Notebook: Without Edosomwan, Men's Basketball Unable to Keep Up With Princeton

PRINCETON, N.J.—Playing without star forward Zena Edosomwan, the Harvard men’s basketball team dropped to 1-4 in Ivy League play with an 83-62 loss to Princeton at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Crimson (9-12) has now lost four straight conference games, with Friday’s defeat being the program’s worst since an 86-50 loss to Cornell in 2010. The Tigers (13-5, 3-1 Ivy) held a 16-point halftime lead and closed the game on a 33-22 run after Harvard cut the deficit to 10.

MISSING ZENA

With Edosomwan sidelined indefinitely due to a thigh injury, the Crimson struggled to find its rhythm on both ends of the floor. The void from missing the junior, who leads the team in points and rebounds and ranks second in blocks, was evident from the opening tip, as Princeton jumped out to a 35-16 lead at the under-four minute media timeout. During that stretch, the Tigers held a 15-10 advantage in the rebounding department and corralled seven offensive boards.

“Well not having Zena is, as we know, he’s averaging a double-double,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “He’s a presence on both ends of the floor, the interior presence is what I mean. [We’re able] to throw it in to him, as we always do on the offensive end. Then he’s an enforcer kind of player for us on the other end, he’s the best defensive rebounder.”

The hole left by Edosomwan’s absence may have been most evident on the defensive end. In the first half, Princeton exposed the Harvard defense with backdoor cuts and easy layups for 16 points in the paint and 13 second chance tallies.

To compensate for its lack of an inside presence, the Crimson switched to a zone defense for much of the second half. After the Tigers began the half shooting two-of-eight from long range, the Princeton shooters began clicking—connecting on their next four attempts to stymie a Harvard run and put the game away for good.

“It's just like defense, getting stops, that's the most important thing,” senior forward Agunwa Okolie said. “Then everything else will take care of itself. That's the only way you can get back in games and we dug ourselves in a hole obviously, and we were just playing catchup the whole time.”

Sophomore forward Chris Egi started in place of Edosomwan and finished the contest with three points and four rebounds in 21 minutes. Forwards Evan Cummins, Weisner Perez, and Balsa Dragovic split the the remaining minutes in the Harvard frontcourt but combined for just seven points. Cummins did not play in the second half due to an illness.

FRESHMAN POISE

On a night in which its frontcourt struggled to get good looks against the Tigers’ defense, the Crimson was led on the offensive end by freshman point guard Tommy McCarthy. The freshman typically gets in rhythm offensively through an inside-out game with Edosomwan, but had to create more shots for himself with his favorite target in street clothes on the bench.

“Zena is a huge part of our team,” McCarthy said. “We like to kind of play through him. Not having him was tough, especially on the rebounding front. But we definitely had to rely on guys like me and the other guards to rebound and we didn’t do a great job of that, especially myself.”

McCarthy was up to the challenge. He finished the contest with 16 points, tying a career high, to lead Harvard. The Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. native was four-for-six from three-point range on a night in which the Crimson shot 63.6 percent from beyond the arc. While classmate Corey Johnson and junior backup point guard Corbin Miller struggled to get in sync on the offensive end, McCarthy’s hot shooting allowed Harvard to make a run at Princeton in the second half as Harvard eventually drew to within 10 with 13 minutes to go.

“I thought he was pretty darn good,” Amaker said. “I thought he was creative, he attacked off the dribble and it was nice to see that. He made some three-point shots and I thought he did a pretty decent job offensively. I was pleased with his production of scoring the ball and trying to make plays for himself and his teammates.”

In his last three conference games, McCarthy’s play on the offensive end has improved. In those three losses, the freshman has averaged 12 points and 4.7 assists and after struggling with turnovers earlier in the season, McCarthy committed just three on Friday.

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