Men's Basketball Notebook: A Homecoming for Casey

As the shot clock wound down early in the first half, senior forward Kyle Casey shook his defender in the paint and looked for a pass from sophomore point guard Siyani Chambers. Casey was in the air as the ball left Chambers’ hands and slammed the ball home, coming down with a bang that silenced any questions fans at Lavietes Pavilion might have had.

No doubt about it, Kyle Casey was back.

“We were running a late-clock play and he came off the screen,” Casey said. “My guy turned and was kind of high, and I was in the corner so I knew I could get behind it. I cut and he threw it, and I just had to make a good play and catch it and finish it.”

The Harvard men’s basketball team’s home opener against MIT on Tuesday night marked Casey’s homecoming after he took a yearlong leave of absence last fall. The senior dominated in the paint in the Crimson’s 79-37 blowout, chipping in 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Casey’s performance was a turnaround from his first game back in Harvard uniform. On Sunday, he fouled out with only four points early in the second half in a win over Holy Cross. At the Coaches vs. Cancer Tripleheader at TD Garden, Casey—a Boston area native—got his first taste of playing in front of his home crowd in a year. But returning to Lavietes was a different story.

“Coming back here, playing in Lavietes, back out here with the guys in our home court, there’s a sense of pride,” Casey said. “It was a great feeling to finally get back out here, play a game, win a game, and keep the season going.”

SPREADING THE WEALTH

When freshman Matt Fraschilla hit an open three from the right side with five minutes to play, his teammates leapt to their feet and gave the point guard a standing ovation. Less than 30 seconds later, Fraschilla had hit another, finishing his intercollegiate basketball debut with 6 points on 2-3 shooting from deep.

Fraschilla was the third point guard rotated in on Tuesday, one of 13 total players Amaker used as the margin of victory widened. Twelve players scored for the Crimson, and one bench player—freshman forward Zena Edosomwan—contributed double-digit scoring with 13 points. Amaker set a fairly typical starting lineup, but it only lasted for seven minutes. Up eight early in the first half, Amaker looked to his deep bench to spell starters playing on only one day of rest.

“We were planning on playing a lot of players, but you never know how a game is going to go,” Amaker said. “I thought the preparation, the habits, the discipline, our defense in the first half allowed us to have a sizable margin there that allowed us to rotate fresh bodies through. The kind of pressure that we were trying to play with, and doing that without fouling, allowed us to go deep into our bench.”

Senior guard Dee Giger entered the game and played a team-high 24 minutes. Though failure to connect on open shots held Giger to only six points, he showed versatile ball handling and passing, creating space on the perimeter and taking four of his ten shots from beyond the arc.

“I’m one of his best friends, and it’s great for me to see him out there,” Casey said. “It’s great for him to be playing well, he just brings us great energy off the bench. He brings it every day in practice, he pushes us, pushes the starters, pushes all his teammates, so I think he has earned it and deserved it, and it’s great to see him out there. I love it.”

MISSING PIECES

Omitted from the lineup was senior guard Brandyn Curry, who—like Casey—returned from a yearlong leave of absence this fall. Curry did not suit up and joined sophomore forwards Mike Hall and Patrick Steeves, junior forward Kenyatta Smith, and senior forward Tom Hamel on the bench. Though this year’s roster is significantly longer than last year’s, the team has already been plagued by early injuries.

Curry played almost a complete game at TD Garden on Sunday and contributed 14 points. On Tuesday night, he was sidelined with a foot injury stemming from that performance. Amaker said the injury was being treated day-to-day and that there is a possibility that Curry would return for Friday’s game against Howard.

“Yesterday he was hobbling so we weren’t thinking today would be an opportunity for him to play,” Amaker said. “Honestly he was walking a lot better today than he was yesterday. One of the good signs was that our medical staff didn’t have to put him in a boot.”

—Staff writer Hope Schwartz can be reached at hschwartz@live.com. Follow her on Twiter @HopeSchwartz16.