Harvard men’s basketball is headed back to the Ivy League Tournament.
Powered by a stifling 40-minute defense and strong second-half offensive production, the Crimson throttled the Big Red, 73-54, at Newman Arena on Saturday afternoon to clinch a spot in the Ancient Eight’s upper division.
“It feels great to get to Ivy Madness. It’s been a while since this program has been there,” Tey Barbour said to ESPN+’s Eric Taylor after the sophomore guard’s career-best 30-point performance. “We had a heartbreaking loss (to Yale) last week, but I’m proud of our team to bounce back and have a great win.”
This will be the first Ivy Madness appearance for Harvard (15-10, 8-3 Ivy) since the 2019 final. Tommy Amaker’s squad did secure the No. 2 seed for the 2020 tournament that was scheduled to take place at Lavietes Pavilion, but the event was cancelled due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Yale’s victory over Penn, the Crimson remained one game back in the conference standings with two weeks left in the regular season. Cornell (12-12, 5-6), which is looking to get back to its home floor for the league tournament and make its fifth straight appearance, finished the weekend tied for fourth with Dartmouth.
Despite Harvard jumping out to a 10-2 lead in the first three minutes, neither offense could get in a groove, and the teams were knotted at 18 with five minutes left in the half.
Barbour sank a three from the right corner and senior guard Chandler Pigge muscled a layup through two defenders to give the Crimson a five-point advantage.
With the lead still five, 25-20, entering the last minute of play, a step-back jumper from senior guard Jake Fiegen and a buzzer-beating layup from senior guard Cooper Noard made it a one-point game at the break.
Cornell used its bigger size to shoot 60% (9-for-15) from two and score 10 more points in the paint, but the visitors’ control of the tempo and the Big Red’s 8.3% (1-for-12) effort from beyond the arc were big factors in the team being held to a season-low 24 first-half points.
In addition to keeping the hosts from exploiting their deep bench and fast pace, Harvard secured a 5.1% advantage in rebounding rate on the strength of five more offensive boards.
Unfortunately, the Crimson couldn’t capitalize on their defensive effort.
Harvard relied heavily on the three-ball in the first half, taking 19 of 31 shots from deep and only making five of those attempts (26.3%). The results weren’t much better from the inside with only five successful buckets (41.7%).
Early in the second half, Fiegen hit a three from the left baseline to give Cornell their first lead since 18-16.
The Crimson responded by scoring the next 10 points to go up 35-27.
Still up eight, 45-37, at the 11:38 timeout, the visitors went on an 11-0 run to make it a 19-point game by the under-seven media break.
With just over four minutes to go and Harvard up 67-48, Cornell made one last stand.
The Big Red scored six straight points to make it a 13-point game, but junior forward Thomas Batties II sank a deep three from the right elbow at the 2:20-mark and end any threat.
Over the decisive twenty minutes, the Crimson’s defense continued to shine, holding Cornell to 44.4% (8-for-18) shooting from two and 20% (2-for-10) from three, as well as rebounding 77.8% of the Big Red’s field-goal attempts and limiting them to nine free throw attempts.
Offensively, Harvard changed course to focus more on the inside and found great success.
The Crimson ultimately managed to shoot 61.1% (11-for-18) from two and attempt 17 free throws, making 14 (82.4%). While they deemphasized the three-ball, taking only nine attempts in the second half, they sank four (44.4%).
Harvard may not have the deepest rotation, but it got big results across the board on Saturday.
In addition to Barbour’s career day, sophomore guard Robert Hinton added 16 points, while Batties (10 points, nine rebounds, seven assists) and Pigge (seven points, nine points, eight assists) both flirted with triple-doubles.
Noard and Fiegen each scored 11 for the defeated Big Red, while senior guard Adam Hinton, who scored 27 points in Cornell’s 86-79 win at Harvard in January, was held to two points.
Before his team returns to Ithaca on March 14, Amaker’s squad has to travel for a matchup with sixth-place Princeton on Friday, third-place Penn on Saturday and sixth-place Columbia one week later. Jon Jaques and his Big Red team will remain at home to face first-place Yale and eighth-place Brown next weekend and a huge matchup with the Big Green on the final day of the regular season.