Siying is Believing

Like college finals, snowfall, and shopping frenzies, a Harvard-Dartmouth dogfight in Leede Arena has become an annual winter tradition.

In each of the past few years, a heavily-favored Crimson squad has gone into Hanover and endured a surprisingly gritty effort from the Big Green—who sport an 18-84 record over the last four seasons—before eventually pulling away in the second half and winning by double digits.

In the 2013 edition of the contest, Harvard found itself in such a situation once again. And on this occasion, time was quickly running out.

Just 32 minutes into its conference season, the Crimson’s chances of three-peating as league champion were in jeopardy of taking a major dive, and a stagnant Harvard offense—trailing by three with 7:33 to go—needed to make something happen.

So it turned to the man who has been doing just that all season long, and once again, Siyani Chambers saved the day.

Starting at the top of the key, the freshman crossed over his defender, Dartmouth’s Alex Mitola, and then blew past him. He drew a foul, poured in a layup, and capped the play with a passionate fist pump along the baseline that energized his team.

Chambers’ ensuing free throw tied the game, and Harvard would never trail again, as the point guard sparked the Crimson to a 17-2 run down the stretch that gave it a 75-65 win.

“Typical Ivy League basketball on the road,” Crimson coach Tommy Amaker said. “We really found the energy and the courage to step forward and make a lot of plays that we needed, and I think Siyani was in the middle of it, making things happen.”

Chambers was at his best as the game wound down.

In the contest’s final 2:30, the point guard got to the line and hit both free throws, assisted sophomore forward Steve Moundou-Missi on a dunk with a second remaining on the shot clock, and then hit an open jumper to ice the win.

The freshman finished with six assists and a career-high 22 points, including 16 in the second half, and for his efforts earned his second-consecutive and fourth-overall Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor.

“I was just really anxious to come out here and do what I could [to] help my teammates win in order to get our first victory in the Ivy League,” Chambers said.

By achieving that goal in heroic fashion, the Cousy Award nominee was able to add another impressive item to a rapidly growing resume.

Chambers leads the Ancient Eight with 6.0 assists per game, second-best in the country among rookies. He is also second in the conference in three-point shooting at 50 percent (including a perfect three-for-three on Saturday) and ranks seventh in both points (13.3) and steals (1.5) per game.

But the importance of Chambers’ performance thus far goes far beyond the numbers that have largely surpassed everyone’s expectations.

Predicted before the season to receive sparse minutes off the bench behind former co-captain Brandyn Curry, the reigning Minnesota Mr. Basketball quickly found himself in a starting role following Curry’s decision to take a year off as a result of the Gov. 1310 investigation.

From that moment forward, it has been Chambers’ team, and whether it was holding his own on the road on ESPN in his second career start, scoring 21 points to lead Harvard to its fifth-straight win over B.C., hitting a game-winning jumper against B.U., or rallying his squad to a win over the Big Green, the floor general has displayed the poise and leadership of a senior for nearly every one of the 36.6 minutes per game he has spent on the court (most in the country among freshmen, and sixth-most overall).

It is those types of performances that have helped keep Harvard (9-5, 1-0 Ivy) atop the Ancient Eight following the departures of Curry and classmate Kyle Casey and the graduation of Keith Wright ’12 and Oliver McNally ’12.

Though it would by no means have eliminated the Crimson from championship contention, a loss to Dartmouth (3-11, 0-1) on Saturday would have been devastatingly destructive, for in a league with no postseason play and no head-to-head tiebreakers, every defeat—whether to the league’s best or the league’s worst—counts exactly the same.

A loss to the latter would have left the Crimson with little margin for error the rest of the way, and its quest for a third-straight title would have suddenly become immensely more difficult.

So though he had never before been part of the 14-game playoff, Chambers knew he could not let that occur.

“What an effort,” his coach said afterwards.

That effort came in a contest before which Chambers admitted he was both “nervous and excited.”

“First Ivy League road game—everyone was talking about how tough it was going to be,” the rookie said.

But just as has been the case all season long, once Siyani Chambers stepped on to the court, things did not appear to be very tough at all.

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.