CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Junior guard
Chandler Piggé scored a team-high 15 points to lead four Crimson in double figures as Harvard Men's Basketball beat Bowdoin College, 71-65, on Sunday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion in its non-league finale and first game of the 2025 calendar year.
Winning for the third time in its last four games, the Crimson (5-8) used an 11-1 run to turn a 61-58 deficit with 6:31 to play into a 69-62 lead with 34 seconds left on its way to the victory over the visiting Polar Bears (9-4).
Piggé scored his 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while adding five rebounds and three assists. First-year guard
Robert Hinton netted 13 points with three assists, first-year guard
Austin Hunt tallied 12 points and a game and career-high nine rebounds, and sophomore forward
Thomas Batties II posted 12 points, five rebounds, and a game and career-high four assists to round out the Crimson's double-figure scorers.
Harvard Highlights
- Junior guard Chandler Piggé tallied a team-high 15 points, five rebounds, and three assists, while making 7-of-12 field goals. He scored in double figures for the 10th time in 13 non-league games this season and led the Crimson in scoring for the fifth time on the year.
- First-year guard Robert Hinton scored 13 points on 5-of-9 field goals and 2-of-3 3-pointers, while adding three assists. He finished in double figures for the eighth time on the year.
- First-year guard Austin Hunt posted 12 points and a game and career-high nine rebounds, while connecting on 5-of-10 field goals. He scored in double figures for the second straight game. He paced the Crimson in rebounding for the first time this year.
- Sophomore forward Thomas Batties II tallied 12 points, five rebounds, and a game and career-high four assists, while hitting 4-of-7 field goals and 2-of-2 3-pointers. He scored in double figures for the sixth time on the year and for the third straight game. Batties II led Harvard in assists for the first time in his career.
- Senior guard Evan Nelson contributed eight points, five rebounds, and three assists, while converting 2-of-3 treys and 2-of-2 free throws.
- Harvard outscored Bowdoin, 39-24, in the second half. In the second stanza, the Crimson shot 53.8 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from 3-point distance, while limiting the Polar Bears to 34.5 percent shooting from the field and 20.0 percent from behind the arc.
- The Crimson tallied four double-figure scorers for the seventh time in its last nine games.
Gallery: (1-5-2025) Men's Basketball vs. Bowdoin
How It Happened
- Bowdoin opened the game with a 23-9 lead at the 12:20 mark of the first half before 3-pointers from first-year guard Dutch Dowdell and Nelson helped the Crimson pull within 27-19 with 8:16 left in the opening half.
- Facing a 30-19 deficit, the Crimson used a 12-3 run to pull within 33-31 with 2:03 left in the first half. Hinton scored the first six points of the run before Batties II netted the final five points of the streak. Bowdoin then took a 41-32 lead into halftime.
- With Bowdoin holding a 47-37 lead early in the second half, Harvard scored eight straight points to cut the margin to 47-45 with 15:22 remaining. A dunk from Batties II highlighted the streak.
- A 3-pointer from first-year guard Tey Barbour tied the score at 52-52 with 11:11 to play before a 3-pointer from Hinton gave Harvard its first lead at 58-57 with 8:21 to go.
- After the Polar Bears regained a 61-58 lead at the 6:31 mark, the Crimson used an 11-1 run to claim a 69-62 edge with 34 seconds left. Batties II opened the run with a 3-pointer to tie the score at 61-61, and Piggé scored back-to-back layups to give Harvard a 66-61 advantage with 1:43 to play as Harvard maintained a two-possession advantage the rest of the way.
Postgame Quotes
"I want to give credit to Bowdoin. They played exceptionally well and were deserving of victory. We happened to get the victory, but I thought they were deserving of it. Their first half was outstanding. I thought they played exceptionally well in stretches, were tough, and made savvy plays." –
Tommy Amaker, The Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard Men's Basketball
"I just told our kids that you never take winning lightly. In whatever you have to do – even when you feel like you're not playing well – you find ways to gut things through and gut it out. I thought our kids did that exceptionally well. I was really impressed with
Austin Hunt with his play, leading us in rebounding and making timely baskets. He's a very tough kid, and it shows in moments like that." – Coach Amaker
"For us, it was about trying to find some momentum, find some rhythm. That's what Coach was talking about for us the entire week. We knew that we were going to play a very good team in Bowdoin, as was seen today, and we wanted to make sure that whatever we were doing, we were doing it to the best of our ability. We were concentrating. They came out swinging, but we tried to hold our ground and play the right way." – Junior guard
Chandler Piggé
Next Up
Harvard hosts Princeton on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 2:00 p.m. (ESPN+) at Lavietes Pavilion in the Crimson's Ivy League opener.
