NOTEBOOK: Curry Posts 18 Points for Men's Basketball in Victory Against Bulldogs

Even before Brandyn Curry brought down the house with the first dunk of his college career with 8:48 to play at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday night, the junior point guard had been putting on a show for the Harvard men’s basketball team. Curry had a career night, leading the Crimson with 18 points—14 of which came during the second half—as Harvard took down Ivy rival Yale, 66-51. Curry also paced the Crimson with a game-high five assists on the night.

“[Curry has] been our playmaker,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “He made plays tonight, but it was for himself…. He can score and it was nice to see him find a rhythm, be offensively aggressive, and make plays.”

Curry entered the weekend fifth in the conference in both assists and steals per game, averaging 5.0 and 1.5, respectively. The junior also owns a league-leading 2.7 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Curry’s performance bolstered a balanced offensive effort for the Crimson, helping Harvard bounce back from its first Ancient Eight loss on Feb. 11 at the hands of Princeton.

“This was a huge weekend for us,” Curry said. “I’m glad we were able to take care of business…and were able to buckle down and get the two Ws.”

RUN-AROUND

Although the Crimson got off to a strong start, outscoring the Bulldogs from the get-go, Yale looked poised for a comeback after going on an 11-0 run in the final four minutes of the first half, slicing a 20-point Harvard lead to nine before halftime.

But Harvard’s consistent shooting proved too much for the Bulldogs. The Crimson shot an impressive 54.3 percent from the field on the night and went 5 of 10 from deep.

“The beauty of our team this year is that we have such good balance,” Amaker said. “We don’t have a go-to guy. We like to say our go-to guy is the open guy, and we like that brand of basketball.”

In the first half, Harvard fared even better, hitting 15 of its 26 shot attempts, while Yale knocked down only 33.3 percent from the field. The Bulldogs’ shooting improved in the second half, good for 37.2 percent on the game, but Harvard’s consistency kept the game out of reach.

SCORING STRUGGLES

Although Yale boasts one of the best post players in the league in center Greg Mangano—who is averaging just under a double-double this season with 18.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game—the Bulldogs struggled to score inside. In the first half, Harvard posted 20 points in the paint, while Yale was only able to knock down one shot in the key.

“We’re a deep team,” co-captain Keith Wright said. “Coach says to us sometimes, ‘It’s amazing what we can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit.’ We’re a scary team like that. On any given night, someone can come out and score close to 20 points.”

The spread in the second half was much more even, with Harvard earning the slight 12-8 edge from close range.

Mangano impressed with 22 points and 11 rebounds on the night, but only three other Yale players—Jeremiah Kreisberg, Austin Morgan, and Reggie Willhite—scored more than four.

“Mangano’s a tough force down low,” Curry said. “We just had to wear them down, so I was attacking all night.”

Harvard’s defense held the Ivy League’s most productive offense to just 51 points, far below Yale’s average of 70.2 points per game. Although the mark is Yale’s second lowest offensive output of the season, the Bulldogs fared better against the Crimson at Lavietes than in the two teams’ last meeting in which the Bulldogs mustered just 35 points.

“Going into the game, our focus is to make everything tough for Morgan,” Curry said. “We feel that when he has a good night, they’re very successful as a team.”

“[We tried to] force [Mangano] to take some tough shots,” Wright added. “We know their offense runs through him. He hit a couple threes and some tough twos down there. We focused on him, just trying to maintain him…and limit him and other guys like Willhite and Morgan. Those are their x-factors.”

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