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Despite rallying back from a deficit as great as 19 points to make it a single possession game, Harvard men’s basketball was unable to avoid a 74-72 defeat to Brown (5-12, 1-1 Ivy) in its Ivy League home opener on Monday night at Lavietes Pavilion. A poor first half performance from Harvard (9-6, 0-2 Ivy) sent the team into the locker room at half-time down 41-24, the deficit proving too great to bounce back from in the second half.
“How poorly we were able to play in the first half kind of put us in the hole we were in,” Head Coach Tommy Amaker said in an interview after the game.
“I thought that not being able to take care of the backboard, the offensive rebounds in the first half — even some of the second half — were just daggers to us,” Amaker added.
The Crimson’s offense emerged as a new and improved unit in the second period, but the Bears rose to the challenge and responded to this change in tempo for the majority of the half, maintaining a twelve-point lead with 4:39 to play. Brown put consistent pressure on offensive rebounds and made some key shots from three-point range, shooting 36.4 percent from beyond the arc to Harvard’s lackluster 15.8 percent.
After failing to break Brown’s double-digit lead within the second half, the Crimson found a breakthrough with 3:29 left in the game. First-year forward Thomas Batties II’s three-pointer cut the squad’s deficit to just seven points, the tightest lead for the Bear’s since midway through the first half.
A quick layup from Batties, and another from standout first-year guard Malik Mack, capped a 7-0 Crimson run and made it a one-possession game with 1:19 remaining. Brown, however, was able to find a foothold, scoring a hookshot to regain a five-point advantage with 40 seconds to play, fatally slowing Harvard’s momentum.
Three late free throws from junior guard Louis Lesmond made it a two-point game with just over two seconds to spare, but the Crimson ran out of time to create another real scoring chance, as the clock ran out with the score at 74-72.
Despite the team’s inability to clinch an Ivy win, the squad saw senior forward Justice Ajogbor return for the Crimson, playing eleven minutes in his first game since November 26th. Harvard will hope that Ajogbor’s return to full fitness can improve its rebounding ability, one area in which Brown was able to build its advantage in the first half.
Mack continued to be a leader on the court, recording 18 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in his second game back from mononucleosis. Mack played a game-high 37 minutes against Brown, although coach Amaker noted after the game the freshman is yet to make a full recovery from his illness and lingering fatigue.
Harvard travels to Philadelphia on Saturday to take on the Penn Quakers (9-8, 1-1 Ivy) at 6:00 p.m. EST. The matchup will be of critical importance to the Crimson’s postseason dreams as it looks to avoid a 0-3 start to a fiercely competitive Ivy League season. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
—Staff writer Alexander K. Bell can be reached at alexander.bell@thecrimson.com.
