Men's Basketball Takes Down Princeton, 75-72

After a quarter century of being a house of horrors, Jadwin Gymnasium has become a home away from home for the Harvard men’s basketball team (12-5, 2-1 Ivy).

A year after snapping a 24-game losing streak in Princeton, the Crimson notched back-to-back wins in Jadwin for the first time since 1984-1985 with a 75-72 victory over the host Tigers (8-10, 1-1) on Friday night. Sophomore Corbin Miller set career highs with five threes and 19 points—17 in the first 20 minutes—to pace the Crimson in both categories.

“Playing here on the road in our conference is obviously challenging, and this has been a really tough place for us to play through the years, so I’m proud of our team,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “For our kids to bounce back here tonight on the road shows an incredible amount of toughness.”

After blowing a 14-point lead against Dartmouth in its Ivy League home opener, the Crimson trailed for less than a minute in Friday’s contest. Yet the game wasn’t a foregone conclusion by any means. Shaky free-throw shooting down the stretch—at one point, Harvard missed five of seven shots at the line—gave Princeton chance after chance to get back into the game.

When it was tight, however, senior wing Wesley Saunders bailed out Harvard once again. Despite missing four straight free throws, Saunders had two crucial steals down the stretch to snuff out Tiger rallies, and knocked down two final free throws to seal the game.

For the contest, Saunders stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, and four steals despite foul trouble that disrupted his offensive rhythm. The senior had five assists in the first half, routinely beating an array of Princeton defenders into the lane and looking not for his own shot, but for teammates.

Fellow senior Jonah Travis was the recipient of numerous Saunders passes, at one point converting three-point plays on consecutive dishes from the wing.

“We are a whole different team when he is able to get in the middle and disrupt things, whether that is being able to knock down his layups or dish it out on the block when me or Steve or Zena or Evan are asking for it,” Travis said. “He just commands so much attention that a lot of us end up benefiting because of it.”

Travis and Miller came off the bench to combine for 33 points in 55 minutes—providing the spark that Harvard needed with Saunders and sophomore Zena Edosomwan (zero points, three fouls) unable to stay in the game. Shortening the bench, Amaker did not play reserve big men freshman Chris Egi or junior Evan Cummins at all; down the stretch, the Crimson often played a four-guard lineup with junior Agunwa Okolie at power forward and the 6’6” Travis as the nominal center on the floor.

“I become more of a guy that has to hold down the paint [in that lineup],” Travis said. “Steve is an excellent shot blocker and does very well helping on the weak side, so I have to take on that responsibility [when he’s not in the game] because [Okolie] is more on the ball.”

The story of the first half, however, was Corbin Miller. The sophomore hit all five of his triples by halftime, raining fire from every part of the three-point line. He beat Princeton defenders in multiple ways—spotting up, going off the dribble, and even fading away. With Laurent Rivard ’14—the most decorated three-point shooter in Harvard history—in the stands, Miller hit six of seven first-half shots to help the Crimson hold a 10-point lead at the half.

Princeton did not go away, however, running off six consecutive points to start the second period. Tiger coach Mitch Henderson, who afterwards admitted to being worried about defending Miller before the game, readjusted to contain the sophomore.

As students rained down taunts of “Klay”—a reference to the NBA sharpshooter who had 37 points in a quarter a week ago—Princeton held Miller without a second-half field goal.

On the other end, Stephen Cook poured in 11 of his game-high 21 to keep the Tigers in it all night. Cook added four assists, doing it both behind the arc (3-for-5 three-point shooting) and in the lane. At one point, he blocked Okolie at the rim before coming down for a three-point play on the other end to bring the building to its feet and cut the lead to 49-47.

As it did all night, Harvard flinched but didn’t back down. The Crimson scored five straight to push the lead to seven and led by at least four until an Amir Bell three-pointer with 0.4 seconds to go provided the final margin.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Miller said. “We know teams are going to make their runs but it’s up to us to tighten up and maintain our lead down the stretch and combat the runs that other teams will make.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com.