CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Sophomore forward
Thomas Batties II scored a career-high 21 points, and Harvard head coach
Tommy Amaker earned his 300
th win with the Crimson as Harvard Men's Basketball outlasted Cornell University, 75-73, on Friday night at Lavietes Pavilion.
Playing at home for the first time since Jan. 20 and opening its first home back-to-back of the season, the Crimson (8-13, 3-5 Ivy) staked themselves to a 47-30 lead at halftime before holding off a second-half rally from the visiting Big Red (13-8, 5-3 Ivy) as both teams started the second half of Ivy League play.
Amaker, The Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard Men's Basketball, became just the fourth coach in Ivy League history to earn 300 wins at an Ivy League school. Amaker joins Princeton's Pete Carril (514 wins from 1967-96), Yale's James Jones (411 wins from 1999-present) and Penn's Fran Dunphy (310 wins from 1989-2006) in the 300 club.
"Being a part of this school and this league has been very meaningful to me," Amaker said. "To have some tenure and longevity means a lot. This is alumni weekend, so it's nice that is the case since a lot of those guys are here who were a part of that alongside the kids in the locker room. We've had a lot of good players here and tremendous staffs. Those things are really program and team accomplishments."
Batties II dropped his career-high 21 points on a career-best 9-of-14 field goals alongside five rebounds, four assists, and three steals to lead four Crimson in double figures. Junior guard
Chandler Piggé (13 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three steals), senior guard
Evan Nelson (13 points, five rebounds, 3-of-5 3-pointers), and first-year guard
Robert Hinton (12 points) joined him in double figures.
Harvard Highlights
- Sophomore forward Thomas Batties II scored a career and team-high 21 points on a career-best 9-of-14 shooting, while adding five rebounds, a game-high four assists, and game-best three steals. He eclipsed 20 points for the first time in his career and scored in double figures for the 11th time this season. Batties II led the Crimson in scoring for the fourth time this year.
- Junior guard Chandler Piggé tallied 13 points alongside game highs in rebounds (seven), assists (four), and steals (three). He scored in double figures for the 18th time in 21 games this season and paced Harvard in rebounding for the 15th time this year.
- Senior guard Evan Nelson posted 13 points, five rebounds, and two assists, while making 4-of-7 field goals, 3-of-5 3-pointers, and 2-of-2 free throws. He finished in double figures for the eighth time this year and matched his season high in 3-pointers made.
- First-year guard Robert Hinton notched 12 points, two rebounds, and two assists, scoring in double figures for the 14th time this year.
- First-year guard Austin Hunt added seven points, three boards, and two assists, and senior guard Louis Lesmond chipped in four points, four rebounds, and a career-high four assists.
- Harvard featured four double-figure scorers for the 12th time this season and for the fifth time in Ivy League play.
- The Crimson led for 38:25 in the contest.
- Harvard hit 19-of-32 field goals (59.4 percent) and 5-of-10 3-pointers (50.0 percent) in the first half on its way to a 47-30 lead at the break.
Gallery: (2-14-2025) Men's Basketball vs. Cornell
How It Happened
- Harvard jumped out to a 13-2 lead at the 15:34 mark of the first half as Nelson hit a pair of 3-pointers and Batties II completed an old-fashioed 3-point play.
- The Crimson extended the margin to 19 points – its largest lead of the game – at 31-12 with 7:53 left in the opening half with two dunks from Batties II and 3-pointers from Lesmond and Hinton highlighting the stretch.
- After Cornell trimmed the margin to 42-30 with 1:52 to play in the half, Nelson scored the final five points of the half on a 3-pointer and a layup to push Harvard's lead back to 47-30 at halftime.
- A dunk from Batties II, 3-pointer from first-year Tey Barbour and layup from Hunt allowed Harvard to maintain a 56-38 lead with 14:36 remaining before the Big Red scored eight straight points to pull within 56-46 with 12:36 to go.
- A 3-point play from Piggé prior to a layup from Batties II kept the Crimson up 66-52 with 8:12 to play. Cornell then netted 10 consecutive points to whittle the margin to 66-62 with 4:13 on the clock.
- Buckets from Piggé and Batties II kept the lead at 70-64 with 3:10 to play prior to the visitors scoring five straight points to pull within 70-69 with 54 seconds remaining.
- Inside of the final 30 seconds, two free throws from Nelson and three free throws from Hunt helped the Crimson hold off the comeback attempt as Cornell pulled within one point on two more occasions – at 72-71 with 13 seconds left and 74-73 with eight seconds to go – before Harvard held on for the victory.
Postgame Quotes
"Really proud of our guys for being ready to go. Obviously, Cornell is an outstanding team, having a great year, and will continue to do so. For our guys – after a tough loss last weekend – I was really proud of the team effort and the spirit. We talked about that in practice – that their spirit was right. One of the things we also said was that we felt like we were knocked down but not knocked out. That's the fight that I thought our kids brought." –
Tommy Amaker, The Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard Men's Basketball
"We did the necessary things to hold on and find the finish line. Really pleased. Really proud. Team effort. I thought Thomas played a tremendous game. It just felt like there was a presence for him and an impact that he brought. Great balance by our team with different guys in double digits. We've got to turn it around and get ready for tomorrow as we do in this league." – Coach Amaker
"I'm proud of that. Being a part of this school and this league has been very meaningful to me. To have some tenure and longevity means a lot. This is alumni weekend, so it's nice that is the case since a lot of those guys are here who were a part of that alongside the kids in the locker room. We've had a lot of good players here and tremendous staffs. Those things are really program and team accomplishments." – Coach Amaker on earning 300
th win at Harvard
Next Up
Harvard hosts Columbia tomorrow – Saturday, Feb. 15 – at 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+).
