Notebook: Sears and Company Push Past Men's Basketball, 67-55

In front of the liveliest crowd of the year, the Harvard men’s basketball team failed to escape Yale for its third consecutive loss at Lavietes Pavilion. Though the teams were nearly even in the second half, a 9-0 run by the Bulldogs (17-5, 8-0 Ivy League) midway through the first half created enough separation to seal the eventual 67-55 win over the Crimson (10-14, 2-6).

As the Crimson digs itself an even deeper hole in the Ivy standings, the team sees the second half of the Ivy season as a chance to show its pride in the program and give younger players even more experience.

“You know looking back there at all the championship [banners], teams are coming for us,” junior forward Zena Edosomwan said. “At the end of the day, despite our record, you have to keep fighting and it’s about pride. Obviously the NCAA Tournament, NIT, things we’ve been accustomed to, it’s not happening currently, but at the end of the day we’re competitors.”

BULLDOG BALANCE

Despite coming into the game as seven-point road favorites, Yale came out looking as though the sting of falling to Harvard in last year’s Ivy playoff was still fresh.

While the Crimson kept it close early, with eight minutes remaining in the first half, Yale forward Justin Sears went to work. Sears shot just two-of-six from the floor in the opening minutes, but a layup with 8:08 remaining gave the Bulldogs a lead it would never relinquish. The senior added eight more points over the ensuing five minutes to stretch the lead to nine, which peaked at 11 before halftime.

“He has a really unorthodox game,” Edosomwan said. “Watching the movements, the shots, everything was sort of unexpected...It’s hard to guard because he’s so shifty with the way he moves, movements I haven’t really seen before.”

But Sears wasn’t alone in picking apart the Crimson defense. With senior guard Jack Montague missing from the lineup and senior forward Brandon Sherrod in foul trouble for most of the game, starters Anthony Dallier, Makai Mason, and Nick Victor allowed Yale to play an inside-out style that spread the Crimson defense to its limits. Mason and Dallier each had double-digit scoring performances while Victor led all players on the floor with12 rebounds.

“They are a really balanced team,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “This is a veteran team, not having the kid Montague is a blow to them but they have been able to pick it up with Mason coming in and starting...I just know that they are good and playing well.”

CRIMSON INCONSISTENCIES

One characteristic of the young Harvard team is that on any given night, a different player can lead the team on the offensive end. While Edosomwan has been arguably the most consistent, the Crimson has had seven different players lead the team in scoring at least once over the course of the year. While players have noted it makes the offense more difficult to defend, it also highlights that Amaker’s squad has struggled to put all of the pieces together at the same time.

After returning from injury in a limited capacity Friday night against Brown, Saturday was the first time that Edosomwan played a full game since leaving the game against Columbia with a thigh injury. Though he struggled in the first half, making just three of nine shots from the floor, the L.A. native finished the night with 18 points and 10 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the year.

While the offense eventually clicked from the paint, it never got going on the perimeter. Freshman guard Corey Johnson hit four treys on 50 percent shooting from deep, but the team failed to make five three-pointers for just the second time this year.

“[It’s] really tough for us when we can’t get the outside production we need from perimeter players to kind of balance us out, having Zena on the inside,” Amaker said. “...We need better production around him sometimes, to make some three-point shots....We are not getting enough production to be a balanced team.”

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at theresa.hebert@thecrimson.com.