Harvard Suffers Postseason Heartbreak Deja Vu Against Brown, 59-52

The Harvard men's basketball team (10-15, 5-7 Ivy) fell to Brown (14-11, 6-6 Ivy) on Friday 59-52, in a loss which makes postseason qualification a challenging prospect for the Crimson.

When Harvard took the court at Lavities Friday night, the team’s hopes were high following last weekend’s gritty overtime win against Penn that had kept Ivy Madness tantalizingly within reach.

Entering this weekend, only two games separated fifth place Harvard from second place Dartmouth in the Ivy League standings. With five teams fighting tooth and nail for three remaining Ivy League tournament spots, every game carries huge postseason implications.

Last season, the Crimson found themselves in a similar position, tied with Brown for the fourth and final Ivy Madness spot, and facing a tough road contest in Providence to remain in control of its own fate. In that game, Harvard fought back from 17 points down to force overtime in front of a packed crowd of 1,700 fans, only to eventually fall to a late three-point dagger that all but ended the Crimson’s postseason hopes.

This time around, it was Harvard’s turn for the home advantage against Brown. But once again, the Bears came out on top — triumphing and dashing nearly all remaining hope for the tournament.

“That was a tough one tonight, but I’m not sure that we deserved it,” said head coach Tommy Amaker after the loss. “You’ve got to deserve it. Credit Brown for coming back from being down, clawing back, and being tougher on the glass. Our inability to finish the ball and turnovers hurt us, maybe we were tight. You’ve got to deserve it, and we didn’t. Hats off to them. It was a gutsy win by their team.”

With the loss Harvard is now in sixth place, one game behind Brown, Princeton, and Cornell, the latter of which play later tonight, and two games behind second place Dartmouth. While finishing fourth is still possible, Harvard will most likely need to beat undefeated Yale, who is on the longest winning streak in the nation, and then Dartmouth next weekend, while hoping that some other results fall its way.

The game started off with a physical intensity that did not relinquish until the final buzzer 40 minutes later. With players diving for loose balls, and flying towards the glass for rebounds, it was clear that both sides knew the implications of the game.

The Bears roared out to a 13-5 lead, but a pair of buckets from freshman guards Austin Hunt and Tey Barbour, a steal from junior captain Chandler Piggé, and a three from senior guard Louis Lesmond, quickly made it a tie game, 14-14.

Gaining some momentum, Harvard built off of a tough three-point play from Piggé with another pair of three pointers from Barbour and sophomore forward Thomas Batties II, giving the Crimson its first clear lead of the game, 27-22. Six more points for Harvard from a balanced scoring cast of Hunt, Batties, and Piggé made the lead nine, before a Brown three cut the lead to six going into halftime, 33-27.

The Crimson shot 5-9 from three point range in the first half, and limited the Bears to 2-11 from beyond the arc, but were outscored in the paint 18-10, in a foreshadowing of the second half.

Opening the second period, Harvard was able to maintain its lead, going up by as much as ten, as it traded difficult buckets. With 11:07 to play, however, Brown capitalized on a lull in the Crimson’s scoring, slashing the lead to an uncomfortable five points.

After forcing senior captain Evan Nelson into a late shock clock heave from well beyond the arc, Brown snagged an offensive board, cashing it in to cut the lead to three. Harvard’s offense then came up empty again, and two possessions later another dominant offensive rebound from the Bears gave Brown the lead back, 45-44, with 7:50 to play.

The next six minutes were a tense affair, with the Crimson keeping it a one-possession game, but unable to regain its lead or put together a consistent string of scoring.

Harvard’s offensive stars, who have been hot on scoring the past four games, never truly came alive, with no player exceeding ten points for the Crimson.

With 1:40 on the clock, Harvard committed a foul on the floor — the team’s seventh — sending the Bears to the free throw line for a one-and-one. They confidently converted for two-points in front of a jubilant away section, which made the trip up to Cambridge from nearby Providence.

Freshman guard Robert Hinton and Piggé pulled the Crimson back within three twice in the final minute and thirty seconds, with a couple of quick two point shots. After finally coming up with a defensive stop, Hinton had the potential to tie the game on a pull-up three pointer, but it clanked off the rim.

Forced to foul with 25 seconds left to play, Brown sank all of its free throws in the clutch and left Lavities with the advantage in the postseason race.

All in all, the Bears outscored Harvard 42-24 in the paint, a difference that proved too much to overcome despite the Crimson’s solid three point shooting.

Harvard will play in a must-win game tomorrow night against undefeated Yale, who are two games away from becoming the 15th team to ever go unbeaten in an Ivy League season. The Crimson will then finish the season against Dartmouth next Saturday.

– Staff Writer Alexander K. Bell can be reached at alexander.bell@thecrimson.com.