Harvard Pulls Away in OT to Top Tigers, 72-66

Friday, February 23

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

11-15, 3-8Ivy

Harvard

15-11, 10-1Ivy

OT 1

Harvard

Princeton

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

February 23, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Despite a career-high 33 points from junior Myles Stephens, Princeton fell 72-66 to Ivy co-leader Harvard in overtime Friday night in Jadwin Gym.

The loss hurts Princeton's Ivy League Tournament hopes, as behind Harvard and Penn atop the league at 10-1, Yale stayed in third at 6-5 and Columbia moved into the fourth and final spot with three games to play at 5-6. Cornell and Brown are a game back of that at 4-7 while the Tigers fell two games behind the Lions at 3-8.

The Tigers led by as many as 10 points at 41-34 with 15-plus minutes to go in the game and still led by seven at 53-46 with six minutes to go, but a 6-0 Crimson run pulled the visitors within one and the spread was never more than three points the rest of regulation. Princeton's last lead came at 60-58 on an Amir Bell bucket with 2:32 to go, and after Seth Towns tied it for Harvard with 87 seconds left, a Tiger turnover and a Harvard shot clock violation filled out the end of regulation as the teams entered the extra period tied 60-60.

From there, the Crimson took control, going on an 8-0 run to break a 62-62 tie and keep Princeton off the board for three minutes. During that pivotal stretch, the Tigers went 0-4 from the stripe and missed both their field goal tries while Harvard pulled away. Still, Princeton was within four points at 70-66 after a front-end 1-and-1 miss by Harvard's Rio Haskett with 1:20 left in the OT, but after a Justin Bassey miss on the Crimson's next possession, a Tiger turnover nixed the chance to make it a one-possession game inside the final minute of the extra frame before a pair of Christian Juzang free throws sealed it for Harvard.

Harvard enjoyed a 38-24 rebounding edge and had three players in double figures with Bassey leading the way with 18 points. Chris Lewis added 13 with Danilo Djuricic putting in 12. Stephens, whose previous career best was 30 earlier this season at USC, was the only Tiger in double figures while putting up the most points since Tiger radio color man Noah Savage '08 scored 35 against Brown in 2008.

Princeton shot 46.2 percent from the field, the highest percentage for a Crimson opponent this season in a game Harvard won. The Crimson were just short of that at 43.9 percent. Harvard also helped itself by going 15 of 17 from the stripe while the Tigers left some points there, going 9 of 17.

The Tigers will honor their seniors in Amir Bell, Alec Brennan, Mike LeBlanc and Aaron Young prior to Saturday's 6 p.m. game against Dartmouth. Bell will enter the game 15 points short of 1,000 for his career.

Postgame Notes

• Princeton went to overtime for the fifth time this season, making it the most OTs in a season since the 1980-81 campaign. This was Princeton's first OT game against Harvard since 2008 and the first OT game against the Crimson in Jadwin since 2007.

• Princeton used its 10th starting lineup combination of the season, with freshman Sebastian Much and senior Aaron Young teaming for the first time with the trio that has started every game in senior Amir Bell and juniors Myles Stephens and Devin Cannady.