Two minutes into the second half, Clanton drained his only three-pointer of the night and Jordan scored his first basket on a fast-break layup, helping spark an 11-2 run that brought the Knights back within 10.
But Casey snapped a five-minute scoreless stretch for Harvard with a baseline runner and a drive to the basket to pull the Crimson back up by 14.
“Thank goodness we had the cushion that we had,” Amaker said. “Our toughness down the stretch and belief in what we were doing ... was critical for us.”
The Knights’ hopes of a comeback were thwarted by their own struggles at the charity stripe. Central Florida went 8-for-23 from the free throw line.
And while Harvard went cold from the floor—hitting only four field goals in the second half—Central Florida could not keep its opponent off the line, where it made 23 of 35 free throw attempts for the game.
A layup by Isaiah Sykes cut the deficit to 58-47 with 38 seconds left, but Casey hit two free throws and Central Florida missed a pair of late three-pointers.
The Knights turned 13 turnovers into 19 points and outscored Harvard in the paint, 34-22.