Harvard men’s basketball falls to St. John’s, 85-59

Harvard men’s basketball traveled south to Queens to visit St. John’s on Wednesday night and went back north a few hours later with an 85-59 defeat to the Red Storm.

With one game left in the nonconference schedule, Tommy Amaker’s squad fell to 6-7 on the season, while Rick Pitino’s group ended its out-of-conference slate and improved to 8-4 (1-0 Big East).

According to the FS1 broadcasters, the Crimson was stuck in traffic and didn’t arrive at Carnesecca Arena until 45 minutes before tipoff. The rushed pregame prep proved to be a benefit, as the visitors made its first six shots and jumped out to a 13-5 advantage.

Harvard continued to control the pace and used a disciplined offense with lots of ball movement to maintain a five-point lead, 31-26, with just over six minutes remaining in the half.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, St. John’s picked up the pressure on both ends of the court and finished the opening frame on a 20-2 run to go into the break ahead 46-33.

The Johnnies used a 9-0 run early in the second half to stretch its lead to 22 and methodically built it to 28 with just over a minute to go in regulation.

Some quick thoughts on the game and the season, as Harvard approaches the start of Ivy play:

Hinton and Pigge

As usual, senior guard Chandler Pigge led the way for the Crimson with 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting, while sophomore guard Robert Hinton, last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year, added 12 points on a 6-for-11 effort.

For the season, Hinton is sixth in the conference, averaging 16.5 points per game, and Pigge’s 13.9 points per game is ninth best.

Free throws

For the evening, Harvard shot 82% from the charity stripe with a 9-for-11 effort.

On the year, the team has an 81% free throw percentage, which is No. 6 in the nation. However, its free throw rate of 25% sits at No. 351 of 365 teams in Division I.

Despite the Johnnies’ 18 attempts at the line, the Crimson limit their opponents to 15 free throw per contest, and their 27% defensive free throw rate is No. 31.

Three-pointers

It was a tough night beyond the arc, with Harvard going 4-for-20 (20%), while St. Johns went 9-for-23 (39%).

As a team, the Crimson offense is last in the Ivy League with 6.8 made threes per game, while their defense is fifth, giving up 7.7 triples each outing.

Sophomore guard Tey Barbour led the team with two triples on Wednesday, which gives him a team-high 32 for the year. While his deep shooting percentage was 33% on the night, his overall three-point shooting rate is at 41%, which is No. 12 in the Ancient Eight.

The team’s second leading deep threat, junior forward Thomas Batties II, went 1-for-4 from three against St. John’s, but his 52% success rate (22-for-42) is fourth-best in the conference. 

Rebounding

The Johnnies entered the evening in the nation’s top 30 in offensive rebounding, so it wasn’t a surprise that the team corralled 47% of its missed shots. However, Pitino’s taller squad was No. 318 in defensive rebounding rate (64%) at the start of the night and ended up grabbing 81% of Harvard’s misses.

Thirteen games into the year, the Crimson’s offensive rate is No. 299 (27%) with no player in the league’s top 20, but its defensive rate is No. 112 (71%) with the 6-foot-4 Barbour fourth in the league with five defensive boards a game and the 6-foot-5 Hinton eighth in the conference at 4.3 rebounds.

Rotation depth

Heading into Wednesday’s game, Harvard had six players averaging more than 20 minutes a game, and the next closest player averaged under nine minutes.

While those same six athletes (Hinton, Pigge, Batties, Barbour, sophomore guard Ben Eisendrath, sophomore guard Austin Hunt) played between 21 and 30 minutes against St. John’s, Amaker got junior forward Luca Ace-Nasteski, junior guard Xavier Nesbitt, and first-year forward Ryan Sullivan in for 12, 11 and 10 minutes, respectively.

With the condensed nature of the Ancient Eight schedule, it’s highly likely the coach will need to expand his roster and getting players seven through nine more minutes should be helpful as the calendar moves into 2026.

Next up

Harvard heads to Colgate for a game on Sunday, then gets eight days off before welcoming Dartmouth to Lavietes Pavilion on Mon., Jan. 5.