CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - After playing its last three games on the road, covering 1,322 roundtrip miles, Harvard finally returns to Lavietes Pavilion to face Penn Friday evening on ESPNU at 5 p.m. ET.

What to Know

- The Crimson returns to a venue in which it is 7-2 on the season. The home appearance is a welcomed sight for a team that is set to return to the road for three of its next four outings.

- Harvard is looking to rebound from a 76-61 loss at Cornell on Saturday. The Crimson held a 37-32 halftime lead, but opened the second half unable to find the bottom of the net, scoring its first points with 15:21 left. Harvard could not stop its cold steak as the Big Red went on to shoot 63.0 percent from the field in the second half and 57.4 percent for the game.

- Noah Kirkwood continued to make his case for Ivy League Player of the Year at Cornell as he led Harvard with game-high-tying figures in points (18) and assists (4), while sharing team-high honors in rebounds (5) with Louis Lesmond. In his last five games, the senior is averaging 21.4 points (.506 FG), scoring at least 18 in each of those contests, while adding 6.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists.

- Despite missing his junior campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kirkwood nearing closer to the 1,000-point career milestone. Aiming to become the school's 37th member of the club, the senior is at 939 points coming into the Penn game. He is on pace to reach the 1,000-point plateau on Feb. 9, vs. Yale.

- Lesmond knocked down four three-pointers at Cornell, to help him finish with 14 points in his third consecutive starting assignment. The first-year has scored in double figures in his last four games (12.3 ppg) and connected on 40.0 percent of his attempts from three-point range (12-30). The first-year has knocked down 30 treys this season, sitting one behind junior Luka Sakota for the team lead.

- Sam Silverstein provided a boost off the bench for Harvard against the Big Red. The first-year scored 10 points, which was a personal-best against a Division-I opponent. The wing also added a career-high-tying three steals to go with a pair of rebounds. In his last six games, the first-year has made 11-of-20 from the field (.555) and provided help in all phases (4.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.3 spg, 1.0 apg), while averaging 23.7 minutes.

- One of the bright spots from the Cornell game was Harvard's continued ability to force turnovers, mainly by way of the steal. The Crimson forced 21 Big Red turnovers and collected 12 steals, including a career-high four from Kale Catchings and three apiece from Silverstein and Denham Wojcik. Harvard ranks first in the Ivy League in steals per game (8.8), turnover margin (4.1) and turnovers forced (16.19), through Jan. 24 games. Individually, Kirkwood is No. 1 in the Ivy in steals per game (2.31; No. 11 in Div. I) and total steals (37; No. 34 in Div. I), through Jan. 24 games.

- Harvard has been a resilient group over the last few seasons, posting a 16-3 record in the game following its last 19 defeats. This season alone, the Crimson is 4-1 in responding to losses. In its last opportunity to rebound from a defeat, Harvard earned a 91-82 road win at Columbia after suffering a loss to Brown.

- The Crimson will look to prevent an Ivy losing streak with one of the games occurring at home for the first time since the 2015-16 season. During that campaign, Harvard lost a home game to Yale on Feb. 13, 2016, and then fell at Columbia on Feb. 19, 2016.

- Harvard has not suffered a two-game losing streak in conference very often in recent seasons. Since the start of 2017-18, the Crimson has lost consecutive Ivy League games just once, which came during the 2019-20 campaign. That group fell in overtime at Penn on Jan. 31, 2020, and then dropped a 70-69 decision at Princeton the next day.

At the Helm

Tommy Amaker, The Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard Men's Basketball, is in his 15th season at Harvard. He is the winningest coach in Crimson history with 261 victories and has led the program to seven Ivy League titles and eight postseason appearances.

Up Next

Harvard returns to action on Friday, Feb. 4, when it visits Brown for a 7 p.m. ET contest in Providence, Rhode Island. The Ivy League contest will air live on ESPN+.