Men's Basketball Rolls Past Yale on Senior Night

On his team’s senior night, co-captain Jeremy Lin was the star once again.

Lin led all scorers with 26 points, as Harvard (20-6, 9-3 Ivy) cruised to a 78-58 win over Yale (11-18, 5-7) at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday night.

The victory also broke the Crimson’s 65-year-old single-season wins record, which had stood at 19 wins since 1945—the last time the team went to the NCAA tournament.

“It’s crazy when you think about having the most wins out of any team in Harvard history,” Lin said.

It seemed appropriate that the record-breaking victory would come on the night of the seniors’ final home appearance.

After an emotional ceremony celebrating the careers of the four veterans—Lin, co-captain Doug Miller, Pat Magnarelli, and Dan McGeary—Harvard coach Tommy Amaker tweaked his starting lineup to allow the four to start together, along with freshman Brandyn Curry.

“I was very happy and proud of our seniors to allow them to finish their careers with a win,” Amaker said.

Each of the seniors was able to get points on the board, including McGeary, who came off the bench with 2 minutes left in the game and hit a technical free throw for his only point of the contest—and of the season.

Most of the early scoring, though, was done by freshmen—including Curry and Kyle Casey—who finished the game with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

“Brandyn played very well for us early. [He] did a good job of finding people and also scoring the ball,” Amaker said.

During one stretch in the first half, Curry scored 11 straight points for the Crimson—including three straight three-pointers—to stretch the lead to 11.

“I just had open shots, and I was making them,” Curry said.

The rookie’s outburst helped to put away the Bulldogs early, although Amaker credited the entire team for coming out prepared and keeping the pressure on.

“I was very pleased with the effort and the energy,” Amaker said. “We played great defense.”

Indeed, Harvard contained Yale’s Alex Zampier—the league’s third-best scorer—limiting him to only 16 points.

Amaker was also quick to commend the efforts of Lin.

“He got off to a pretty good start early scoring,” Amaker said. “He’s a special player.”

Lin also dominated the highlight reel, throwing down a one-handed dunk in transition to extend the Crimson’s lead in the first half.

And once the game was in hand in the second, he turned the contest into the Jeremy Lin show with a series of circus shots and mid-air acrobatics, garnering “MVP” chants from the students.

“I was just trying to have fun out there,” Lin said.

But the highlight reel didn’t end with Lin. Sophomore wing Max Kenyi stole a pass in transition, looked over his shoulder and slammed the ball home with a one-handed tomahawk jam to seal the Harvard victory with a minute left in the game.

“Max has been talking about that for while,” Curry said.

Although Kenyi’s dunk capped the win for the Crimson, the home squad had pulled away for good much earlier. Harvard built on a 14-point halftime lead, stretching it to as many as 24 points when Lin hit a pair of free throws with five minutes remaining in the game.

The two free throws, Lin’s final points in his home gym, were followed by a standing ovation as he exited to allow McGeary to finish up the game.

“This is one I’ll never forget,” Lin said.