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This was not your typical Harvard basketball game.

It was a day of new faces as the Crimson took on Stanford in Shanghai—new players in Harvard’s top-10 recruiting class, new starters from the newest group of upperclassmen, and new fans as Harvard and the Pac-12 seek to expand the strength and quality of university sports in China.

While there were flashes of positive notes in those new faces, Harvard (0-1) ultimately fell to the Cardinal (1-0), 70-80, with Stanford coach Jerod Haase earning his first victory with the program.

FOCUS ON FRESHMEN

Harvard’s freshman class has been a topic of conversation since last year when it was ranked in ESPN’s top-10 recruiting classes, but few knew exactly how the pieces would fit in with the team in their first year. Saturday’s game against Stanford proved that though there are some bumps to smooth out, the future is bright for this group.

Harvard coach Tommy Amaker showed his confidence in the group by first putting forward Seth Towns in the starting lineup. It wasn’t long until several of Towns’ classmates followed, with Amaker giving guards Bryce Aiken and Christian Juzang and forwards Chris Lewis and Henry Welsh substantial minutes.

“I do like the potential of our young kids,” Amaker said. “This is their first opportunity to play a college game and I thought they did a tremendous job given who we are playing and all the other things that come with this travel and this trip.”

During its two exhibition games—first against MIT in Cambridge followed by a contest earlier this week against Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai—the freshmen played substantial minutes, but many speculated it was a chance to get their feet wet before the regular season began. Saturday showed, however, that Amaker plans to throw them into the fire early and often to show why they earned the reputations that they did.

Overall, the group didn’t disappoint. The five freshmen who made it onto the floor contributed over 60 percent of the team’s minutes, 70 percent of the team’s points, and 50 percent of the team’s rebounds. Aiken, who had 21 points, led the group.

Lewis and Welsh’s strong performances were perhaps the most surprising due to the veteran depth at the forward position. Senior Zena Edosomwan was the team’s leader in scoring and rebounds last year, and junior Chris Egi is a new addition to the starting rotation. Both Lewis and Welsh, however, saw more playing time than Edosomwan and Egi. The pair was also tasked with guarding Stanford’s top player, junior forward Reid Travis.

“I was very impressed,” Travis said of the duo. “Of course Welsh, he picks and pops a lot, he had a good looking jump shot and he had some good moves in the posts, some up and unders, and he finished well around the rim. Lewis, he’s just a beast, he was just running around, he got a few dunks, he was just blocking everything that was around him.”

M-AIKEN MOVES AND SIY-ING SUCCESS

Coming into the season, many projected that Aiken would come off the bench when Amaker rested senior co-captain Siyani Chambers at the point guard position. That was not the case on Saturday, as the pair played most of their minutes on the floor at the same time.

After the Shanghai Jiao Tong Exhibition, Chambers described their dynamic as effective because of their differing styles of play.