No. 23 Men's Basketball Exorcises New Haven Demons, Crushes Yale, 65-35

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—It was supposed to be the Ivy League’s premier men’s basketball matchup—two teams picked to finish first and second in the conference’s preseason poll squaring off in front of a packed house.

But round one of this year’s Harvard-Yale series failed to live up to the hype, as the Crimson (18-2, 4-0 Ivy) pummeled the Bulldogs on their home floor, winning 65-35, at John J. Lee Amphitheater Friday night.

Harvard stifled Yale’s offense, holding the Bulldogs (13-5, 3-1) to 27 points below their previous season low on 32 percent shooting.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Yale senior Greg Mangano, whose team committed 22 turnovers. “We came out, and we got embarrassed on our home court. You’re supposed to try to win every game here and protect your court, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Mangano led the Bulldogs with 17 points—just 2.4 below his season average—but no other Yale player posted more than four points on the night.

“I don’t think we ran very good offense the entire game,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We never really got into a rhythm offensively all night.”

Yale sophomore Austin Morgan, the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer, entered Friday’s contest averaging 13.1 points per game but was shut down by co-captain Oliver McNally, finishing with three points on one of three shooting.

“Morgan has always been a thorn in our side,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “Morgan is a tough kid to guard because he moves so well and they screen for him, but McNally was outstanding tonight. I thought he was very disciplined. He didn’t bail him out with silly fouls.”

Bulldogs captain and third-leading scorer Reggie Willhite had his worst performance of the season, turning the ball over a game-high six times while scoring just three points.

“There were several turnovers where I still don’t know how we lost the ball—just fumbled it out of our hands with no pressure at all,” Jones said. “The guys that were wearing the jerseys, I’m not sure who we were tonight. Those weren’t the guys that I’ve seen in practice and all season long.”

Sophomore Laurent Rivard, starting in just his fourth game this season, led the Crimson offensively with 18 points, shooting five of eight from the field and two of five from deep.

Coming off the bench, Harvard freshman Steve Moundou-Missi chipped in with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half.

Moundou-Missi wasn’t the only Crimson player making an impact off the bench, as Harvard’s second unit combined for 15 of the Crimson’s 30 first-half points.

After both teams got off to slow starts offensively—the two combined for 15 total points through the first seven minutes of play—Harvard’s bench took control of the game for the Crimson.

Jesse Pritchard’s three-pointer with 10:46 to play gave Yale its first—and only—lead of the game, but Moundou-Missi answered, sticking a mid-range jumper from the right baseline.

Willhite tried to advance the ball back up the court, but Moudou-Missi picked the senior’s pocket on the perimeter and took it the other way, capping off the play with a transition dunk to put the Crimson up by three.

The scene repeated itself less than three minutes later. This time, Moundou-Missi picked off a Morgan pass and took it to the house for another slam.

“We knew that we had a gem in this particular young man,” said Amaker of Moundou-Missi. “I think he’s embraced his role thus far with being a guy that’s doing dirty work.”

McNally made it a three-possession game moments later, sticking a three-point shot to put the Crimson up by seven. Harvard got seven more points from its bench before the end of the half, taking a 30-19 lead into the break.

It only got uglier for Yale in the second half, as Harvard started to click offensively—shooting 52.2 percent from the field in the frame—while the Bulldogs continued to struggle, scoring only 16 points in the second half.

“I thought we had great ball movement,” Amaker said. “That’s one of the calling cards of our offense. We really move it, and kids get touches and we change sides of the floor.”

Harvard went up by 19 just over six minutes into the second period, and its lead never dipped below 18 the rest of the way. With 4:04 to play, junior Christian Webster put the Crimson ahead by 30 with a pair of free throws, and Harvard cruised to its largest over the Bulldogs in the 183-game history of the overall.

“I’m certainly pleased with a great effort by our entire team,” Amaker said.

—Staff writer Martin Kessler can be reached at martin.kessler@college.harvard.edu.