Men’s Basketball Ties Program Record in Opening Game Rout of MIT

Harvard men’s basketball crushed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 84-27 in its season opener Tuesday night, a margin of victory that tied a program record set in 1946 against Northeastern. Freshman guard Idan Tretout’s layup with four seconds left matched the 57-point record, serving as the biggest moment of intrigue in the game.

Freshman forward Chris Ledlum led the Crimson with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Christian Juzang chipped in 12 points. All but one of Harvard’s 13 active players got at least a bucket.

After kicking off the 2017 and 2018 seasons with somewhat tight victories over the Engineers, it became clear early that this year’s win over the Division III program would be more comfortable for the Crimson. MIT scored its fourth point a little over a minute and a half into the game and then didn’t put points on the board again for over 12 and a half minutes as Harvard strung together a 21-0 run to take a 25-4 lead.

It was not the Crimson’s only big run of the game. After MIT scored the opening points of the second half to cut Harvard’s lead to 33-12, the Crimson ripped off a 20-0 run, this one over a span of just six minutes as the offense started to roll. After a mistake-riddled first half in which Harvard shot just 41% from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times, the team cleaned up its offense in the second stanza, shooting 71% from the floor and outscoring the Engineers 51-17.

“I thought we were able to get to the basket a little bit more in the second half,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “I thought we wore them down. Maybe things became a little less of a challenge for us in the second half. We put a lot of pressure in them and a younger team and so I thought that [there were] breakdowns by their team, but we took advantage of it which is what we’re supposed to do.”

The Crimson held an opposing team under 40 points for the first time since it defeated MIT 59-39 in 2015. MIT, which graduated its top three scorers from last season, started just one player who averaged more than four points per game last season, and the inexperience showed on Tuesday. The Engineers turned the ball over 29 times, and while some of those giveaways were the result of good defensive plays, especially from senior forward Rob Baker who notched three steals and four emphatic blocks, many others were of the self-inflicted variety.

“I know it’s an exhibition game, but, you know, we were taking this very, very seriously,” Juzang said. “Obviously we talked a lot about how this could be a very special year so we’re kind of approaching everything in that manner, regardless of who we’re playing.”

Harvard cruised without the services of four regular members of its rotation, including star seniors Seth Towns and Bryce Aiken, who are the best bets to lead the team in scoring this season. Aiken is day-to-day, while Towns is still recovering from a knee injury suffered in the 2018 Ivy League Tournament final and his projected timetable for return is uncertain.

The blowout allowed Amaker to distribute playing time fairly evenly up and down the roster. All 13 Crimson players played between six and 24 minutes, as Amaker was able to play exclusively freshmen for the game’s final six minutes.

“I was happy that we were able to do that,” Amaker said. “I thought that they did a nice job of playing defense without fouling for the most part and being unselfish on the offensive end and doing what they’re supposed to do and not look at it as a — whatever the lead was and we should play a certain way now. A huge sign of maturity when you have players that will do that.”

Freshman forward Tim Kostolansky led the way for MIT with eight points and seven rebounds off the bench, as nobody else scored more than five points for the Engineers, who shot 1-of-14 from beyond the arc and 4-of-12 from the free throw line.

Harvard will return to action Friday night when it faces Northeastern in what should be a much more competitive game.

The Huskies defeated the Crimson 81-71 last season and are coming off a season-opening victory at Boston University. Northeastern’s star senior guard Jordan Roland, who came off the bench to score 35 points against Harvard last season, put up 39 against the Terriers on Tuesday night and will look to continue his dominant play against the Crimson.

—Staff writer Lev Cohen can be reached at lev.cohen@thecrimson.com.