Saturday's Harvard men's basket-ball game against Yale was billed as a showdown between two of the Ivy League's top scorers, the Crimson's Kyle Snowden and the Elis' Dan Okonkwo.
Snowden won.
The senior power forward scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, both game highs, holding Okonkwo to six points on three-of-12 shooting in the process. Add junior Mike Scott's 19 points and a Harvard record seven steals, and the Crimson found itself coasting to victory, 73-59, at Lavietes Pavilion.
Furthermore, the win moved Harvard (12-6, 5-1 Ivy) into a tie with Dartmouth for second place in the league standings behind Princeton. The Tigers won both their games this weekend, keeping their Ivy record perfect at 4-0; but Penn fell to Cornell on Saturday, dropping its league record to 3-1. Next weekend, both Harvard and Dartmouth travel to Penn and Princeton.
"This is definitely where we want to be--in contention," Scott said. "We haven't beaten Penn and Princeton since I've been here, and we have to take it to another level."
Judging from Saturday night's performance, the Crimson might already be there. As a team, Harvard totaled 18 assists, 12 steals and only 11 turnovers; Yale, on the other hand, had almost as many turnovers on the night (16) as assists and steals combined.
In the end, it was the transition game that killed Yale. Snowden and Scott both converted a plethora of high-percentage shots, which stalled many an Eli comeback--Yale's only lead in the game was by a 2-0 score, and once Harvard went up by 10 points six minutes into play, the Elis never got closer 21-16 in the first half and 52-45 in the second.
"We turned it over, and it created problems," Yale coach Dick Kuchen said. "We got it going and something would occur, and we'd make a turnover and break our backs."
Consistency was a big problem for Yale (8-10, 1-5). Okonkwo never did anything in the post--two of his three baskets were 15-footers, and he only had two rebounds on the night. Before this weekend, he had averaged 18.2 points and 9.3 rebounds in Ivy League games.
Snowden, meanwhile, had the 32nd double-double of his career--not that such offensive prowess slowed him down at the other end of the court.
"Tonight was definitely a big game as far as a defensive match for me," Snowden said. "My goal was to take him out of his game."
Indeed, 10 minutes into the first half, Okonkwo went out of the game after picking up his second personal foul. By then, Harvard's lead was 12 points.
However, Yale then made a push, with Charlie Petit (11 points) and Emerson Whitley (21 points, nine rebounds) both hitting three-pointers to help cut the Crimson lead to five points.
But from there, Harvard embarked on a 15-5 run, fueled by six points from Snowden, four from senior center Chris Grancio and a three-pointer by captain Dave Demian. At the half, the Crimson led 38-26.
The second half was more of the same. With 12 minutes to play in the game, a layup by Eli Gabe Hunterton pulled Yale to within seven points, and forward Jim Rosneck stole a Demian pass to start another fast break.
But near halfcourt, Scott took the ball away from Rosneck and slammed his second fast-break dunk of the game. On the next Yale possession, senior Dave Weaver blocked an Okonkwo shot, and Grancio hit a three-pointer, effectively quashing the Elis' hopes.
The win was the Crimson's sixth in a row and fifth consecutive Ivy win.
"I think we played a good week" said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. "To win five straight in the Ivies makes us feel really good." YALE: Hunterton 1-8 0-0 4; Ricketts 0-1 0-0 0; Simpkins 0-0 0-0 0; Okonkwo 3-12 0-0 6; Miller 2-8 5-6 9; Smith 0-1 3-4 3; Rosneck 2-7 1-2 5; Whitley 7-11 5-6 21; Craft 0-0 0-0 0; Lanigan 0-0 0-0 0; Petit 4-8 0-0 11; Williams 1-1 0-0 2; Kirkowski 0-0 0-0 0; Marschner 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20-57 14-18 59. HARVARD: Demian 3-9 2-2 9; Hill 4-10 2-2 11; Snowden 10-17 5-6 25; Grancio 3-8 0-0 7; Scott 7-10 2-2 19; Dexter 0-1 0-0 0; Long 0-0 0-0 0; Stevens 0-0 0-0 0; Weaver 0-4 0-0 0; Beam 0-1 0-0 0; Ewing 1-3 0-0 0. TOTAL: 28-63 11-12 73.
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