Gamecenter: Harvard 54, Columbia 61

	1st	2nd	Final
Harvard (8-19, 3-8 Ivy)	23	31	54
Columbia (14-12, 7-4 Ivy)	25	36	61


Levien Gym – New York, NY	Boxscore

Keys to the Game
Key sequence	Having dug itself in a 13-point deficit by surrendering an early 17-0 run by Harvard, Columbia set about its business and had rallied to re-take the lead by halftime. It was still 21-12 in the Crimson’s favor past the midway point of the first half, but John Baumann’s three-point play would get the Lions going. Two possessions later, Baumann, scored another layup to make it a four-point game. Two Drew Housman free throws would make it a 23-17 contest, but Baumann registered another three-point play on the subsequent Columbia possession to make it a one-possession game. After a defensive stop, Ben Nwachukwu twice got offensive rebounds to keep the possession alive, and ended up putting back the second one to make it 23-22. The two teams exchanged turnovers before a Housman miss, then Nwachukwu gave the hosts the lead with a layup at the 1:02 mark. Kevin Bulger hauled down Brad Unger’s miss and was fouled, hitting just his first free throw, as Columbia finished the first half on a 13-2 run to take a 25-23 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Key sign it was over	The Lions never trailed in the second half, but they had trouble putting away the Crimson, who stayed within 10 points the entire time. Unger’s layup with 57 seconds left made it 55-50, and the Harvard senior had a chance to make it a one-possession game after Brett Loscalo only could get one of two at the line, but Unger’s three-pointer wouldn’t fall, and Loscalzo grabbed the rebound. This time the Columbia senior was perfect at the line, and though Housman added two free throws of his own, Loscalzo again drained a pair of free throws to push the margin back to eight with 14 ticks left. Unger got a layup with under 10 seconds left, but Loscalzo put the game out of reach by hitting his first free throw with just eight ticks left.
Key performance	After going quiet in recent games, Nwachukwu had a huge penultimate game in front of the home fans, finishing with a double-double. The senior led all scorers with 20 points, and also pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds in 30 minutes.
Key statistic	The Lions’ big men got the better of their Crimson counterparts, owning a 36-26 edge in the paint.

Notes

– Unger led Harvard with 13 points, and was joined in double figures by Housman (11 points) and Evan Harris and Jeremy Lin, who each scored 10.

– Baumann also had an impressive final line with 18 points and 10 rebounds for Columbia.

– Both teams were ice cold from the perimeter, with the Lions missing all 12 attempts from long range and the Crimson not faring much better at 3 of 18 (16.7 percent).

– Both teams blocked out very well on the defensive glass, with Columbia rebounding at just 20.6 percent offensively, and Harvard even worse at 12.1 percent — though the hosts did a good job of capitalizing on these second chances, owning a 10-2 scoring edge in that department.

– Harvard will try to prevent Cornell from clinching the Ivy title outright on Saturday, March 1 in Ithaca, while Columbia will recognize its seniors in their final home game that night against Dartmouth, with both games tipping off at 7:00 pm ET.

Basketball U.

Gamecenter: Harvard 54, Columbia 61

Jake Wilson

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Basketball U.

Basketball U.

Jake Wilson

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Basketball U.