Notebook: Depth, Defense Key Men's Basketball in Ivy Opener

Balance—that’s a word Harvard coach Tommy Amaker came back to again and again when describing the Harvard men’s basketball team’s Saturday night win at Dartmouth. In a game full of runs and a late defensive effort from the Crimson, perhaps no word better describes what would to be the key to a 74-58 Crimson victory in its first conference matchup.

“You give them a lot of credit for how they competed against us, but I thought our bench and our balance was the difference,” Amaker said. “We’re hoping that can be the difference for us as we move forward. We played a lot of guys and they gave us quality minutes off the bench.”

DEPTH WINS IT

For Harvard, it was ultimately the depth of its roster that allowed it to pull away late in the second frame. Fueled by the efforts of freshman Justin Bassey off the bench—who matched his career-high of 14 points while adding six rebounds, three assists, and two steals—the Crimson pulled away midway through the second, going on a 15-4 run to push its lead to 16 points.

“Justin just played a great game,” co-captain Siyani Chambers said. “He rebounded well, he made big timely shots for us.”

After switching up its starting lineup in the second period, the Crimson began the period shooting a perfect six-for-six. In the second half, Harvard shot the ball 64 percent from the field while holding the Big Green to 41 percent. The depth of Harvard’s freshman class was on display as every freshman saw minutes and the group combined for 43 points.

In total, Harvard’s bench combined for 30 of the Crimson’s 74 points and 13 of the Crimson’s 32 rebounds. Other than Chambers, no Crimson player was on the court for more than thirty minutes, with 12 players seeing the floor. Dartmouth, for its part, had three of its starters play over 30 minutes.

“We’re trying to develop our bench—we can play seven or eight guys and make it very comfortable keep it neat on the stat sheet, but we’re choosing to try and see if we can play a lot of guys to wear others down,” Amaker said. “It’s been nice to see these guys step forward and when they have limited minutes still be productive.”

DEFENSE ON DISPLAY

While Harvard’s offense has been largely consistent throughout the season, Saturday’s matchup also gave the Crimson a chance to right some of the defensive struggles they have had throughout nonconference play.

In the first half the Crimson held the Big Green to 26 points on 36 percent shooting from the field while outrebounding Dartmouth, 21-16, and 8-4 on the offensive end. Perhaps more importantly, the Crimson neutralized the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, sophomore forward Evan Boudreaux.

Through the first frame with a combination of senior Zena Edosomwan and freshman Chris Lewis defending him, Boudreaux went one-of-six from the field for only three points. He also turned the ball over twice.

“Boudreaux is a very good player, one of the better players in our league. Coming into the game we knew how much of a matchup that was going to be,” Amaker said. “So having Zena start the game on him was really helpful for us. I thought we started off well, we didn’t give anything easy, and I thought that set the tone.”

Boudreaux finished the game with 15 points and 14 rebounds, but would do so on 4-of-13 shooting from the field.

On the game, Harvard forced 17 Big Green turnovers while the guests only turned it over a season-low nine times. Throughout the matchup, Harvard would shut down the Dartmouth offense for extended periods of time. At one point in the first frame, the Crimson would hold the Big Green scoreless for a period of over four minutes, and Harvard closed the game without allowing a Dartmouth field goal over the last five minutes.

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