Buoyed by a season-high 22 offensive rebounds, Harvard hoisted 81 field-goal attempts Friday night, 24 more than Brown. But what the Bears lacked in quantity, they made up for with quality, shooting a blistering 53 percent en route to a 91-86 win in another typical barnburner at the Pizzitola Center.
Despite letting a 72-66 lead evaporate during a 15-3 Brown run in the second half, the Crimson still had a chance to tie the game on its final possession. But Harvey’s three-point attempt with nine ticks left found only iron and the Bears (11-9, 6-0) converted two free throws to ice the game.
Brown, which trailed 45-43 at the half, played the way that it was expected to last year. Harvard played the way that has come to be expected every year.
The Bears—who were predicted to challenge for the league crown last year, only to flop and finish fourth—received 24 points from Player of the Year candidate Earl Hunt to claim their seventh straight win. After beating Dartmouth on Saturday, Brown now stands undefeated in the league with a legitimate shot to dethrone the Killer P’s.
As for the Crimson, the road has once again proved to be its kryptonite, a disappointment for the senior-laden squad whose resiliency away from Lavietes Pavilion during its non-league schedule suggested a better fate during the Ivy season.
On Friday, Harvard challenged the Bears—the league’s best team offensively and its worst defensively—on the hosts’ terms and paid the price. Playing at the warp-speed tempo that nearly delivered it right into the hands of Division III Roanoke last month, the Crimson saw its usual emphasis on field-goal defense go out the window.
Its shooting, meanwhile, was fast, furious and off the mark, especially compared to Brown’s 61.5 percent second-half performance. Despite his team-high 21 points, Harvey had the Crimson’s most inauspicious line, launching 28 shots—nearly half as many as the entire Brown team—while converting just eight, and hitting on just 3-of-11 three-point attempts.
The Crimson also gave up a huge advantage at the free-throw line—a development that would be repeated the next night at Yale. The Bears outscored Harvard 23-14 at the charity stripe.
As a result, the Crimson’s 45-37 rebounding edge, spearheaded by Winter and freshman Brian Cusworth, who had 12 each, ultimately went for naught.
—Staff writer Rahul Rohatgi can be reached at rohatgi@fas.harvard.edu
—Staff writer Brian E. Fallon can be reached at bfallon@fas.harvard.edu