NOTEBOOK: Men's Basketball Overcomes Slow Start on Senior Night

For the opening spurt of its game against Cornell (2-23, 1-10 Ivy), the Harvard men’s basketball team (23-4, 10-1) played like the last—not first—place team. Four and a half minutes in, a layup by Cornell freshman Darryl Smith put the visitors up 4-0. To that point, the Crimson had two turnovers and five missed shots.

But Harvard quickly restored order—in the next 15 minutes, it would miss just five more times. The Crimson scored on three of its next four trips down the court to take a 7-6 lead with 12 minutes to go in the half.

And once Harvard had found its form, it didn’t lose it again, eventually coming away with a 72-47 victory. The Crimson scored 23 of the next 24 points coming out of the under-12 minute media timeout, taking a 16-point lead into halftime.

For the game, it finished 51 percent from the field, 44 percent from three, and 86 percent from the line—excellent marks on par with those of NBA leading scorer Kevin Durant’s season-long 51-40-88 shooting splits.

“We were efficient on the offensive end, how we shot the ball, how we moved it,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said.

The Big Red cut the lead to 11 four minutes into the second half, but Harvard responded with another run. The Crimson scored eight straight and pushed its lead to 20 with nine minutes to go.

Nine different Harvard players logged double-digit minutes and 10 had a basket as the Crimson dominated on both ends, holding Cornell to 39 percent shooting from the field.

“I thought our defense was outstanding throughout, especially in the first half,” Amaker said. “There [were] a lot of positive things for our group.”

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

At the start of the game, Amaker continued an annual Senior Night tradition, starting all his seniors. He started seniors Kyle Casey and Dee Giger and co-captains Laurent Rivard and Brandyn Curry alongside sophomore point guard Siyani Chambers. It was the first time the five had ever seen the court together.

The early returns were less than impressive.

Although the unit excelled on the defensive end, holding Cornell to just one fast-break layup, it struggled to score. In four minutes, Harvard missed all five shots it took from the floor.

“They knew that we were going to start our seniors, and I don’t know it that played a role with Dee and Brandyn being out there for that moment,” Amaker said. “Those things happen.”

It wasn’t until junior Wesley Saunders replaced Giger that the offense got going. On his second play, Saunders dished to Chambers for a three-pointer to bring Harvard within one. By the time that Saunders left the court, 13 minutes later, Harvard had taken a 30-13 advantage.

The large graduating class—if not for an injured Tom Hamel, Amaker would have had an entire starting senior unit—was a 180 degree change from last year, where now-assistant coach Christian Webster ’13 was the only graduate honored.

THREE-TWO, DEE-TWO

Coming in as a starter, Giger acted the part. As the team’s nominal small forward alongside Rivard and Casey in the frontcourt, Giger provided an unusual starting lineup with a bit of floor spacing. In his five minutes on the floor, Giger took two shots from behind the arc.

“For Dee to get a start…. I am very happy about that,” Amaker said. “We were able to have a nice moment, for all the seniors but also for Dee in particular.”

Both times Giger got off a good look, but was unable to knock it down. After the game, Amaker said that he was happy to see the senior—who has now made only one of nine threes on the season—take the shots.

“He was open [and] he’s a shooter,” Amaker said. “I thought he was going to make them.”

Although Giger sat for the next 34 minutes, he took the court one last time late in the second half. He played just a minute more before spending the last 85 seconds on the bench.

“It was good to see those guys out there and able to partake in a moment like that,” Amaker said. “Having done it myself, you remember that for a long time—for a lifetime.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com.