Men's Basketball Holds Off Late Bryant Rally

Just over three minutes into the second half of Monday night’s matchup at Bryant, the Harvard men’s basketball team was putting on one of its most dominant performances of the season—at that point the Crimson was up 21 points against the Bulldogs, and only three Bryant players had scored.

Twelve minutes later, however, what appeared to be a runaway win for Harvard was now a five-point game with just over four minutes on the clock. With the shot clock running down on the Crimson’s next possession, co-captain Siyani Chambers drove right and hit a fadeaway jumper to push the lead to seven. On the ensuing possession, Chambers drove in again and extended the lead to nine at the line with just under three minutes left to play.

The Bulldogs were far from calling it a game, however.

For the next two minutes no team would score until freshman Bryce Aiken fouled Bryant guard Adam Grant from beyond the arc. Grant would make all three free throws to cut the Harvard (9-5) lead to six. Forty-five seconds later it was Grant again with a jumper to get the Bulldogs (5-14) within four.

On the ensuing possession Bryant would send sophomore Corey Johnson to the line where he would make both free throws, but as they had all night, the Bulldogs responded with a three of their own just seconds later.

What was a 21-point game was now within a possession with just over 30 seconds left on the clock.

On the next possession Bryant fouled freshman guard Justin Bassey on the inbound. He would split free throws to make it a four-point game, but with 19 seconds left on the clock, Chambers fouled Bryant guard Ikenna Ndugba from beyond three. He would make all three and the Harvard lead stood at a single point with 19 seconds left on the clock.

Despite the late comeback from the Bulldogs, the Crimson finished the game perfect from the line and a late Bryant three failed to find the bottom of the net as Harvard escaped with the 70-65 win to close out its nonconference schedule.

What ended as a barrage of three pointers from the Bulldogs began quite similarly—in the first half Bryant opened up scoring with a three-pointer from junior guard Bosko Kostur. After a miss from Johnson on the other end, Kostur came back and hit another one from beyond the arc to give the Bulldogs the early 6-0 lead.

The Crimson responded with a three from Johnson, but Bryant would respond much like it would in the second half—with a three-pointer to keep the lead at six. Despite shooting only 33 percent from deep on the season, the Bulldogs shot the lights out from three on Monday at 53 percent.

Despite the early Bryant lead, Harvard came right back with its class of touted freshman in the first period. At the half, 31 of the Crimson’s 40 points came from three Harvard freshman—Seth Towns, Chris Lewis, and Aiken. Spearheaded by the freshmen, Harvard went on a 23-6 run to take the early lead.

The offensive effort continued early into the second frame. The Crimson began the period on an 8-0 run to take what would be its largest lead of the game at 22. From there though, the Bulldog defense would hold off the Crimson for much of the rest of the game as Bryant began finding its way from deep. Midway through the second, Harvard would be held without a field goal for nearly seven minutes.

Despite the suffocating defense late from the hosts, the depth of Tommy Amaker’s squad proved to be the difference as it usually is—four Crimson players would score in double digits while Harvard’s bench outscored Bryant’s 30-5.

—Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at troy.boccelli@thecrimson.com.