Men's Basketball Pounds Auburn To Reach Diamond Head Classic Final

UPDATED: December 23, 2015, at 8:35 p.m.

The Harvard men’s basketball team roared to a 16-point lead first half lead for the second day in a row, but a day after giving it up by halftime, the Crimson (5-6) never looked back Wednesday, rolling to a 69-51 win over the Auburn Tigers (6-4).

The quick start and a suffocating defensive effort in the second half propelled Harvard to a spot in Friday’s Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship. The Crimson will face the winner of the Oklahoma-Hawaii semifinal scheduled for later Friday night.

“It was the key for us yesterday, and it was the key for us today that we were ready to go,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “In a tournament atmosphere like this where you have been playing games on consecutive days, it is crucial to get out to a good start. I think our defense has been able to help us with that.”

With 16:04 left to play, Auburn senior forward Cinmeon Bowers threw down a Kareem Canty lob to cut the Crimson lead to eight, but it was the closest the Tigers would get as Harvard closed the game on a 24-14 run. Following the Bowers alley-oop, Auburn missed 24 of its final 29 field goal attempts and was held to just 30 percent shooting on the afternoon.

The Tigers looked like a different team than the one that put up 83 points against New Mexico in a quarterfinal yesterday while the Crimson showed no ill effects from a 45-minute dogfight with BYU that concluded less than 22 hours before Wednesday’s tip-off.

“As veterans, we have been in this spot before,” senior forward Patrick Steeves said. “We do this in the Ivy League every weekend, we play Friday night and Saturday night and we have a couple guys who have been in those situations and know what to do.”

For the second day in a row, senior forward Agunwa Okolie held the opposing team’s best player in check. The Ajax, Ontario native held the dynamic Canty to just three points on 1-for-15 shooting. The Auburn junior was averaging nearly 21 points a game entering the contest and gave New Mexico fits a day ago, stuffing the stat sheet en route to 27 points and seven assists.

While its defense overshadowed the offensive effort, Harvard rode timely shooting from a bevy of players to its first double-digit victory since last month’s rout of Bryant. Freshman guard Corey Johnson led the Crimson in scoring with 14 points, including four three-pointers. Captain Evan Cummins had a career-high 13 points, with his 11 in the first half being the difference entering intermission.

“Our balance is always a key for us and is a word we use a lot in this program,” Amaker said. “Balance on the court, balance in our lives, and we really embrace that word. We have been balanced here the last two days.”

Following the under-12 media timeout, with Harvard holding a double-digit lead, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl employed the hack-a-Zena tactic that Columbia headman Kyle Smith utilized last season. Edosomwan had been attracting double teams for much of the afternoon following his 23-point performance in the quarterfinals. The junior’s two makes at the line with 7:16 left to play, coupled with the Tigers’ lack of frontcourt depth, led Auburn to eventually abandon the tactic.

With Canty bricking threes left and right, Bowers and freshman guard Bryce Brown did their best to keep the Tigers in the game. The pair combined for 30 points, but it was not enough. Junior guard Corbin Miller followed up his season-best 17 points against BYU with two treys, while Steeves hit a pair from beyond the arc en route to posting the third double-digit scoring output of his career.

In addition to shutting down Canty, Okolie provided an offensive spark for the second day in a row. The Crimson senior finished the contest with 11 points and six rebounds. In his first three seasons, Okolie averaged just under three points a contest but is averaging 7.7 points in the team’s 11 games this season while continuing to lead the team on the defensive end. Auburn’s 30.2 percent shooting and 51 points are the worst offensive outputs by a Harvard opponent since the team’s matchup with Holy Cross on Nov. 29.

“[Defense is] the number one thing that is part of our identity,” Amaker said. “That is what we preach and teach as part of our program. It’s been a calling card for our program for the last seven or eight years and it’s only really grown. Our players have embraced it.”

—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at sgleason@college.harvard.edu.