Men's Basketball Drops Shanghai Opener to Stanford, 80-70

SHANGHAI, China—Stanford forward Reid Travis had not played a game since December 15 of last year, but the junior made up for lost time by leading the Cardinal to an 80-70 victory over Harvard in the second annual Pac-12 China Game. Before a crowd of 7,196 that included Yao Ming, Bill Walton, Jason Collins, and Jimmer Fredette, Travis stole the show, leading all players with 24 points and 17 rebounds in what was the regular season opener for both teams as the Cardinal claimed a 80-70 victory over the Crimson.

“I could barely sleep last night,” Travis said. “It’s been a long process, a long summer, a long preseason just staying healthy and getting healthy again. It’s just a blessing to be able to do what I love again and it’s great that we could cap it off with a win.”

After allowing two easy buckets to Stanford inside to begin the game, the Crimson made it a priority to deny Stanford’s big men the ball. As shots by guards from both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net in the game’s opening minutes, Harvard freshman forward Chris Lewis brought the Shanghai crowd to its feet with two blocks on one possession before converting a layup on the offensive end.

The Crimson’s prevent half-court defense worked for most of the first half as the Cardinal went only 9-for-25 from the field and had 18 of its 30 points before intermission come via the fast break or the charity stripe. For the game, Haase’s team went 29-of-43 from the free-throw line.

“Harvard does a great job of denying passes, applying pressure, making it difficult to get entries on offense, and we did struggle with that, especially in the first half,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. “We handled it a little bit better in the second half, got more assists in the second half, got the ball inside more in the second half, and that proved to be a big difference.”

Stanford for its part came out in zone defense and forced Harvard’s backline into long jumpers. Senior center Zena Edosomwan struggled to pass out of double teams and finished with just three points in eight minutes.

The Crimson’s relied on unlikely zone busters on Saturday. Freshman forward Henry Welsh found holes in the Cardinal defense in the first half, registering seven points before the break while classmate Bryce Aiken carried the torch in the second. The silky point guard had Stanford counterpart Robert Cartwright on a string at times, penetrating the defense and drawing contact in the lane or connecting on long jumpers. Aiken had 15 second half points, including eight free throws and a three-pointer.

Welsh and Aiken were not the only first-years to get in on the action. In addition to his two blocks, Lewis recorded four points and two rebounds in 10 minutes. Seth Towns and Christian Juzang struggled to find their rhythms on the offensive end but played 14 minutes apiece, with Towns occasionally playing as an undersized power forward in an attempt to remedy a struggling offense. Harvard went just 4-of-17 from long range on the afternoon and shot 37 percent from the field.

The fact that it was the season opener for both teams was apparent in the first half. The clubs combined for 27 fouls, with both squads being in the bonus with 9:47 still to play before intermission. Stanford’s biggest first half lead was seven, but the Crimson cut it to two when co-captain Siyani Chambers hit two free throws with three ticks remaining in the opening frame.

Halftime, which was marked by a performance from jump ropers and a Chinese rendition of Marco Polo featuring a fan and the Alibaba Group’s mascot, may have been the worst thing that happened to Harvard and its momentum. The frontcourt experiment of Edosomwan and junior Chris Egi proved fruitless for a second time and the Cardinal lead ballooned to nine before the half’s first media timeout.

After only scoring five points in the contests first 20 minutes, Travis collected eight in a 200-second span after the break. As Travis and his bulky 245-pound frame began attracting double teams, Stanford began utilizing backdoor cuts and open jumpers to keep Harvard at arm’s length.

“He’s a great player,” Lewis said of Travis. “He really knows how to use his body and is very physical. I think that’s one of the best points of his game. That really hurt me…and I’m just going to try to learn from it.”

Junior forward Michael Humphrey was the yin to Travis’ yang in the second half. The Phoenix native stretched the Crimson defense, converting jumpers in the lane and easy looks inside.

Harvard shot better down the stretch but could not string together enough stops to dig itself out of the hole. A Chambers layup with 3:57 to play cut the deficit to six, but it was the closest the Crimson would get.

“We couldn’t keep them off the foul line and we were just not as disciplined as we need to be for stretches,” Harvard coach Amaker said. “At times we kind of put ourselves in a position where we couldn’t allow ourselves to get on any kind of run because we couldn’t play without fouling.”

Travis and Humphrey allowed the Cardinal to only need one three-pointer on the afternoon to pull out the victory. All told, the 40 points in the paint, 29 free throw makes, and 14 fast break points from the game’s home team proved too much for the Crimson to overcome.

With the result no longer in question, the Harvard bench collectively held its breath when Chambers hit the deck hard going up for a layup in the game’s final minute. Guards Aiken and Corey Johnson had been slow to get up earlier in the afternoon following hard fouls in what was a very physical contest. Chambers, the quarterback for the Crimson on both ends of the floor, was a bright spot for Harvard on Saturday.

He finished with 12 points and four assists over 28 minutes in his first meaningful game action in nearly 20 months. Chambers missed all of last season with a torn ACL and remained on the hardwood following the fall. After trainers and Amaker came over, the senior clutched his knee but was able to walk off the court on his own power.

—Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.