CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – There was a little Lavietes magic in the air on Saturday afternoon when the Harvard men's basketball team mounted a 17-point come-from-behind win to drop its Ivy rival, Princeton, in overtime.
 
The Crimson (9-8, 2-1 Ivy) scored a combined 57 points in the second half and overtime to stun the Tigers (6-12, 2-1 Ivy) and earn a key win in Ivy League play. The comeback was fueled by a 20-0 run by the Crimson late in the contest.

Robert Hinton led the way with a game-high 27 points (12-for-19 FG), while Chandler Piggé and Thomas Batties II chipped in with 21 and 18 points, respectively. Harvard's captain, Piggé, recorded his first double-double of the season by grabbing a season-high 11 rebounds.

The Crimson moved to 29-6 in overtime games under the guidance of Tommy Amaker, the Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Endowed Coach for Harvard men's basketball, after posting the dramatic come-from-behind victory.

Harvard Highlights

• Robert Hinton led the Crimson with 27 points and added three assists and two rebounds.
• Thomas Batties logged 18 points on 4-of-7 shooting from behind the three-point arc and grabbed nine rebounds.
• Chandler Piggé posted his first double-double of the season with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists.
• Tey Barbour chipped in with 13 points, and Austin Hunt aided the effort on the glass with seven rebounds.
• Harvard shot 53 percent (18-for-34) from the floor in the second half and overtime.
• The Crimson grabbed 13 offensive rebounds in the game to help complete the comeback.
• The team completed a 17-point come-from-behind win, its second-largest comeback effort of the season (18 points vs. UNH, Nov. 9).

How It Happened

• The Crimson opened a three-game homestand on Saturday afternoon by welcoming the Princeton Tigers to Lavietes Pavilion for a showdown.
• Both teams came out of the gates flying, pushing the tempo in an up-and-down first eight minutes. Harvard was first on the scoreboard, but Princeton quickly took control, opening an 8-4 lead at the first media timeout.
• The sides traded shots, with Harvard converting three three-pointers—two from Batties and one from Hinton—to keep the game close at the halfway point of the first half.
• Princeton went on a run late in the half, outscoring the Crimson 21-9 over an eight-minute stretch. Tey Barbour and Batties both hit three-pointers to cut into the lead, but the Tigers took a 43-30 advantage into halftime.
• A strong shooting effort from Robert Hinton continued early in the second half as the sophomore scored seven of Harvard's first 11 points of the frame. Princeton, however, continued to hit shots to extend its lead.
• The Tigers built their largest lead of the game at the 11:14 mark of the second half, going up 58-41.
• From that point on, Harvard slowly chipped away at the deficit with clutch shooting from Hinton and Piggé leading the comeback. The duo combined for 18 points over the next 10 minutes, trimming the lead to single digits.
• With 2:50 remaining, Princeton pushed the lead back to 11 points. The Crimson responded with lockdown defense, holding the Tigers scoreless the rest of regulation and igniting the comeback.
• The run began with back-to-back layups from Hinton, followed by a clutch three-pointer from Piggé to make it 72-68. After a basket from Barbour, Hinton brought Lavietes to its feet with a powerful dunk to tie the game at 72. Harvard forced overtime as time expired with the score still knotted.
• Harvard's offense stayed hot in overtime, grabbing the lead on an early Batties three-pointer—its first lead since the 14:31 mark of the first half.
• Another emphatic dunk from Piggé and a layup from Hinton gave the Crimson an 81-72 advantage, completing a 20-0 run dating back to the 2:41 mark of the second half.
• After sealing the game at the free-throw line and continuing its defensive pressure, Harvard completed the dramatic comeback with an 87-80 overtime victory.

Postgame Quotes

• "What a barnburner… Really proud of the effort from our team. You have to have the spirit, the energy, the belief, and the fight to pull off a win like that, and we had that tonight." – Tommy Amaker
• "I thought Chandler [Piggé] was outstanding, Thomas [Batties II] had the nine rebounds, and we shot free throws down the stretch really well. And then obviously Robert [Hinton] put us on his back at times down the stretch to carry us over the finish line. It was a team effort and a great job by our guys to find a way." – Tommy Amaker

Next Up

Harvard hosts Penn on Monday, Jan. 19, at 2:00 p.m. (ESPN+) on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.