Webster Wins Third Title In Four Years

Only a handful of seconds had passed since he had learned his team was returning to the NCAA tournament when Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker burst into the Lavietes Pavilion lounge.

Amaker hurried to senior Christian Webster and locked his captain in an embrace.

In their four seasons together, Amaker and Webster have accomplished more than any player-coach combo in Harvard history, namely three Ivy League championships and two NCAA tournament berths.

But while Amaker will presumably return to Cambridge for a shot at another Ivy League championship and another NCAA tournament berth, this is the end of the line for Webster.

The Crimson’s lone senior, Webster played his final two games at Lavietes Pavilion over the weekend.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet to be honest,” Webster said after the Crimson’s 65-56 victory over Cornell on Saturday night. “I couldn’t have drawn it up any better—leaving the gym right now knowing that we are going to the tournament, having won the championship outright. There’s no better way for me to leave this thing.”

Just a week ago, though, Webster and the Crimson’s chances of ending the season on top seemed bleak. Facing Penn last Saturday, Webster and his teammates walked off the court of the Palestra hanging their heads following a 75-72 loss that gave Princeton sole possession of first place in the league standings.

Entering the final stretch of Ivy League play, Harvard needed a pair of victories over the weekend coupled with a Princeton loss to extend its season.

The Crimson got more than that.

The Tigers fell in back-to-back road contests at Yale and Brown while Harvard took care of business.

After being honored at a pre-game ceremony on Friday, Webster scored two points in the Crimson’s 56-51 win over Columbia. On Saturday, he totaled seven points on five shots in a 65-56 win.

The wins gave Webster 89 on his career, more than any other player in Harvard history.

“Three Ivy titles in his four years and a captain and the winningest player in the history of Harvard basketball, you can’t say enough,” Amaker said. “He’s a guy that if you know him you are very happy and wishing good things for him.”

In his final season, Webster has averaged 8.4 points and 3.0 rebounds per game while shooting 36.7 percent from beyond the arc. He’s also come up in the clutch for the Crimson on a number of occasions, most notably against Dartmouth when he hit three three-pointers in the final 93 seconds to force overtime.

But perhaps more important to the Crimson’s success has been his role off the court. After Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry withdrew from the university in September, the Crimson was left with two vacancies at the captain positions

This left Webster to not only cope with the loss of some of his closest friends, but also to serve as the Crimson’s primary leader.

“For me personally, those were my best friends,” said Webster, who was named captain along with junior Laurent Rivard. “We had been captains at the high school level but not in college so it was unexpected and unchartered waters.”

While many expected the Crimson to struggle adjusting to their new roster and new leadership, Harvard exceeded expectations. Picked to finish second to Princeton in the Ivy League preseason poll, the Crimson topped the Tigers convincingly in Cambridge and will finish at least a game ahead of Princeton for its third straight title.

But Webster still has one more milestone to reach before it’s all said and done. The senior needs three more points to reach 1,000 on his career.

Thanks to the Crimson’s weekend wins, Webster will get a chance to pick up those last three—in the NCAA tournament.

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @MartinKessler91.