The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale gets upended by rival Harvard
Harvard edges Bulldogs to take share of Ivy lead
Yale sat atop the Ivy League standings and was off to its best start ever in conference play.
Meanwhile, it appeared to be a down year for Harvard... by Crimson standards, anyway. Harvard was struggling offensively, fell to Dartmouth earlier in the year and barely pulled out an overtime win against Brown on Friday.
Yale looked primed to knock off the king of the Ivy on Saturday. But Harvard proved to rival Yale that it’s not quite ready to give up the conference crown just yet.
The Bulldogs entered Saturday’s showdown against the four-time defending league champion looking to add to their Ivy lead. Instead, Yale left Lee Amphitheater with a 5250 loss and is now locked into a first-place tie with Harvard.
The Bulldogs (16-7, 5-1) shot just 3 of 22 from the field in the opening half and went into the break with 11 points. And Harvard (15-5, 5-1) made sure to not let the Bulldogs get many second-chance opportunities either.
“I thought both teams came out and the moment got the best of both teams,” said Yale coach James Jones about the rivalry and playing in front of 2,532 rowdy fans. “We didn’t move the ball well enough to be successful. And when we did we got good shots, but we just didn’t do it enough tonight. We tried to hit a home run on just about every play as opposed to moving the ball side to side.”
Despite shooting just 13.6 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, Yale trailed just 16-11 at intermission. In the second half, the Bulldogs settled down. Shots began falling and they cut the deficit to a single point on multiple occasions.
But Yale couldn’t come up with the basket to take the lead.
Harvard would eventually build its lead back up. Siyani Chambers penetrated and dished to Agunwa Okolie for a
layup to give the Crimson a 46-36 advantage, Harvard’s largest of the game.
Yale wouldn’t go away, but a late comeback bid fell short. Jack Montague knocked down a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs with 7 seconds left to cut the deficit to two points, but Wesley Saunders followed with a pair of free throws to ice the game for Harvard. Montague made a layup as time expired.
Coming off a career-high 19 points in a win over Dartmouth on Friday, Montague finished with a team-high 11 points against Harvard. Matt Townsend added 10 and Javier Duren chipped in with nine points (all in the second half), eight rebounds and seven assists. He also scored the 1,000th point of his career on a 3-pointer with 1:07 left.
Harvard’s defense, ranked No. 15 in the nation, did a good job containing Yale’s top scorer Justin Sears. The Crimson kept him out of the paint and forced him to shoot jumpers. He finished with nine points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
“You could kind of get sidetracked in the past watching us because we have been pretty good offensively,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “But we generate offense from our defense. Our defense has been our calling card. We’ve built our program around our defense. We’re going to build around the name and the brand of Harvard, and our defense on the court.”
Hounded by Yale forward Armani Cotton all night, Saunders, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, finished with a game-high 16 points. But Cotton made him work for every point. He shot just 4 of 13 from the field.
Saturday’s win marked Harvard’s 12th straight league victory on the road.
As for Yale, the Bulldogs will get a chance at redemption when they travel to Cambridge on March 6 for the rematch.
“We still have a good team,” Duren said. “We’re tied for first place right now. We knew coming in that it would be a long season. That’s kind of what we tried to preach, keeping our eyes on the prize.
“This isn’t the NCAA tournament. There’s always the next game. We’re going to come back Monday and get ready for Penn and Princeton.”