Men's Basketball Advances to Final of Great Alaska Shootout with Hard-Fought Win

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA—For much of Friday night’s game against Wisconsin-Green Bay, there was little to separate the Harvard men’s basketball team (6-1) from the Phoenix (3-2) on either side of the floor. But a late offensive outburst and a surprise defensive shift proved to be the difference for the Crimson, which advanced to the championship game of the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout with a 76-64 victory at Sullivan Arena.

Waiting for Harvard in the final is TCU, which prevailed over Tulsa in the other semifinal, 72-65, after upsetting Indiana State in the first round.

“All you have to do is look up in the rafters [of Sullivan Arena] and you see all the great names and great teams that have participated and that have been champions here,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “We talked about that coming into this, that how cool and how nice it could be if somehow we could win this tournament and have our name associated with some of the other great basketball programs.”

Green Bay was picked to finish first in the Horizon League preseason poll, and the Phoenix played like it in the first half, matching Harvard bucket for bucket. The Crimson got off to a fast start, scoring the first seven points of the contest, but an 8-0 run midway through the first half gave Wisconsin-Green Bay its first lead of the game. The two teams exchanged leads three more times throughout the remainder of the half, and a jumper at the buzzer by sophomore point guard Siyani Chambers tied the score once more.

The second half featured just as much back-and-forth action as the first; the lead changed hands six times in four minutes early in the second frame. For seven straight minutes, neither team led by more than four points. Junior guard Wesley Saunders carried the Harvard offense for stretches, finishing with 20 points and seven rebounds.

Green Bay junior guard Keifer Sykes was the focal point of the Phoenix offense, finishing with a game-high 26 points. A preseason all-Horizon League selection, the 5’11” Sykes, who also boasts a 44-inch vertical leap, used his lightning-quick first step to attack the rim, blowing past the 6’5” Saunders on a few occasions.

“He’s a great player,” Saunders said. “His quickness was something that we had talked about and his ability to get to the basket. It was a tough defensive assignment.”

But the Crimson made a crucial defensive adjustment down the stretch, switching from man-to-man to a 2-3 zone, which disrupted the Phoenix offense, and in particular the penetration of Sykes, who could not find a path through the clogged lane.

“They packed into a 2-3; it bothered us a little bit,” said Green Bay head coach Brian Wardle. “We hadn’t seen one all year, haven’t seen it from them on film, so we were a little stagnant and settled on jump shots.”

With the Phoenix unable to hit a jumper, the Crimson offense seized the advantage and began to pull away. Chambers had two tough left-handed finishes in transition, and a Rivard three capped off a 10-0 run that gave Harvard an advantage it would not relinquish. The Crimson was able to put the game away at the free throw line, making its final eight attempts to preserve the lead.

Harvard had much more difficulty scoring down low in Friday’s contest than the night before. After having its way at times with Denver on Thursday, the Crimson saw nine of its shot attempts sent back by the long-armed Green Bay frontcourt.

Still, Harvard recorded a similar advantage on the glass as against the Pioneers, outrebounding the Phoenix, 40-28. Junior forward Jonah Travis totaled eight offensive rebounds by himself, and Wardle cited his energy as “the difference maker” in the game.

It was also a night of milestones for two of Harvard’s senior leaders. With two free throws in the first half, forward Kyle Casey eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career. Co-captain Laurent Rivard also scored his 1,000th point, and a triple from the left wing with four minutes remaining made him the Crimson’s all-time leading three-point shooter. Now with 221 made threes for his career, Rivard passed the previous mark of 220 set by Dan Clemente ’01.

“[The record is] a really nice thing to have,” Rivard said. “Obviously I can’t do it without my teammates. Today, every open shot that I got was because of my teammates.”

Rivard finished five-for-12 from beyond the arc for the game. His 12 three-point attempts quadrupled the team’s total from the night before, and Rivard matched that total by himself in the first three minutes of the game.

—Staff writer Andrew R. Mooney can be reached at mooneyar@gmail.com.