For the Crimson, it was the long ball that kept it in the game. Harvard shot six-of-nine from deep in the second frame while ending an early stretch of turnovers that saw it cough up the ball over 11 times through the first 20 minutes of play.

“I think we a little bit too riled up when they got into their 1-2-2 press and that led to us being a little too aggressive and making poor decisions against the press and leading to a lot of turnovers,” Bassey said. “Just being a little bit tighter and more aware of our surroundings.”

Though the early turnovers cost the Crimson early, it made up for it on the defensive end. Harvard held Cornell to 32 percent shooting through the first frame and 39 percent on the game.

IN THE PAINT AND AT THE LINE

While the Crimson certainly thrived from beyond the arc, Harvard’s post play, and in particular sophomore forward Chris Lewis’ play, carried the Crimson for much of the night.

The sophomore tallied a career-high 29 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field to go with seven rebounds. Despite committing a late foul that would send the game to its first overtime, Lewis came through to seal the win late.

Holding on to a one-point lead with 1:12 to go in the second overtime, the Crimson broke the Cornell press and junior guard Corey Johnson passed the ball to Lewis near the baseline. Lewis rose up and emphatically dunked the ball over the Cornell defender and through the foul. The sophomore made the free throw to give the Crimson a two possession lead it would hold until the buzzer sounded.

“You look at Lewis’ production, and we have to play through him as we know. Obviously the foul he made late, which gave them the chance at the and-one when we were up three was just a tremendous let down,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “But I thought he was really possessed and determined, especially when we had to go to overtime, to win it. He played sensational basketball there as well.”

Though the Big Red struggled to find the back of the net early in the game, an early stretch of fouls kept Cornell in the game. The Big Red went to the like 16 times in the first frame alone, converting on 13 of those.

Despite Cornell keeping it close at the line, the Crimson would close it out from the charity stripe.

With both teams in the bonus heading into overtime, Harvard found itself at the line for much of the rest of the way, going 12-of-13 through two overtimes while sending standout Cornell forward Stone Gettings to the bench after earning his fifth personal foul at the 2:45 mark in the second overtime.

“We needed to make sure we were focused and ready for the challenge in front of us which we knew would be a challenge—they were fighting for their lives to make it to the conference tournament and they played like it. We knew that, we know how hard it was going to be this weekend, starting tonight.”

—Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at troy.boccelli@thecrimson.com.