Second Half Comeback Not Enough As Men's Basketball Falls to Columbia

Freshman guard Bryce Aiken, shown in previous action against Dartmouth, was a key piece to the Crimson's second half comeback Friday night against Cornell. By Megan M. Ross

NEW YORK—For a few minutes, it looked like the Harvard men’s basketball team was going to do it again. Just 24 hours after overcoming a double-digit deficit to beat Cornell, the Crimson was down three with seconds to go.

In a season that has been defined by freshmen, it was senior co-captain Siyani Chambers’ turn to play the hero as he stepped up for a three just left of center. The comeback, however, would fall short, as Chambers’ shot clanked off the rim as the buzzer sounded and the near-capacity crowd rose to its feet.

Despite clawing back from a 19-point deficit, the Crimson (11-6, 3-1 Ivy League) dropped its first conference game of the season to Columbia (9-8, 3-1), 65-62.

“We never have doubt in ourselves that we can’t come back in a game,” sophomore guard Corey Johnson said. “Any type of lead we can surmount. We’ve had that mindset throughout.”

If Harvard had won the game, Johnson would have been the one carried out of the gym on his teammates’ shoulders. When Harvard found itself in a seemingly inescapable hole, it was Johnson who brought the team back within striking distance.

Johnson would hit seven threes on the night for a total of 21 points, but the two biggest came when the clock dropped below three minutes in the second frame. With 2:44 remaining, freshman guard Bryce Aiken found Johnson, who used his quick release to get his shot over the hands of the Lions defender. The make pulled Harvard within three, with the score at 62-59. While Columbia’s Mike Smith would respond on the next possession with a layup, Johnson quieted the crowd on a quick three the next time down the floor.

From there, Amaker called a timeout. While the momentum was on his team’s side, the coach wanted to make sure his team got the next stop. Coming out of the timeout, the team had one job—prevent the backdoor cut. Columbia—and Cornell on Friday night—had burned the Crimson with cuts into the paint all night, and Amaker wanted to make sure that didn’t happen in this case.

While the strategy was correct, the execution was flawed. The Lions went right back to the backdoor cut, but Harvard was unable to get the stop. Instead, freshman Seth Towns picked up his fourth foul of the night and sent Columbia to the line.

“No back doors and they come out and get a backdoor,” Amaker said. “Really we’re trying to guard against that.”

Towns was also a main contributor to the comeback, earning his first career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Towns excelled in taking advantage of the long jumper, finding space in between the defenders who were guarding the three-point shot and the post players preventing the layup. However, the rookie struggled to stretch his shot. While he has shot 37.7 percent from deep on the season, he went 0-for-6 from behind the arc Saturday night.

Harvard outscored Columbia 36-24 in the second frame, but the hole the team dug itself in the first half was too deep to overcome. The Lions shot a blistering 58 percent from three-point range in the first half while Harvard shot a measly 3-of-16 from deep, sending the teams into the locker room with the home team up 15 points.

Not only was Columbia winning the perimeter game, it was winning in the paint as well. A combination of backdoor cuts and effective post play from the Lions’ frontcourt allowed them to outscore the Crimson 16-6 from inside in the first half alone. Harvard freshman Chris Lewis managed only 15 minutes of action as he battled foul trouble early on.

Senior Zena Edosomwan was a bright spot in the game and was a presence in the paint on offense and defense, but as Amaker noted after the game, “we just didn’t have enough”.

“We were waiting until we were down and we’re fighting and scrapping and clawing like we did,” Amaker added. “When we don’t start that way, we get a 15-point deficit at halftime, it’s hard to dig these things out against good teams out the road.”