behind the arc in the second half. The Cornell transition game was on full display, as Harvard’s 16 turnovers led to 24 Big Red points, many of them coming on the fast break.

It was Amaker’s squad, however, that came out hot opening the second half. Down 51-35 going into the intermission, Harvard went on a 10-0 run in the first three and a half minutes of the frame. Housman had a hand in the first four baskets of the spurt, draining jumpers as well as setting up senior Evan Harris for a layup. A gorgeous fall-back jumper by Lin punctuated the run, which cut the lead to six, but any hopes for a dramatic finish were soon dashed when the Crimson missed seven of its next nine field goal attempts.

“You spend a lot of energy just trying to get back in it, and any time they can raise up and get a three, or get an easy bucket, it just takes the wind out of you,” Amaker said.

After a soaring Kenyi layup cut the deficit to 12 halfway through the period, Wittman responded with a jumper and a transition three pointer, igniting a 16-6 run over a span of about four minutes.

“It’s just demoralizing when they hit those threes, especially when the crowd gets into it,” Housman said.

The Big Red took a 24-point lead with 5:40 to play and never looked back, continuing to exhibit excellent ball movement and repeatedly finding wide-open looks.

Such was the trend of the first half as well. Harvard was grossly overmatched on the interior, giving up 22 field goals and 24 easy baskets in the paint during the opening 20 minutes. Cornell’s swarming defense proved vulnerable to guard penetration but forced 12 turnovers in the frame, including seven from Lin.

“Their guards were pressuring up a lot, so if we kept our poise and made hard drives, we were able to get to the basket,” Housman said.

The Crimson took a 9-7 lead when captain Andrew Pusar found Housman in the corner for a three-pointer four minutes into the game, but the ensuing 19-1 Big Red run put the home team ahead for good.

A strong contender for the play of the game came halfway through the first half, when Foote flipped up a short jumper from the right block. Overcoming a height differential of eight inches, Kenyi leapt up and denied the Cornell big man, swatting his attempt into the hardwood.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.