After Penn’s Darien Nelson-Henry finished a layup to pull the Quakers within one, sophomore Steve Moundou-Missi answered for the Crimson with his first bucket of the game.

On the other end, Saunders came up with a steal, and then, with the shot clock expiring, found Webster in the corner. The senior hit the shot with a hand in his face, putting the Crimson up, 17-11.

Following a Dau Jok missed three-pointer, Moundou-Missi drilled a jumper from the left baseline to put Harvard up eight. After the teams traded points, Saunders gave the Crimson its first double-digit lead off a deep two.

The Quakers cut Harvard’s lead to eight with 2:31 remaining in the first half off a Patrick Lucas-Perry triple, but Saunders stuck a step-back jumper from the right elbow over Cartwright’s outstretched hand with four ticks remaining to tally his 17th point of the half and put the Crimson up 10 at the break.

Harvard extended its lead coming out of halftime

After the Quakers pulled within nine with 19:09 remaining, the Crimson rattled off a 17-6 run fueled by a balanced attack featuring four points from Saunders, four from Smith, three from Webster, three from junior co-captain Laurent Rivard, and three from rookie point guard Siyani Chambers.

Smith’s bucket with 12:57 to go put the Crimson up by 20, 57-37.

And unlike in past contests in which Harvard has let large leads slip away, the Crimson hung on, its advantage never dipping below 15 the rest of the way.

—Staff writer Martin A. Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @MartinKessler91.