The Harvard males’s basketball group walked out of Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y. with a return ticket, as its 73-54 demolition of Cornell clinched the Crimson a spot in the Ivy Madness Tournament, which takes place in Ithaca from March 14-15.
Sophomore guard Tey Barbour had a career-high 30 factors because the Crimson (15-10, 8-3 Ivy) rode a powerful second half towards the Big Red (12-12, 5-6) en path to the postseason-clinching victory. Both junior ahead Thomas Batties and captain Chandler Piggé completed on triple double watch, as the previous recorded 10 factors, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists, and the latter ended with seven factors, 9 rebounds, and eight assists.
For the primary time in six years, Harvard will end in the highest half of the Ancient Eight and compete in the four-team single-elimination event that determines who will signify the convention in March Madness.
“It feels great to get to Ivy Madness,” Barbour mentioned. “It’s been a while since our program has been there. We had a heartbreaking loss last week, but I was proud of our guys and proud of our team to bounce back and have a great win.”
Harvard additionally earned its eighth convention victory of the yr, guaranteeing that the group can have a profitable document in the Ivy League for the primary time for the reason that 2019-2020 season. The 2025-26 marketing campaign has served as proof of a profitable rebuild for head coach Tommy Amaker, who led Harvard to 10 or extra convention wins 9 instances in the course of the 2010s.
Amaker’s squad has been unstoppable on the highway this season. Saturday’s victory improved the group’s away convention document to 5-0. Harvard basketball’s all-time winningest coach was happy with the group’s defensive effort in a hostile atmosphere because the Crimson held the Big Red — which averages 88.8 PPG — to its lowest offensive output of the season.
“Coming in here this afternoon, I thought it was a great effort by everybody defensively,” Amaker mentioned.
Harvard particularly excelled with arduous close-outs and ball denial that made it unattainable for Cornell to construct a rhythm from past the arc. After the Big Red shot 11-for-26 (46 p.c) on three-pointers in its January win over the Crimson, the host went simply three-for-22 (14 p.c) on Saturday.
“We’ve had many good teams in the past, but I don’t know that we’ve ever come up here and played as well as we did this afternoon,” Amaker added.
The first half began with the groups buying and selling the new hand, as Harvard’s 8-0 run to start out the matchup was rapidly answered by a 7-0 run from Cornell, and midway via the interval, the groups have been caught in a 16-16 tangle.
The subsequent couple of minutes have been silent, and after three minutes of no scoring, a layup from the Big Red appeared to offer the house group some momentum. Barbour was not able to let that occur, and after a fast layup to tie issues again up, he hit a 3 to offer his group a three-point lead with simply 4 minutes left to play in the half.
The subsequent couple of minutes introduced extra back-and-forth basketball, and a Cornell layup on the buzzer left Harvard’s halftime benefit at simply 25-24.
The second half started with a three-pointer from the Big Red, and it appeared like the house group’s offense might need woken up. However, the visiting Crimson responded with a 10-0 killshot over the subsequent three minutes to offer itself an 8-point lead with 16 minutes to play.
Cornell minimize the result in 4 at 39-35 with simply over 13 minutes remaining, however Harvard quickly opened a double-digit lead that it didn’t relent for the remainder of the sport.
Barbour poured in 20 second-half factors and flaunted his improved inside recreation. After scoring almost completely from three-point vary for the primary half of convention play, the Virginia native has posed a risk off the dribble in current video games, ceaselessly attacking the paint in order to attain layups and get to the free throw line.
Sophomore guard Robert Hinton added 16 of his personal, and with the sturdy all-around performances from Batties and Piggé, it was as soon as once more the Crimson starters who led their group to an announcement highway victory over the one group in the convention that it had not overwhelmed to that time.
Next up, Harvard continues its three-game highway journey when it faces the Princeton Tigers (8-18, 4-7) in New Jersey on Friday evening. The Crimson got here again from being down 17 at house to stun Princton in the primary matchup. The recreation can be streamed on ESPN+ and suggestions off at 7 p.m. EST.
— Staff Writer Connor Castañeda could be reached at [email protected].
— Staff Writer Samuel S. Rudavsky could be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @samrudavsky.
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