PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Two weeks ago, Harvard was down double digits to Division III Bowdoin and having trouble getting good looks in the paint.
Saturday afternoon at the Pizzitola Sports Center, the Crimson took it to favored Brown, dominating the interior and seemingly scoring at will – particularly in the second half – on their way to an 80-67 victory that rekindles some hope Harvard might return to Providence in March for its first Ivy League Tournament since 2019.
Going into Ivy play, Harvard was 308th nationally in offensive efficiency, but after two solid performances are up to 259th, now tied with Princeton for fourth in conference at 1.10 points per possession.
Four Crimson (6-9, 1-1 Ivy) starters got into double figures in a balanced attack, Chandler Pigge leading the way with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Louis Lesmond faced the wrath of coach Tommy Amaker after a couple of defensive lapses, but his resurgence might be one of the biggest reasons for Harvard’s offensive improvement. Lesmond’s 15 points (with 2-for-2 from behind the arc) was a season high and just two of his career high for the senior in his fourth year playing significant minutes at Harvard.
Robert Hinton continues to improve, scoring 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting, with Thomas Batties II also having 13 despite a 2-for-6 outing at the free throw line. The only Crimson starter not in double digits was veteran point guard Evan Nelson, who added six assists and five steals to go with his seven points.
“Nelson didn’t play all year last year, Hinton is brand new to college basketball, as is (Tey) Barbour and Austin Hunt, and other guys are in new roles,” Brown coach Mike Martin said. “Lesmond missed some time earlier this season, a lot of moving pieces for them. It seems like they’ve settled now, though. They know who their rotation is and how they’re going to get their points and get good looks. They’re spacing and how they share the ball, and all their guys can shoot. It can cause a lot of problems.”
Brown led 5-0, but that would match its largest advantage of the day in a back-and-forth first half. Kino Lilly Jr. and Aaron Cooley had consecutive buckets to put the Bears (8-7, 0-2) up 21-16 with 10:30 left, but the Crimson – unlike earlier in the season – never got rattled and they went right to the rim, scoring four layups from four different players for an 8-0 run (that forced a Martin timeout).
Harvard never trailed again, although its advantage was cut to 35-34 at the half. But the first 4:23 out of the locker room showed what the Crimson are capable of. Nelson opened things with a three-pointer, but then Harvard scored 12 straight points in the paint, opening up a 50-41 lead and forcing Brown to try to chase the rest of the afternoon. When Batties hit a three-pointer with 8:20 left, it was 63-46, and the competitive portion of the game was pretty much done.
“The whole season we’ve been trying to improve on the first four – first four minutes of the first and second half,” Pigge said. “We know that basketball is a game of runs, and we took care of that today.”
For Brown, it was a massive blow to their hopes to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament on its home floor. Other than getting outscored 42-24 in the paint, the biggest thing to jump out in the stat sheet was 21 turnovers, six of which came from Lilly, who finished with a game-high 22 points, but a decent amount came with the game decided.
“We always say the price of admission for us is being a team that we have to be, we have to be the hardest-playing, most resilient, toughest, most connected team every time we step on the court,” Martin said. “If we do those things, we’re good enough to beat almost anyone. If we don’t do those things, we could lose to anyone. Obviously, we saw it, we experienced how well Harvard played, how resilient they were, how connected they were. They deserve a ton of credit for that.”
Turnovers have been an issue for the Bears many times during Martin’s tenure, but they have worked hard to limit them, most notably in their seven-game win streak (seconds away from eight and an Ivy title) to finish last season.
The Bears were 2-6 in league before going on that run last season, so it’s hard to say they are in trouble this season, but they will be big underdogs Monday after a long bus ride to Cornell to avoid going 0-3. They did dominate the offensive glass with 18 rebounds (48.6%), and shot 11-for-26 from three, AJ Lesburt and previously little-used Adrian Uchidiuno giving Martin good minutes.
But the probability of making another run like that this year, particularly with most of those players now elsewhere, is not very high, so there will be some urgency in games against Dartmouth and Penn coming up as well. With Yale, Princeton, and Cornell already off to 2-0 starts, there may be little time to waste.
“Every experience you go through is an opportunity to learn from it,” Martin said. “Today was one of those days. Turnovers, offensive rebounding for them in the first half (11), but points in the paint, 50-50 balls, they dominated those stats. That was disappointing for us in a home Ivy League game. It’s early, obviously, only two games in, but you only get 14 of these opportunities. We have to respond on Monday.”