Men's Basketball Closes 2015 With Victory Over Wofford

In its first game at Lavietes Pavilion since Nov. 25, the Harvard men’s basketball team closed out 2015 with a 77-57 win over Wofford.

After starting December with two losses to Northeastern and Kansas, the Crimson (6-7) has gone 4-1 since Dec. 8, with the 20-point victory over Wofford (3-9) its largest margin of victory since defeating Bryant by 35 on Nov. 17.

Harvard was led by the veteran trio of junior Zena Edosomwan and seniors Evan Cummins and Patrick Steeves. Edosomwan and Cummins both had 15 points on the day while Steeves added 12 of his own. With his 15 points, Cummins set a new career high for the second time in just over a week, after improving the stat to 13 points against Auburn on Dec. 23. Overall, the Harvard offense shot 63.8 percent from the field, a season high.

“We were concerned coming off the long trip and certainly made a lot of strides in Hawaii,” Amaker said. “But coming off the trip and playing a team that’s better than their record, that has a culture of winning, we were certainly concerned and I was pleased to see the great team effort.”

The Crimson got off to a slow start, scoring just five points in the first four minutes. Edosomwan struggled out of the gate, as the Terriers muffled the Crimson’s leading scorer by sending a double-team his way any time the ball was in the junior’s hands.

Nearly 14 minutes went by before the junior made a field goal, but from that point the Terriers had few answers for Edosomwan. After sinking a layup with 6:30 to go in the first half, Edosomwan added six more points to his total in the final four minutes.

When he wasn’t scoring, the junior excelled passing the ball. The Crimson had an assist on 22 of 30 field goals, with Edosomwan leading the way with five.

“Zena is drawing so much more attention now in terms of scouting report and focal point and certainly strategy and coverages in the game while being double teamed,” Amaker said. [Edosomwan and Cummins] are really finding ways to play with each other.”

One of the keys to his success this season, according to Edosomwan, is reading what the defense is giving him. Against the Terriers, his way of responding to the double-team was to share the ball rather than powering through the Wofford frontcourt.

“Sometimes its rhythm, and also, kind of, I just read what the defense is giving me,” Edosomwan said after a loss to UMass. on Nov. 17. “So just kind of understanding who I’m playing against, understanding what the defense is giving me.”

After going to the locker room up by six, 31-25, Harvard exploded in the second half, scoring 46 points in the game’s final 20 minutes. While the offense shot well in the first half, sinking 56 percent of its field goals, the team shot at a 70 percent clip in the second frame.

The team’s three-point shooting also improved in the second, shooting 6-of-9 from behind the arc in the second frame after going 2-of-5 in the first.

Nine of Steeves’ 12 points came in the second half, while freshman guard Tommy McCarthy added eight of his own after the break. Though Cummins and Edosomwan were the team’s leading scorers, the hot shooting from deep of Steeves and McCarthy stretched the Wofford defense.

With freshman Corey Johnson and junior Corbin Miller commanding the most defensive attention behind the arc, Steeves and McCarthy took advantage—shooting a combined 60 percent from three. Johnson ranks fourth in the Ivy League in three-pointers per game and Steeves ranks second in the Ancient Eight in shooting percentage from deep at a team-high 48 percent.

McCarthy’s trey with 14:05 to go in the contest gave Harvard its first double-digit lead of the contest, with the Crimson up 44-34. Just over two minutes later a Steeves three stretched the lead to 13.

The Terriers would never pull closer than 10 for the rest of the afternoon. The sizable lead for the Crimson gave Amaker a chance to lengthen his bench, with sophomore Andre Chatfield returning to action after battling injury for most of the month. Sophomore Zach Yoshor also made it on to the floor as the clock wound down in the final minutes.

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at theresa.hebert@thecrimson.com.