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Harvard travelled to West Point on Saturday, defeating Army with a final score of 75-52, moving the Crimson to 3-1 in the out-of-conference slate to begin the season.

“I thought it was a great team win and team effort,” Harvard’s Head Coach Tommy Amaker said after the game. “Particularly having those kinds of solid performances from everybody – you need it on the road.”

The game was Harvard’s first away matchup this season, and the victory marks an important step in the right direction — last season, the Crimson went 5-10 outside of Lavietes Pavilion.

“I thought we really responded well to our last outing,” Amaker said as he commented on the team’s 77-60 struggle against Northeastern on Tuesday. “We didn’t feel like we were living up to our identity and embracing the roles that our players have individually.”

“That was our theme going into this game – ‘our identity, your role,’” he added.

Three different Crimson players – junior forward Thomas Batties II, sophomore guard Rob Hinton, and captain Chandler Piggé finished the game with double-digit scoring. The same three players also grabbed five or more rebounds.

Though Army (1-3) won the overall rebound battle, 31-30, it was ultimately the cadets’ poor shooting that led to the lopsided final score. The Black Knights shot an unremarkable 20% from three-point range and just 58% from the free-throw line, compared to Harvard’s 39% from three and 82% from the stripe.

The game got off to a slow start, with the only basket in the first three minutes of play coming off a steal from sophomore guard Ben Eisendrath, who notched the assist on the resulting layup from Piggé. Eisendrath would go on to record four steals that afternoon.

With the game tied 4-4, Piggé — a Crimson sports editor — shot an open three, which rolled from the front of the rim to the back, before bouncing high, hitting the backboard, and going in. The physics-defying shot gave Harvard a lead it did not relinquish for the rest of the game.

The game was tightly contested throughout the first half — from the eighth minute to the seventeenth, the two sides were never more than four points apart on the scoreboard.

With three minutes to go in the first half, sophomore guard Dutch Dowdell leaped high in the air to rescue a nearly botched inbound, allowing Harvard to run its offense and kick the ball out to Batties, who hit a clutch three to put Harvard up by seven.

The Crimson truly began to pull away during the second half. Beginning with 18:26 remaining, Harvard went on a 22-6 point run. During the run, Batties recorded a stifling block on Army’s sophomore guard Alex Engro. Engro recovered the ball to attempt a three-pointer, which he missed, with the rebound being recovered by none other than Batties.

Batties was the only player to block a shot in the game — recording three — and now leads the Crimson in total blocks on the season.

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The Black Knights recorded just ten points in the game’s final eleven minutes as Harvard began to sub out its starters. With 35 seconds remaining, Army’s sophomore guard Brendon O'Keefe shot a three-pointer, the team’s 25th of the afternoon, which bounced out to become its 20th miss. Senior Harvard guard Greg Cooper recovered the defensive rebound before the Crimson dribbled it out to end the game.

“We’re pleased with the outcome of how these guys performed here representing our school in a very positive manner after coming off a tough loss,” Amaker said.

Army leads the all-time series between the two teams, 16-10, though the Crimson has now won six of the programs’ past seven meetings. The victory moves Harvard to 13-36 all-time against the service academies.

“It’s an honor for us to come here to play at this esteemed and historic place and university,” said Amaker. “We’ve loved the connection and the series that we’ve been able to have here at West Point; hopefully that will continue.”

The series between the two sides, renewed two seasons ago after a fourteen-year hiatus, is among Harvard’s oldest. The first matchup occurred during the 1904-05 season, Harvard’s fifth year of competitive basketball and Army’s third. Though box scores from the time are inconsistent, both sides agree that the Crimson was victorious, 21-11 according to Harvard and 17-5 according to the Black Knights.

The Crimson continues its out-of-conference slate on the road against a strong Marist team, before heading to Happy Valley to take on Penn State on Wednesday.

Army, still seeking its first victory against a Division I opponent, will face Cornell on Tuesday, seeking to improve its record against Ivy League opponents, which it has not defeated since 2017.