Notebook: Miller, Perez Lead Men's Basketball Past Ryerson, 73-57

After four unsuccessful attempts, the Harvard men’s basketball team (8-8, 1-0 Ivy) finally made its way to .500 for the first time since Nov. 14, dispatching the visiting Ryerson Rams (4-2), 73-57. Despite an uneven first 10 minutes, Harvard went on a 21-6 run midway through the first half to take a 17-point lead and never looked back, holding a double-digit lead for the final 23 minutes of play.

LIVE BY THE THREE, DIE BY THE THREE

Harvard and Ryerson came into the game stylistic opposites on the offensive end. While Crimson coach Tommy Amaker preaches an “inside out”, pass-heavy offensive philosophy that grinds down shot clocks and relies on superior post play, Ryerson generates spacing using the three-point shot. The Rams came into the game shooting 34 treys a contest, making 12.

The unorthodox style confused Harvard early, as Ryerson took a 6-5 lead in three and a half minutes on a pair of triples. It wasn’t until the 10:42 mark that the Rams made a shot in the paint, while Harvard went nearly nine minutes before hitting its first three.

The single triple proved telling, however, as it jump-started a career night for junior Corbin Miller. The Utah native, who finished with a season-high 18, hit his first trey in rhythm, curling off a screen and letting it fly without hesitation. After two Harvard turnovers, the Crimson ran the same play. Ryerson again played under the screen and got the same result: another Miller trey.

Two minutes later, when Ryerson cut Harvard’s lead to three, Miller came right back. Moving to the wing, he nailed another triple to jumpstart a 12-3 run that pushed the lead to 29-17.

“I think offensively we’ve found that we have guys that can step in and score,” Miller said. “We’ve talked about, small little habits, little things that we need to hone in on, so that’s our focus at this point.”

On the game, the backup point guard had a career-high six treys, nearly matching Ryerson’s game-long output (nine triples) on 24 fewer attempts. His 12 three-point attempts were a career high, giving life to a cold-shooting unit. Harvard’s starting freshman backcourt of Tommy McCarthy and Corey Johnson missed all six three-point attempts and it wasn’t until little-used freshman forward Balsa Dragovic drained a triple with 41 seconds remaining that another Crimson player nailed a three.

Afterwards, Amaker singled out the efforts of Dragovic, who had five points and three rebounds in six minutes—more than doubling his season totals in both categories.

“He stepped out and faced up with confidence and that’s certainly how he’s played in practice,” Amaker said. “I made mention of him in our postgame comments to our team and I thought he did a very, very nice job.”

CRASHING THE BOARDS

Inside the three-point arc, Harvard was equally successful. The Crimson overpowered its opponent inside, outrebounding Ryerson 58 to 32 overall and 23 to six on the offensive end. The Crimson nearly outrebounded its opponent under their basket, grabbing 23 offensive rebounds to Ryerson’s 26 defensive boards.

“We have a saying ‘the more you go after, the more you get’ and they went after them,” Amaker said.

One of the Crimson’s leaders on the offensive glass was freshman Weisner Perez. Seeing his first real minutes in a month with sophomore Chris Egi sitting, Perez had nine points and 13 rebounds in 18 minutes. The rookie shot poorly from the field, making just four of 11 attempts, but rebounded two of his own misses on the way to seven total offensive rebounds.

On one telling possession, Perez and senior Agunwa Okolie combined to garner three straight offensive rebounds. Normally excellent finishers around the basket, the forwards outhustled Ryerson defenders to each ball but could not sink their first three layups. When Perez got fouled on the fourth shot attempt, the bench was up and cheering.

“I think they were a smaller team and guys were just being aggressive on the glass,” said junior forward Zena Edosomwan, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. “There were definitely some height mismatches [and] I think guys saw the opportunity to crash the glass.”

–Staff Writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com.