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Coming off its first conference win, Harvard (10-6, 1-2) looked to continue its hot streak against historic rival Yale (12-6, 3-0) to begin its four game homestand. After an even first half, Yale’s shooters shut the door on Harvard's hopes of victory with a 78-65 win, marking the first time the Bulldogs went undefeated for an entire month since January 2020.
The Bulldogs started the contest hot, jumping out to a quick 7-2 lead. An emphatic block by senior forward Justice Ajogbor on Yale’s reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, sophomore forward Danny Wolf, fueled a Harvard run that resulted in a 7-7 gridlock.
Freshman guard Malik Mack exploded on offense, converting seven free throws and providing an assist on a three-pointer to give the Crimson a 17-11 advantage. Sophomore guard Chandler Piggé took the offensive mantle, muscling in for a layup and dishing out two assists to extend Harvard’s lead to 27-17.
After a Yale field goal, defenses tightened causing a two minute intermission in scoring. Piggé ended the drought with a transition jumper giving Harvard a 29-19 lead with 3:33 left in the first half. Then, Harvard’s defense crumbled down the stretch. Three consecutive triples fueled the Bulldogs’ 14-2 run to end the first half on top 33-31.
In many ways, starting the second half in a tie-game was a testament to the Crimson’s resilience, given its two leading scorers shot a combined one-from-14 from the field in the first half.
The blistering three point shooting from junior guard John Poulakidas and senior guard August Mahoney that led Yale to its 14-2 run heading into the break re-emerged almost immediately as Poulakidas drained two back-to-back three-pointers to stretch the Bulldog lead to six.
Harvard was unable to find a response defensively to Yale’s offensive momentum. Seven minutes into the second half, the Bulldogs extended its lead to 14 points, with the Crimson unable to stop the offensive onslaught.
“Our defense let us down in the second half,” said Amaker. “They're a good team who play a good brand of ball and they're very balanced. You can see that they can get it from a lot of different places, which makes them very difficult to defend, but nonetheless, I just thought that our defense let us down in the second half.”
The Crimson was able to limit Yale’s seven-foot sophomore forward Danny Wolf to just four points and one-of-seven shooting, in large part because of senior forward Justice Ajogbor’s presence around the rim, especially in the first half.
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When shots started to fall for the Bulldogs in the second, however, it became difficult for the Crimson to both maintain that dominance and have the personnel on the court to be able to guard shifty shooters on the perimeter.
Another factor that proved deadly for the Crimson in the second half was Yale’s rebounding. Harvard was out-rebounded on offensive boards 12-to-six and 37-to-26 in total, which helped the Bulldogs maintain an advantage of at least seven points for the duration of the game.
“I thought that was another area that really hurt us, the offensive rebounding,” reflected Amaker. “We were scrambling a little bit, because we were down and then you get stretched out, and then they have lanes to get to the glass,” added Amaker.
Harvard will continue its run of home games next weekend with a critical game against Columbia (10-7, 1-3 Ivy League) at 7:00 p.m. EST Friday. The Crimson will then face Cornell (15-3, 4-0 Ivy League), who dominated Ivy favorite Princeton (15-2,3-1 Ivy League) Saturday night to improve to 4-0 in conference play, at 7:00 p.m. EST Saturday. The games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
— Staff writer Oscar E. Mercado can be reached at oscar.mercado@thecrimson.com.
— Staff writer Alexander K. Bell can be reached at alexander.bell@thecrimson.com.
