The Lions did not get on the board until nearly five minutes had elapsed in the half. The margin increased to 20 just five minutes thereafter.

Harvard’s active defensive presence forced the Lions to settle for bad shots and led to fast break opportunities on the offensive end. After just ten minutes of play, Columbia had committed eight turnovers to the Crimson’s three.

Harvard shot 55 percent from the field in the first half, led by 10 points from Moundou-Missi. The Crimson also benefited from 15-of-17 shooting at the free throw line in the first 20 minutes.

ROSENBERG ON THE ROPES

When Harvard and Columbia last met two weekends ago in New York, junior Alex Rosenberg dropped 34 points and nearly walked off with a game-winning jumper. Friday night against Dartmouth, the junior contributed 31 points and missed just one shot.

What answer did Harvard have for Rosenberg? Enter Kyle Casey.

The senior marked Rosenberg for the majority of the first half and made him uncomfortable from the outset. Rosenberg missed his first four shots and often settled for three-point attempts instead of taking Casey to the basket.

At the end of the night, Rosenberg had ten points on just 1-of-7 shooting – his lowest field goal total on the year in games where he played at least 20 minutes.

“With Kyle being one of our veteran guys, that was the matchup we thought was best,” Amaker said. “He wanted that challenge… but it wasn’t going to be one person or one guy. We had to do that as a team.”

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at david.steinbach@thecrimson.com.