Notebook: Okolie Leads Harvard to Win Over Brown

After dropping five straight, the Harvard men’s basketball team finally escaped with a victory in front of a home crowd on Friday night. Although Brown (7-14, 2-5 Ivy League) pulled within three with under a minute to go, the Crimson (10-13, 2-5) held on for the victory, 79-73.

“It's a typical night in our conference with both teams scratching and clawing as we, bottom half of our league, are just fighting to stay alive and afloat,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said.

AGUNWA’S ATTACK

Coming into the game, how junior forward Zena Edosomwan would return from injury was the major storyline. While Edosomwan tallied 13 points in just 18 minutes, it was senior forward Agunwa Okolie who became Harvard’s most dominant post player of the night.

For much of the night, Okolie faced off against his younger brother, Obi, a freshman guard for the Bears. While the duo finished with nearly identical point contributions–the elder with 15, the younger with 14–it was the way the Crimson’s Okolie lit up the rest of the stat sheet that made him “the best player on the floor,” according to Amaker.

With 12 rebounds, Okolie notched just his second career double-double, but he also added a dimension as a passer, finding his teammates for outside shots.

“We did a great job moving off the ball,” Okolie said. “Corey [Johnson], Corbin [Miller], and Pat [Steeves] did a tremendous job. They were knocking down their shots, and we were able to play inside out.”

With Brown forward Cedric Kuakumensah tallying only two minutes in the first half after getting two fouls in the first two minutes, Amaker went with a smaller lineup to keep up with the Bears in the post. With Okolie being a stronger perimeter defender compared to Edosomwan, Kuakumensah’s absence forced Amaker to limit Edosomwan’s minutes even further than planned as he works his way back from injury.

“It was challenging for us when Kuakumensah wasn’t in the game,” Amaker said. “He’s a good player when he’s in, but when they go really small like that that’s when we’re really worried about some of the threes we could give up if we’re not matched very well.”

RIGHTING THE SHIP

The win was the first in conference play since the Ancient Eight opener against Dartmouth on Jan. 9. Despite heading to the locker room down five, the Crimson played a more complete game than it had in any of the five losses that separated the Ivy victories.

Brown maintained its lead for just under seven minutes until a three by Johnson put Harvard back up one, 44-43 with 13:26 to play. After a bit of back and forth, the Crimson took the lead for good with 11:23 remaining in the second frame on another trey by Johnson.

Harvard improved in every shooting category in the second frame, but the most noticeable improvement was from the charity stripe. All year, Harvard has struggled to take advantage from the line—exemplified by the fact that it sits last in all of Division I basketball in free throw percentage.

But in the second frame, Harvard shot nearly 78 percent from the line, including 13-of-15 shooting over the last 1:24 to seal the victory.

“Our focal point of every game is to get to the free throw line and cash in,” Okolie said. “We haven’t been doing the best job, myself included, but today they fell down for us and we have to keep doing that, can’t be discouraged.”

Though the Crimson still finds itself on the outside looking in to the Ivy Standings, the victory gave the team a much needed confidence boost according to Okolie.

“We don’t have that many games left, especially at home, and it's an unbelievable opportunity to finish our careers here. That’s how you're remembered, that’s how you build your legacy–how did you finish your career? We were able to play tough and competitive today, and everybody, even our freshmen did a great job with their intensity as well, defensively as well. It was a good team effort.”

–Staff Writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at theresa.hebert@thecrimson.com.