Notebook: Strong Offense, Weak Defense Not Enough as Harvard Falls to Vermont

After an unbeaten month of December, the Harvard men’s basketball team was on the losing side of a high-scoring affair against Vermont Tuesday night. While five Crimson players—including four freshmen—scored in double-digits, it wasn’t enough to overcome the Catamounts as the team fell, 82-71.

“I thought their team was poised and was balanced when we made runs at them,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “We didn’t have enough to push it through when we had opportunities.”

BYE BYE BRYCE

Freshman Bryce Aiken has been an unstoppable offensive force through the past few games for the Crimson (6-5) and has led the team in scoring, averaging over 20 points through the last three games coming into Tuesday night. Scoring on a mix of acrobatic drives to the basket and long-range triples, Amaker has described Aiken as a “shooting guard who can also play the point”, giving him the versatility to play in many different lineups.

Against Vermont (10-5), Aiken came out hot and appeared to be on pace to soar past his personal-best 23 points that the rookie tallied against Howard on Dec. 30. The New Jersey native went to the locker room at the end of the first half with 14 points off 6-of-6 shooting in 16 minutes on the floor.

In the second frame however, Aiken was limited to 10 minutes as he got himself in foul trouble and couldn’t stay in the game. Entering the game in the second half with 15:57 to go, it took less than a minute of play for Aiken to tally a personal foul, his second of the game. The next foul came less than 30 seconds later and forced Amaker to call a timeout to settle his team. After playing clean for the next four minutes, Aiken picked up a fourth with still over 10 minutes to go and went to the bench for over five minutes, over the course of which Vermont would maintain a double-digit lead.

Aiken would be the team’s leading scorer, finishing with 16 points on a last second layup to close out the game, but his absence during key second half minutes would leave the Crimson in a rut it couldn’t escape.

A bright spot, however, was in the rest of the team’s ability to create offense outside of Aiken. Harvard finished with five players in double figures—freshmen Seth Towns, Chris Lewis, and Justin Bassey, along with senior co-captain Siyani Chambers—all had 10-plus on the night.

MISSING DEFENSE

While the Crimson found ways to score on the Catamounts, the team was unable to get stops on the other end of the floor. Vermont topped 50 percent in field goal percentage, with most of its dominance coming in the paint. The home team had 44 of 82 total points from the paint, and only had eight attempts (and four makes) from beyond the arc in the contest.

Amaker typically calls defense the most important part of his teams’ resume, but this season has not lived up to the defensive prowess of past Crimson squads. Much of the regression has been a result of the team’s youth. Though many of Harvard’s young players have been key offensive contributors through the nonconference portion of the season, they have left something to be desired on the defensive end.

“You can see the guys making some of those mistakes were youth, so hopefully some experience will help them,” Amaker said.

One of the causes of his team’s defensive struggles, according to Amaker, is the team’s inability to play without fouling. Vermont went to the foul line 23 times compared to just 12 attempts for the Crimson.

Harvard also struggled on the boards Tuesday, allowing Vermont to get its hands on 15 offensive rebounds, nearly 50 percent of available rebounds as Harvard had only 16 defensive rebounds as a team.

“We need to do a better job of keeping people off the backboard, keeping the guards in front, eliminating penetration,” Amaker said.

The loss comes just a few days before the Crimson kicks off Ivy League play against Dartmouth on Jan. 7. The Big Green has had the lowest scoring offense so far this season of the Ancient Eight teams with 66.8 points per game, while giving up just under 74 points per game to opponents.

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