Men's Basketball Rebounds With 61-52 Win Over Brown

Freshman guard Corey Johnson willed the Harvard men’s basketball team to a 61-52 workman-like victory over Brown on Saturday in Providence. The first-year sniper, who set the program record for three-pointers by a freshman earlier this year, finished the night with 24 points and an Amaker-record six triples. A week after classmate Tommy McCarthy lifted the Crimson to a weekend split with Columbia and Cornell, Johnson was the star freshman on the floor for the Crimson.

With the win, Harvard (12-16, 4-8 Ivy League) continued its run of dominance against the Bears (8-18, 3-9), defeating the Bears for the 14th consecutive time.

“It was a gutsy effort by our kids,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “For both teams, on the second night in particular for us being on the road and for them, you can see shots are short and it’s hard.”

The Crimson showed no ill effects from Friday’s nine-point loss to Yale. The starters opened the game on a 23-9 run and entered halftime with a seven-point lead despite turning the ball over eight times. Brown did not get closer than seven in the second half and did not lead all evening.

Harvard maintained the lead all night with tough defense, holding Brown to just 31 percent shooting. It needed every stop, because while Johnson made nearly half his shots, the rest of the team shot just 39 percent.

Senior forward forward Agunwa Okolie—the only other Harvard player to finish in double figures—led the defensive charge, scratching and clawing for every line in a packed stat sheet. Squaring off against his younger brother, Obi, the Ajax, Ont. native finished with 19 rebounds, the most by a Crimson player in the Amaker era.

“I’m so proud of him,” Amaker said. “He’s earned everything that has come his way with how he’s played this year and tonight was a gutsy effort for us.”

Harvard capitalized on hustle points to pull away from the Bears. The team held a 49-34 edge on the glass, finished with 14 second chance points, and dove on the floor for every loose ball. Less than 24 hours after collecting just two offensive rebounds against Yale, the Crimson finished with 15. During one 65-second stretch in the second half, Okolie collected four rebounds (three offensive) before classmate Patrick Steeves pushed the lead to 15 with a layup.

The senior played everywhere from the post to the perimeter Saturday night, spending most of the evening guarding Bears junior guard Tavon Blackmon, who torched the Crimson for 19 points and six assists two weekends ago in Cambridge.

“When we execute on offense and on defense, helping each other out and rotations and stuff and rebounding, that’s huge for us,” Johnson said.

Brown senior All-Ivy forward Cedric Kuakumensah was held in check, finishing the game 7-for-16 from the field, with most of the damage coming once the result was no longer in question. Kuakumensah was successful at getting Harvard’s starting frontcourt in foul trouble, but the hosts only converted 13 of their 23 free throws.

Junior forward Zena Edosomwan and captain Evan Cummins combined for only 12 minutes in the second half, as both picked up their fourth personal fouls before the under-eight media timeout and did not return. It was the second night in a row that Edosomwan, the Crimson’s leading scorer and rebounder, was held in check.

Brown coach Mike Martin once again made Harvard earn its victory at the line down the stretch. In the teams’ first meeting, The Crimson went 24-of-34 from the line. On Saturday, the Bears began fouling with 3:18 to play, but Harvard was once again up to the test.

Brown turnovers, coupled with the team’s inability to score and seven Crimson free throw makes allowed Harvard to leave Providence with the W. The exclamation point came on an Okolie dunk with under a minute to go that pushed the lead to ten and brought the entire bench to its feet.

“It’s all about moving,” Okolie said. “We need to move the ball, set screens, slips, post up, so we work on that in practice. We are very versatile and it worked out for us tonight.”

—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.