PAGE 7
THE HARVARD CRIMSON | FEBRUARY 24, 2020
SPORTS
THIS WEEKEND’S
SCORES
MEN’S BASKETBALL VS. PRINCETON W, 61-60 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S SWIMMING IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHP 2ND ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL VS. SAINT FRANCIS W, 3-2 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL VS. PRINCETON L, 45-66 ___________________________________________________________
WOMEN’S LACROSSE AT COLORADO L, 9-7 ___________________________________________________________
SOFTBALL VS. UMASS LOWELL W, 2-1 ___________________________________________________________
WRESTLING VS. BROWN L, 18-19 ___________________________________________________________
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Harvard Earns Weekend Sweep with 69-65 Win By HENRY ZHU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Trailing for much of the first half to a hungry Quakers side, the Harvard men’s basketball team rallied in a second-frame offensive flurry to complete its weekend sweep. Combined with a 2-0 weekend against Columbia and Cornell last weekend, Harvard (18-7) now sits second at 7-3 in conference play and separates itself from both Penn and Brown in the Ivy standings. Both senior forward Chris Lewis and sophomore guard Noah Kirkwood notched 19 points, but this 69-65 victory over Penn (13-10, 5-5 Ivy) was a complete team effort. Firstyears Idan Tretout and Chris Ledlum provided energetic minutes off the bench, while senior guard Justin Bassey added a dozen onto the scoring sheet. “The theme for us going into this weekend was the little things, little things make big players and lead to big wins,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “We knew Penn was wounded coming in here [after Friday’s loss to Dartmouth]. I thought our guys were up for the challenge and the big second half was a tremendous effort by our entire team.” The contest, held over Alumni and Junior Family Weekend, was the second consecutive sell-out at Lavietes Pavilion. Prominent Harvard Basketball alumni in attendance included Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. More importantly for Crimson fans, this marks the 10th straight home win this season, and Harvard needs just two more victories — against Brown and Yale — to cap off a perfect regular season mark at home. “I think this weekend just meant a lot more to us, regardless [of whether] it was home or away,” Kirkwood said. “We really needed these two wins, and I think it just made it better that it was home... I think we just have a little bit of extra energy
as a team to really show up for our fans and supporters.” The competition served as a potential preview to the backand-forth excitement of the postseason tournament — no team lead by more than eight points, while the two rivals jabbed for 11 total lead changes. Collectively, the Quakers shot significantly better from deep (10-of-25 compared to Harvard’s 4-of-18), but the Crimson countered by out-rebounding Penn by 12 boards and elevating its offense in the second frame. Harvard shot 56.7 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes, pulling away to its largest margin of 8 with about four-and-a-half left to play. Penn’s limited seven-man rotation saw double-digit performances from first-years Jordan Dingle and Max Martz as well as seniors Devon Goodman and AJ Brodeur, but no player in particular found extended success. Dingle knocked down three triples to lead the Quakers’ scoring at halftime, but was subsequently limited to just four points in the second half. “They shot the ball incredibly well in the first half, and we just kind of mentioned to our guys and we just weren’t thinking that they could keep that up with the defensive pressure that we thought we could bring in the second half,” Amaker said. Much like the first tilt at the Palestra, the Crimson was beleaguered by a sluggish start, converting on just one basket in its first eight field goal attempts. A vibrant Penn crowd led by its traveling band provided an early dose of energy for the Quakers, but Harvard’s offense gradually came to life — both sides saw the lead flip-flop five times in the first 10 minutes of play. While senior big Chris Lewis could not get anything going against Princeton’s Richmond Aririguzoh on Friday night, the Alpharetta, Ga., native benefited from a less formidable matchup against Penn junior forward Jarrod Simmons, quickly eclipsing his 2-point showing
BROOMSTICKS OUT Noah Kirkwood put up 19 points against Penn, bringing his total to 30 in the weekend sweep. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
against the Tigers with an andone finish at the 8-minute mark. Typically manned by Penn’s AJ Brodeur, Quakers coach Steve Donahue elected to match his prized senior on Harvard’s Rob Baker instead. Lewis would finish the first half with 10 points and largely carried most of the offensive load for the Crimson in the frame. “I think his mentality, you know, talking with him and just us rallying around him — telling him even though he didn’t have a great game on Friday that we’re still rocking with him,” Bassey said. “He’s still our guy, we are still playing inside out.” The two sides continued to keep things knotted at 15, 17, and 22 heading into the final four minutes of the frame. But a four-point play from Dingle proved to be an important pendulum, propelling Penn to an extended 11-5 run to end the half. Penn shot at an impressive 58 percent rate from the
field in that frame — compared to Harvard’s 33 percent — as it took a 33-27 lead into halftime. The Quakers converted on 7 of their last 9 field goals entering the break. Both sides logged buckets at an electrifying pace to begin the second frame. A total of 18 combined points were scored by the first media timeout as Kirkwood catalyzed the Crimson with two steals and two baskets. Penn reciprocated in due fashion, maintaining its advantage to push the score to 40-38 by the five minute mark. But the tide seemed to turn soon after, as Bassey followed up an aggressive drive to the rim with a top-of-the-arc triple to give Harvard its first lead since the six-minute mark of the first half. Kirkwood continued his early-half intensity, finishing two more opportunities at the rim. It took a second push, this time catapulted by a charge on Brodeur from first-year Idan
