Men's Basketball Sweeps Weekend; Runs Past Brown, 81-67
Pictured: Kyle Casey was 8-of-9 from the floor for 27 points Saturday night.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Harvard
men’s basketball team tied a program record for road wins in
a season as the Crimson handled Brown University, 81-67, Saturday
night at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
The notables keep coming for Tommy Amaker’s Crimson –
as the team swept an Ivy League road weekend for the first time
since 1999-2000 and took its first Yale-Brown road weekend since
1998-99.
Harvard (17-5, 6-2 Ivy) also tied the second-best mark in
program history for season wins. Brown sees its record dip to 8-17
overall and 2-6 in the Ivy League.
Harvard will host Cornell (21-4, 7-1 Ivy) and Columbia (9-13, 3-5
Ivy) next Friday and Saturday night. The Cornell game is sold out
while select tickets remain for Columbia.
It was a career-high for Harvard’s youngsters as Kyle Casey
tied his best scoring effort of the year with 27 points while
Christian Webster set a new high with 16 points.
Casey was electric, shooting 8-for-9 from the floor, 3-of-3 from
deep and 8-of-9 from the free throw line while adding nine rebounds
in 32 minutes. Webster was impressive in 23 minutes off the bench
with 6-of-10 shooting (3-6 3-point) and a big traditional 3-point
play as Harvard came back from a second half deficit to take
control. Harvard has come from behind to win 14 times this
season.
Trailing by three at the break, Brown scored seven straight to
start the second half in claiming a six-point lead but a 3-point
play from Webster and a crisp baseline reverse stick by Jeremy Lin
made it 57-49 in favor of Harvard at the 11:12. At that point, the
Crimson would pull away in an impressive performance.
While the freshmen scored, the play of co-captain Doug Miller was
perhaps the most notable effort of the night as the Winchester,
Mass. native scored 12 points (6-11 FG) and held Brown star Matt
Mullery to just seven points and five rebounds.
Harvard shot 53 percent for the game, marking the 10th time this
year it has made more than half its shots in a game. The team is
10-0 in those games. Harvard was also 16-of-18 from the free throw
line. Lin finished with seven assists on the night and Harvard
again had more assists than turnovers (14-11).
Harvard, with a depleted backcourt, outrebounded Brown 36-19 for
the game and outscored the Bears in the paint, 36-20. Brandyn Curry
helped the scoring effort with eight points as the freshmen
combined for 51 points – the groups second straight 50+-point
outburst.
The first half started without much energy but Harvard was hot
from the outset, making 10-of-16 to start. Brown also connected at
a high rate (7-14 FG to start) and was aided by a 9-of-12 free
throw mark. Harvard grabbed a 29-24 lead at the 5:33 mark on a
triple from Webster while Brown used an 11-4 run to claim a 35-33
lead on a triple from Peter Sullivan at the 2:30 mark.
The first 20 turned into a fast-pace event – more in
Harvard’s favor – and there was not media timeout under
four minutes because of a lack of clock stoppages. Harvard used a
timeout to get a brief rest around the two-minute mark and it paid
off as Webster hit another triple and the Crimson went into the
break leading 38-35. The lead came in spite of foul trouble to Lin,
who played just nine minutes and did not attempt a shot.
