After winning the Atlantis Crown in the Bahamas the Crimson faced their biggest test of the year, going to UConn. Many analysts believed that if Harvard won this game then they would be the best Ivy League basketball team in history. They came in 8-0 and ranked 24th. UConn on the other hand was ranked 9th and looking to go the Final Four Championship.
The game started out real close and the first half ended with UConn up by two, 30 to 28. The second half however was controlled more by the Huskies as they gave Harvard their first loss, 67-53. They outscored Harvard by 12 points and as they improved both their defense and offense.
Both Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb were the difference in this one as they scored a combined 30 points that were very helpful. Ryan Boatright came off the bench and scored 11 points which was probably the reason they won. When a team has bench players that can score that many in a game, it really helps the starters get their rest. They also don’t have to worry about coming back into the game being down by a lot or up by a few.
This may be a crushing blow to Harvard’s playoff run but I’m not counting them out. They didn’t get blown out like other small teams that have played ranked teams. If they also play their conference opponents like they did against UConn then I don’t think anyone can beat them.
It was very exciting however to watch them compete on national television. Usually these teams are rarely shown and fans just watch the same teams over and over. It’s good to see something different every once in a while.
