The Crimson had a far easier time in the first half with the Hawks, with three Rivard long balls helping Harvard open up a 16-8 lead early in the game.
“If our three-point shooters are hitting, that’s going to open up things inside for me and vice versa,” Wright said. “When you have that balanced attack, I think we’re a hard team to beat. Laurent hitting those three threes early was huge for us.”
“We haven’t shot the ball particularly well from the perimeter this season,” Amaker added. “To have [Rivard] get some early ones to go down like that I think gave us a great deal of confidence.”
A Ware put-back layup capped a 7-1 Monmouth spurt and tied the contest at 17, but Wright responded with a layup off an offensive rebound and six straight points by freshman forward Steve Mondou-Missi stretched the lead back to 25-19 moments later.
A 7-0 Crimson run later in the half extended the advantage, and Saunders ended the period by driving left baseline, leaping, and finishing over his shoulder with an acrobatic reverse layup to give the Crimson an 11-point lead heading into the break.
“I thought Wes gave us very, very good minutes,” Amaker said. “I thought Steve’s minutes were not many but very efficient while he was in there.”
Wright would finish with his best game of the season, registering 18 points, 15 rebounds, and six blocks one week after struggling to get anything going in the Crimson’s upset loss to Fordham.
“We went inside and were able to score,” said Rivard, who finished with 16 points. “Keith had a really good game; that’s something we didn’t have against Fordham.”
Wright said part of that success came from the inspiration of a former teammate.
“Jeremy Lin [’10] sent me a text after that Fordham game, just reminding me 'you’re a senior, you’re a Player of the Year, you’ve got to attack, you’ve got to play like it,'” Wright said. “That kind of woke me up a bit, just being able to hear him, a guy I respect and look up to a lot—it really changed my mindset. I attacked practice like I did here tonight, and it just carries over.”