Men's Basketball Dominates Penn, 80-50

After a tense six-point victory against rival Princeton on Friday, there was little drama in the Harvard men’s basketball team’s 80-50 victory over Penn (4-13, 1-2 Ivy) on Saturday night. Harvard (17-3, 4-0) was down by one after ten minutes of play but up by 21 at halftime. The margin never dropped below 20 the rest of the way, growing to 32 late in the second half. The 30-point victory was the largest win over Penn in Harvard history.

“The big sell here was to come and do things that haven’t been done [in Harvard history],” senior forward Kyle Casey said. “It’s hard to think of things that haven’t been done before at Harvard.”

For the second straight night, co-captain Laurent Rivard registered a season high, leading all scorers with 22 points. The senior, whose green light to shoot is brighter than any Nick Carraway ever saw, at one point hit three straight threes in a 56-second span.

“He had a hell of a night,” Casey said. “They kept losing him and we kept finding him.… On any given night, anyone [on this team] can explode. It was definitely his night.”

As a group, the three seniors in the rotation—Rivard, fellow co-captain Brandyn Curry, and Casey—had 46 points and shot 11-of-14 from behind the arc. The Crimson did not score a two-point basket for the first 16 minutes of the second half, earning its first 30 points of the period on threes or free throws. The team made 12 treys and 26 free throws on the night—both season highs.

“Being seniors, sometimes I don’t give those guys enough [credit] because you expect certain things out of them,” Amaker said. “I am very pleased with their production and how they are leading our team.”

On the defensive end, the Crimson held the Quakers to their lowest scoring output of the season. Penn shot just 41 percent from the field, missing its final six three-pointers after senior Miles Cartwright made one with 18:49 left in the first half.

“We have preached and talked about [defense] since day one,” Amaker said. “This has not been one year, two years in the making. It has been seven years that it has been the staple of our program. We think it is the best way to build teamwork and camaraderie…all the components that you need to build a first-rate program."

For the first nine minutes of the game, Harvard was unable to summon the intensity of the previous evening. The Quakers made six of its first 11 shots from the floor en route to an 18-15 lead, looking more like the team that took down Princeton at home than the one which lost to 7-14 George Mason.

Then one side of the scoreboard stopped working.

A Saunders reverse layup in the lane was the first of 11 consecutive Harvard points. The 11-0 run quickly became a 19-2 run, and by halftime the Crimson had scored 29 of the final 34 points. Rivard, who hit two threes and was fouled on another, scored nine points in the spurt.

Harvard clamped down on the defensive end during the run, forcing turnovers on three of five possessions after Saunders’ jumper. The Quakers made just four of their final 16 field goals of the period, missing all three three-pointers attempted.

Penn coach Jerome Allen’s game plan was evident early. The Quakers began the game by feeding the ball relentlessly to sophomore center Darien Nelson-Henry. With Harvard’s frontcourt weakened by the injuries to juniors Kenyatta Smith (foot) and Jonah Travis (concussion), Nelson-Henry made four early field goals before picking up his second foul.

“He’s a big boy,” Casey said. “He got us a few times on the angle post-up and when he rides you up the lane, it is hard to help [and] hard to guard.”

Without Smith, who guarded Nelson-Henry when the teams played last year, Amaker turned to freshman Zena Edosomwan. Edosomwan, who had 11 points and a career-high nine rebounds a week ago against Florida Atlantic, had 10 points in his 12 minutes on the floor.

“You can see him growing,” Amaker said. “We have seen flashes, a little bit here and there. He has been practicing well and it is nice to see that translate into minutes and production for him on the court. Now he can go back and recognize the work is paying off.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twtter at @CrimsonDPFreed.