Men's Basketball Moves to .500 With Victory Over Ryerson

Behind 18 points from junior guard Corbin Miller, the Harvard men’s basketball team took down Ryerson (4-2), 73-57, to close out a five-game homestand.

However, despite the double-digit victory and the Crimson (8-8, 1-0 Ivy) reaching .500 for the first time since the opening weekend, Harvard coach Tommy Amaker was not content.

The key to the game was Harvard’s power in the paint, as the Crimson outrebounded the Rams 58-32. But, as Amaker said afterward, this statistic shouldn’t stand out because of Harvard’s size advantage and the scenarios in which the rebounds were coming. With every positive statistic, Amaker held back from praise because of the room for improvement he saw in his team as it nears the end of nonconference play.

“We chased [rebounds] down which was awesome,” Amaker said. “I thought that as impressive as the 58 total was getting the 23 offensive rebounds, guys going to the glass, [but] another factor with that is that we didn’t shoot as well.”

Ryerson typically relies on throwing up threes at a high rate, and the Rams continued that style of play with little success against the Crimson. Ryerson attempted 37 threes, three more than the team’s average of 34 attempts per game, but only converted nine of its attempts.

Meanwhile for Harvard, it was success behind the arc that created the initial separation. With the Crimson up just one with 12:41 to go in the first half, Miller stood at the top of the arc looking for a pass. Junior forward Zena Edosomwan came forward and set a pick for Miller, who stepped left a drilled an open three to widen the lead to four.

“The big wasn’t hedging on that ball screen,” Miller said. “He’s down below giving me space to shoot, so I figured I had to take it.”

Just over four minutes later, after Ryerson pulled back within three on a dunk by Jean-Victor Mukama, Lavietes Pavilion experienced deja vu as Miller and Edosomwan executed an identical play to stretch the lead to six. Though the lead would drop back down to three after a trey from Roshane Roberts, Miller’s hot hand gave the Crimson a jolt that allowed his team to create separation with the Rams.

While the scoring became more balanced as the game went on, with Edosomwan scoring 10 of his 11 points in the second half, it was Miller once again who gave Harvard its biggest lead of the game when he hit his sixth three-pointer of the night, stretching the advantage to 20. The shot notched Miller’s name in the record books, leaving him ninth in program history with 128 made three-pointers.

Miller’s six threes came on a night when the rest of the team struggled to convert from behind the arc, as the team went 7-for-22 overall from deep. The most notable struggles came from freshman guard Corey Johnson, who failed to hit a three for the first time in his rookie campaign. This was the first time all season that Miller was the sole-leader in scoring. Overall, Harvard has had seven different players lead the team in scoring, which the team sees as a strength going into Ivy play.

“It definitely helps us, it’s nice to know that we have guys that can score, that can pick us up, not that we’re depending on one guy,” Miller said. “It makes us dangerous ...Having guys that can step up and make shots, it gives all of us confidence knowing that if one guy is off other guys can step up and are ready to play.”

With the game all but over, Amaker went to the bench in the waning minutes of the contest, with every healthy player seeing game action. While the bench contributed 40 of Harvard’s 73 points, perhaps none garnered a louder reaction from the bench than the last basket for the Crimson–a nothing-but-net three from freshman forward Balsa Dragovic.

At 6’10’’, many of the fans had a look of surprise when the big man hit one from behind the arc, but that wasn’t the case for Harvard. While the bench went crazy, the team knew that Dragovic had that weapon in his pocket.

“One of his weapons is to be a guy with size who can step away and make a shot and i was really pleased and happy for him,” Amaker said.

-Staff Writer Theresa Hebert can be reached at theresa.hebert@thecrimson.com.