NOTEBOOK: Tigers Extend Home Win Streak Against Men's Basketball

PRINCETON, N.J.—The last time the Harvard men’s basketball team left Princeton’s Jadwin Gym with a win, most of the Crimson’s players had not yet been born. The Tigers’ impressive home winning streak against Harvard—its longest against Ivy foe—dates back to Feb. 3, 1989, when Harvard earned a 63-57 victory at Princeton’s home court.

And last night’s matchup ended no differently than that the last few decades of games at Jadwin, as the Tigers added their 23rd straight win to its streak against the Crimson (21-3, 7-1 Ivy) with a 70-62 victory Saturday night. With the win, Princeton (13-10, 4-3) snapped Harvard’s nine-game winning streak and also handed the Crimson its first loss in Ivy play.

“[Princeton has] been very good obviously through the couple years we’ve played them,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “Princeton has always had a pretty darn good way of playing here, no question about it.”

Last year, the Crimson and the Tigers—who both earned shares of the Ancient Eight title—also split games in the regular-season series, with both teams grabbing wins on their home courts. The Tigers had Harvard’s number again in the teams’ final matchup of the year, a playoff game to determine the Ivy League’s representative in the NCAA Tournament.

“We don’t look to the past for motivation,” Princeton junior Ian Hummer said. “They’re in our league…and we want to knock them off and play as hard as we could. That’s motivation enough.”

Despite the loss on Saturday, the Crimson still holds the top spot in conference play, as every other team has dropped at least two games so far.

A TALE OF TWO HALVES

Although Harvard entered halftime with a five-point edge over the Tigers, Princeton exploded in the second half, scoring 48 second-half points on 62.5 percent shooting from the field—a full 24 percentage points better than the team’s first-half performance.

“We were able to really be successful with that, throwing it inside, finding some mismatches,” sophomore T.J. Bray said. “On defense, that’s where everything starts. If you get stops, everything is so much more wide open.”

The Tigers made eight of their final 10 shots, outscoring the Crimson, 24-18, in the last six minutes of the game. And the Princeton bench in particular came through late in the game, producing more than its Harvard counterparts, 15-0, in the second half.

“They had a momentum stretch that we certainly couldn’t get them out of,” Amaker said. “I thought they got the ball up the floor pretty quick a couple of times and had us on our heels.”

Although Princeton shot an unimpressive five of nine from the free-throw line for the first 37 minutes of Saturday’s contest, the Tigers fared much better as the game neared its end. In the final three minutes, Princeton went 12 for 15 from the line to cement its lead over a Crimson team forced to foul to stop the clock.

Harvard didn’t attempt a free throw until the second half and couldn’t make them count, shooting 7 for 11 on the night. All four misses came from junior forward Kyle Casey, who went one of five from the stripe.

KILLER CONTRIBUTIONS

Before Saturday’s contest at Jadwin, Harvard possessed the nation’s third-best scoring defense, holding its opponents to an average of 53.6 points per game. But thanks to a 48-point Tiger second half, the Crimson allowed 70 total points, matching the most Harvard has allowed all season.

The only other team to put up as many points against the Crimson so far this season was Seattle, which lost an offensive shootout, 80-70, at Lavietes earlier this year.

Princeton has Hummer to thank for most of the Tigers’ offensive prowess. The forward finished with 20 points against the Crimson, including 13 in the second half, to lead all players last night.

But perhaps the most surprising big-time contributor for the Tigers was junior Brendan Connolly, who matched up against Harvard co-captain Keith Wright in the post.

“We got some quality minutes from Brendan Connolly,” Princeton coach Mitch Henderson said. “I thought Brendan really established a swagger for us early which we needed…. [Connolly] presented a really nice matchup for us with Keith Wright.”

Connolly earned just his seventh start of the season Saturday night and was one of three Tigers—with Hummer and Bray—who scored in double digits. Connolly picked up six rebounds, including two offensive boards, and also added one assist to his 11 points on the night.

On the Harvard side, junior point guard Brandyn Curry led the scoring in the second half, earning all 15 of his points in the latter part of the game including three layups in the final 1:30.

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu.