Both Cambridge and freshman forward Tamenang Choh were sitting on coach Mike Martin’s bench in the final two minutes, having accumulated five fouls each.

“Cambridge, I think, wasn’t himself,” Amaker said. “You could see that he’s coming off an ankle injury and trying to figure it out a little bit there with him. But I thought we did a better job of trying to play defense on the ball and not giving the lanes to drive to the basket [in the second half].”

Particularly in the first half, Harvard excelled on the offensive glass with eight such rebounds, ultimately finishing with 39 total boards in the contest. Having Lewis on the bench for much of the opening frame, Towns and classmate Justin Bassey were forced to play more isolation basketball, as the team tallied just four assists before halftime.

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Neither team was able to build a lead beyond eight in that frame, and the Crimson went into the break holding just a two-point margin at 27-25. Juzang’s three triples and Towns’ 10 points accounted for the majority of those points, as the bench contributed just one bucket.

“It helps when you have players like [Seth] and Lewis to kind of draw the defense so much,” Juzang said. “Tonight was a lot about offensive rebounds, Henry Welsh and Danilo creating those opportunities off the backboard, me just being there and spotting up.”

The second half was more foul-laden, as the Bears sent Harvard to the bonus with nine minutes still to play. The Crimson would return the favor three minutes later.

Brown missed on seven of its 10 three-point tries and Harvard was able to hit shots when it mattered to close out the Bears. The Crimson bench still contributed a measly three points in the latter frame, but Harvard revolved its offense through Towns to complete the victory.

—Staff writer Henry Zhu can be reached at henry.zhu@thecrimson.com.