Men's Basketball Hits Free Throws Down the Stretch, Downs Brown

Harvard forward Zena Edosomwan set the tone for his teammates on the first play of Friday night’s home contest with Brown. The junior, a 47.5 percent free throw shooter entering the contest, drained a pair at the line. Clutch free throw shooting down the stretch proved to be the difference in the 79-73 Crimson (10-13, 2-5 Ivy League) victory, the team’s first since Jan. 16.

“I thought we competed very hard,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “I thought we had great balance. I was just really happy for our team that they were happy after a game. It’s been a few moments since we’ve had that and I was really proud of them.”

Trailing by five with 1:24 to play, the Bears (7-14, 2-5) began fouling Harvard on offense, looking to extend the game for as long as possible. The strategy appeared to be a good one for Mike Martin and his team, as the Crimson entered the contest shooting 57.7 percent from the line, dead last out of the 346 NCAA Division I programs.

However, Harvard was up to the challenge on Friday. The Crimson made 13 of its final 15 free throws to bury a feisty Brown team that had cut the lead to three with 19 seconds to go. The hosts went 24-of-34 from the charity stripe on the evening.

Senior forward Agunwa Okolie led the way for Harvard, finishing with 15 points, including six free throws, to go along with 12 rebounds and six assists. It was one of the best all-around offensive games Okolie has had in his four years in Cambridge and it could not have come on a more special night for the Ajax, Ontario native.

“You can just see everything that he’s responsible for, and the six assists was just amazing,” Amaker said. “We’ve seen him do the rebounding and scoring but adding that to tonight’s performance was just terrific.”

Okolie was squaring off with his younger brother, Obi, a freshman guard for the Bears. The younger Okolie, normally a reserve for Brown, started and finished the contest with 14 points, the second-most of his college career. With family and friends in the stands, the brothers went toe-to-toe on both ends of the floor, with the younger Okolie covering Crimson’s starting small forward in the Bears’ man-to-man defense.

“You know it’s just one of those moments where it’s like a blessing,” Okolie said. “You think back that it’s great that we’re playing in the Ivy League and it’s important that its academics balancing athletics as well. It’s important to our family so it was exciting.”

While his Harvard teammates got off to a hot start, Okolie struggled from the field in the first half, going just one-of-five from the field. The Crimson jumped out to a six-point lead but a 23-12 Brown run to end the half gave the visitors a lead entering the intermission.

A balanced offensive attack gave the Crimson the lead after the break. Five Harvard players finished in double figures in the contest, including junior guard Corbin Miller, whose 15 points earned him his first double-digit scoring performance since Jan. 23.

With Edosomwan on the floor for just 18 minutes due to a small Brown lineup and lingering effects from a thigh injury, freshman guard Corey Johnson provided a much-needed punch on offense. The Ottawa native made four three-pointers, including three in the second half.

Brown was led by point guard Tavon Blackmon, who finished with 19 points and six assists. The junior was a matchup problem for the Crimson all night and kept the Bears in the contest down the stretch, posting five points and two assists in the game’s final 49 seconds.

“He’s almost impossible to stay in front of,” Amaker said. “We did a poor job toward the end of the game and we just fouled him a number of times reaching for the ball and it just shouldn’t have happened, but he’s so hard to guard, because he’s so quick and fast.”

Harvard stuck with a consistent lineup down the stretch once Brown began employing its fouling tactics. After senior forward Evan Cummins fouled out with 2:34 to play, Amaker rode the experience of Okolie, Miller, and senior forward Patrick Steeves to deliver the win. Steeves made three of his four second half free throws after leading the Crimson with nine first half points.

“Pat is very versatile, handling the ball, inbounding the ball for us, making free throws, making plays off the dribble,” Amaker said. “That’s what we really need him to do, not just for himself, but finding other people when he does drive it.”

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