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Harvard men’s basketball fell on the road to Princeton, 89-58, on Saturday afternoon in its Ivy League opener. The Tigers (13-1, 1-0 Ivy), carried by a career-high 33 points from sophomore guard Xaivian Lee, showed why they were selected as preseason Ivy League favorites as they continued a strong start to the season.
In front of a large crowd at Jadwin Gymnasium, the Crimson (9-5, 0-1 Ivy) started strong, roaring out to a 11-5 lead within the opening five minutes. Princeton quickly responded as it worked into a 14-13 advantage before Harvard scored eight unanswered points to secure a 21-14 advantage with just under nine minutes left in the first half.
That seven point lead was the largest the Crimson would enjoy as the Tigers used a 16-4 run in the final minutes of the first half to take a 41-32 lead into halftime. Harvard cut the Tigers’ advantage to five with 15 minutes to play in the second half, but Princeton put the game out of reach with an 11-0 run to extend the lead to 57-41 with 12:51 left in the game.
Despite sophomore forward Chisom Okpara’s team-high 18 points and sophomore guard Chandler Piggé’s 13, both behind efficient shooting performances from the field (7 of 10 and 6 of 9 respectively), the Crimson were unable to pull within 13 points the rest of the way.
One positive for the Crimson was the return of first-year guard Malik Mack, who scored eight points and provided a team-high four assists in 32 minutes, his first game action since Harvard’s win over Army West Point on December 8th.
One reason for Princeton’s dominance was its ability to force turnovers while rarely turning over the ball. Harvard has averaged 11.6 turnovers per game this season compared to 10.6 by its opponents, but against Princeton, Harvard’s starters turned over the ball 11 times in comparison to Princeton’s two.
Injuries and absences to sickness have been a major storyline for the Crimson this season. With key players often out, the Crimson have not had a chance to settle into a rhythm with a consistent starting five.
“Having to go through the different rotations that we’ve been through in the past couple weeks, it can sometimes be tough to find rhythm and find a flow,” Piggé reflected. “I think what happened with us, we didn’t really get into our offensive schemes like we would’ve wanted to because I think some of our decision making was off.”
Harvard was playing without junior guard Denham Wojcik, who suffered a concussion against the University at Albany on January 2nd and will be out for an indefinite amount of time. Wojcik has started the Crimson’s last three games in place of Mack, averaging 2.5 points and 2.6 assists per game across his thirteen involvements this season.
When asked about the importance of missing players such as Mack, Ajogbor, and Wojcik, Piggé acknowledged the difficulties of dealing with injuries and illness, but underscored his belief in the team’s ability to overcome such adversity.
“These injuries and sicknesses have been tough, but yet we’ve had one of our best starts since 2014,” Piggé said, reflecting on the start to this campaign. “It’s been amazing how resilient we can be and I believe that’ll continue throughout the rest of the season.”
Harvard continues its Ivy League campaign with its Ivy home opener at 2:00 pm EST on Monday, January 15th against Brown. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
—Staff writer Alexander K. Bell can be reached at alexander.bell@thecrimson.com.
