NOTEBOOK: Edosomwan Shines in Victory Over Brown

Offense was hard to come by in the Harvard men’s basketball team’s 52-45 win over Brown on Friday night. The Crimson’s usual sources of scoring were not delivering—junior guard Wesley Saunders finished 2-for-13 from the field, and sophomore guard Siyani Chambers took six shots and finished with four points. Stepping into the void was freshman forward Zena Edosomwan, whose contributions on the night illuminated both how far he had come since the beginning of the season and how much could be in store for his Harvard career.

Edosomwan had what was probably his best game in a Harvard uniform, scoring 12 points and grabbing five rebounds, four of which came on the offensive glass. It was the type of performance many expected from Edosomwan, the most highly-regarded recruit in program history, coming into the season, and one which was made all the sweeter by the extra effort he put in to adapt himself to the college game.

“Sometimes you think you are doing your best, and that’s not the case,” Edosomwan said. “Learning that, it’s frustrating at times, but the coaches are great, and my teammates were great at communicating. They never left me in the background, they were always communicating. The coaches were telling me two months ago that you never know when the moment will come.”

In discussing his transition to college basketball from his post-graduate year at Northfield Mount Herman, Edosomwan pointed out that he was accustomed to the size of his new peers, but not their physicality. He described his realization that, at the collegiate level, “you have to outwork people.” As a result, Edosomwan put in significant time during winter break to develop his game and earn the playing time that had, to that point, not been forthcoming.

“[Edosomwan]’s just been in the gym, before and after practices,” Saunders said. “Every time I walk in here, he’s always in the gym, shooting, working on jump hooks, free throws, everything.”

His commitment to work showed against one of the Ivy League’s most formidable frontcourts, with the Bears boasting the conference’s leading shot blocker in Cedric Kuakumensah and second-leading rebounder in Rafael Maia. Edosomwan more than held his own against the pair, battling them for rebounds in the post and points in the paint.

“They are not going to let me have it easy,” Edosomwan said. “These guys are really strong, so I told myself that what you gotta do is battle back. I was happy to make some plays and do some things.”

LOCKDOWN IN LAVIETES

Though Harvard’s offense was sputtering for much of the game, the Bears had it even rougher, shooting 27.3 percent from the field. Though Brown missed its share of open shots, the Crimson’s defensive effort was excellent throughout the night, in particular on a few key possessions near the end of the game. After the Bears cut Harvard’s double-digit lead to three with 2:17 remaining, the Crimson did not allow a single point.

“I thought the difference was our ability to get the necessary stops late when they were making a push down the stretch,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “I was very pleased with how, most of the time if you aren’t scoring well, you can kind of give in defensively, and we did not.”

Brown guard Sean McGonagill, who came into the game as the Ivy League’s leading scorer, was held to eight points on 2-for-11 shooting. Late in the game, McGonagill was hounded by Saunders, who forced the Brown star into a key travel with 1:06 left.

Harvard’s interior defense, led by senior Kyle Casey and junior Steve Moundou-Missi, mostly shut down Kuakumensah and Maia, holding them to a combined six points on 3-for-14 from the field.

SIYANI STRUGGLES

After scoring six points last Saturday against Penn, Chambers managed four points against the Bears and appeared to pass up a number of good looks at the basket.

For the season, Chambers’ offensive numbers are slightly below those of his All-Ivy freshman year. He is averaging 1.3 fewer points per game and shooting 37.6 percent from the field, as compared to his 43.4 percent mark a year ago.

“I think [Chambers] took some hurried ones in the first half, and I said something about it,” Amaker said. “I also mentioned that he shied completely away from it, and that is not what I want. I want to make sure he’s clear that we need him to be offensively aggressive, but he’s got to do a better job of picking his spots."

—Staff writer Andrew Mooney can be reached at mooney@college.harvard.edu.