“We don’t come out of here this evening alive, with a victory, without Oliver McNally,” Amaker said. “I thought his overall performance was outstanding.”

Both teams had come out firing from long distance to open the game. Halpern started things off with a three that was matched by McNally. Freshman Sean McGonagill then hit two straight long balls to give the Bears the early 8-3 advantage in a quickly-paced half that saw each team with a lot of possessions.

A three by Brown’s Garrett Leffleman would put the Bears ahead 13-5 soon after, and later Leffleman would drive and kick it out to Halpern, who knocked down a three from the left corner to make it 25-14 Brown.

The lead would get as large as 15 after a Sullivan jumper with 3:13 left in the first period, and, after a Rivard transition three cut it to eight, Halpern responded with a long ball with Wright in his face to give the Bears an 11-point edge going into the break.

Halpern led all scorers with 29 points on 10-15 shooting, while McNally paced the Crimson with 20, to go with four assists and five steals. Wright finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for Harvard, which shot 51.9% from the field in the second half.

“I think we believe in each other, and in ourselves as a team,” McNally said. “I’m so fortunate to play with such a talented group of guys.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.