Tretout, for the Harvard lead to be more comfortable. Tretout would blaze by his defender for a lefty layup, followed by a Bassey up-and-under layup off of his own missed three that brought the Lavietes crowd to its feet with a 6-point lead at the 8:18 mark. “[Idan Tretout]’s been playing amazing and practice, and I think that’s a big part of why he’s playing so well now,” Kirkwood said. “The coaching staff knows he has been hooping. We really believe in him, and I think it goes without saying like when you go into a game without much rhythm and you can still make an impact. It shows his kind of character and it’s testament of who he is as a player.” The Crimson, benefiting from a fourth foul drawn on Goodman, held tight to its six-margin and handed the keys to its regular starters to close the game. Penn cut the lead back to three with one minute left to
play, but after a Kirkwood giveaway, Dingle was unable to convert a fast-break three. The Quakers fouled Bassey, and he sank one of two for a 69-65 lead. Penn could not score in its final possession, and the Crimson let out a collective exhale to cap off a 4-0 homestand. Both Lewis and Kirkwood earned strong praise from Amaker in completing the much-needed weekend sweep. “I can’t say enough about Chris Lewis, especially after a tough night last night, how he bounced back tonight and just had a tremendous game for us. You can see what Kirkwood does for our team we just get a lot of confidence from him, as we did with Bryce in terms of [being] that kind of scoring player. You get confidence from those kinds of guys. So just a tremendous effort by our ballclub and proud of our guys for a great weekend.” henry.zhu@thecrimson.com
MEN’S ICE HOCKEY
No. 20 Harvard Ousted by St. Lawrence on the Road
FALLING FLAT Just one day after a marquee win over No. 5/6 Clarkson, the Crimson suffered its most disappointing loss of the season at the hands of the saints on Satuday. TIMOTHY R. O’MEARA—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER By SPENCER R. MORRIS CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
A head of Saturday night, the Harvard men’s hockey team had not claimed four points on its North Country road trip since 2016-2017. It had a prime chance to overwrite that fact, as it had already pocketed an impressive win against No. 5/6 Clarkson the night prior. But the No. 20 Crimson (129-6, 10-5-5 ECAC) fell to St. Lawrence, 6-3, despite the wide disparity between the squads’ conference rankings. With the upset victory, the Saints (4-24-4, 2-17-1) picked up
just their second ECAC triumph and, amazingly, their first win at Appleton Arena this season. “The hungrier team was on the other side of the ice,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We had talked pretty extensively as to what we were going to see: a proud group of seniors on senior night…. We expected them to come out with some emotion and energy and passion, and they did. Quite frankly, we didn’t respond to it very well.” For the Crimson, the disappointing setback ends a 10game winning streak against St. Lawrence dating back to Feb.
20, 2015. From the opening puck drop, the Saints controlled play with their physicality and sustained offensive-zone pressure. Fast-forward to the final five minutes of the second period, and St. Lawrence sophomore Kaden Pickering found twine for his team’s fourth tally. Harvard failed to break the puck out of its zone cleanly, and the shifty forward took advantage, beating Crimson net-minder Mitchell Gibson (5 GA, .839 SV%) on a follow-up chance. “I don’t think that the final score is something that we can
say we deserved better [than], because we didn’t,” coach Donato said. “We got outplayed. They had more chances, more passion, and for us to think anything else would be foolish.” An overwhelming first 40 minutes from the Saints, punctuated by Pickering’s game-winner, proved too much to recover from. Harvard made things interesting in the third period, though. Down 4-0, the visitors potted a powerplay goal five minutes into the final frame, courtesy of freshman forward John Farinacci’s wrist shot from the slot.
After a quick response from St. Lawrence, the Crimson once again trimmed the deficit to three scores when junior forward Henry Bowlby slid a turnaround shot low on senior goaltender Daniel Mannella (3 GA, .900 SV%). Harvard’s greatest sign of life in the third came after freshman defenseman Ryan Siedem’s shorthanded tuck. Junior centerman Jack Badini found a crashing Siedem from behind the net for a tap-in. With two and a half minutes to go in regulation, coach Donato pulled Cameron Gornet (0 GA, 1.000 SV%), who replaced Gibson after the Saints’ fifth lamp-lighter, for the extra attacker. But the comeback effort ended there. “We knew we had to push, no matter what the scenario was,” Crimson captain Nathan Krusko said. “We were able to continue to grab some momentum. I thought our third period was resilient…. We did make a strong push, but at the end of the day, you can’t dig yourself that big of a hole and expect to get out of it.” The Saints stung the Crimson in the first minute of the game. After a keep-in at the blue line and effective cycling along the wall, junior forward Callum Cusinato fed sophomore Andrew McIntyre from behind the net. McIntyre bumped the puck past the left pad of Gibson to stun the heavily favored visitors. The ice-breaker was emblematic of St. Lawrence’s for-
midable performance, in which it threw both shots and bodies at the Crimson. And the Saints were not finished doing damage in the frame. An oppressive offensive-zone shift culminated in sophomore forward David Jankowski cashing in on an exhausted five Harvard skaters. Jankowski’s third of the season cued the roars from within Appleton Arena, as the hosts mounted an early two-goal lead on a ranked opponent despite entering the contest in dead last in the Pairwise rankings. “We knew they were going to come out hard,” Krusko said. “We were just hesitant and slow to get to our game. We had a lot of guys expecting someone else to make the big play…and that showed out with our tough and slow start.” So, St. Lawrence punched the Crimson in the mouth early and continued its dominance through the second stanza. Overall, its six goals on Saturday represent a season high. And despite the Saints’ lackluster record in 2019-2020, the hometown crowd was raucous upon witnessing its only victory on familiar ice this year — on senior night no less. Harvard’s loss soils the emotional high of Friday’s statement win over the Golden Knights. The program, still with its eyes on a top-four finish in the ECAC, will close out its regular-season slate at home next weekend. spencer.morris@thecrimson.com
