Hinton, Piggé Foul Out Late in Ugly Home Loss to Cornell

The Harvard men’s basketball team blew a 16-point lead on Saturday en route to an 86-79 loss against the Cornell Big Red, taking the Crimson out of a tie for first place in the conference and closing out a three-game home stretch with a loss to the Ivy’s hottest offense.

Adam Hinton — the brother of standout sophomore guard Robert Hinton — scored 27 points on the night for Cornell, his second-highest mark of the year, while his younger brother scored just 19 before fouling out with three minutes to play in the second half.

In addition to R. Hinton fouling out, captain Chandler Piggé took his fifth foul with less than a minute to play in a three-point game, and from there, the game unraveled much like it did during the Big Red’s 16-point comeback.

“This was a bad day for it to happen to those two,” Harvard’s Head Coach Tommy Amaker said. “With those two down like that, that was a hard mountain to climb.”

The matchup started well for the Crimson, finding offensive success early in the first half to match the intensity of one of the highest-paced teams in the nation.

Junior forward Thomas Batties II made a couple of layups and a pair of free throws, and sophomore guard Tey Barbour made a pair of threes to help Harvard find a 22-16 lead just nine minutes into the game.

After two early fouls each by R. Hinton and Piggé, Coach Amaker kept the duo on the bench for much of the first half, relying on his other young stars to pick up where they left off.

Two sophomores helped to lead the charge, as Barbour, alongside guard Ben Eisendrath, took advantage of the situation and utilized smart basketball to start what would become one of the strongest halves of basketball the team has played all season.

Barbour continued his hot shooting, collecting two more three-pointers in the half, while Eisendrath controlled the offense and helped to catalyze bench production from a unit that hasn’t seen many minutes this season.

As Eisendrath collected his sixth assist of the half on a dunk from Batties, the Crimson found itself with a 41-25 lead just fourteen minutes into the game, and the packed Lavietes Pavilion was booming.

Unfortunately for Harvard, having R. Hinton and Piggé on the bench was not a recipe for long-term success, and the team’s quality of play began to dip as halftime inched closer.

Two quick baskets for Cornell brought the lead down to 11, and after neck-and-neck basketball kept the advantage at that mark for much of the next few minutes, A. Hinton hit a deep shot from behind the arc just before time expired to cut the difference to eight points at the half.

On the first play of the second half, Piggé picked up his fourth personal foul of the game, which kept him out for most of the half and forced Amaker to manage his rotation closely, especially with R. Hinton holding three fouls of his own.

R. Hinton and Batties each hit threes early to give the Crimson a 50-41 lead two minutes into the half, but from there, things could not have been worse for the home team.

Over the next five minutes, strong shooting and even stronger defense from the Big Red allowed it to go on an 18-0 scoring run, flipping the advantage and giving Cornell a healthy nine-point lead with just 13 minutes left to play.

The Big Red’s advantage grew to 12 points by the eight-minute mark, but after a 12-0 Harvard run led mostly by R. Hinton took up much of the next five minutes, the Crimson miraculously regained the lead, with the score sitting at 74-73 with three minutes on the game clock.

On the next possession, however, disaster struck for Harvard, and early foul trouble caught up with Amaker’s team as R. Hinton picked up his fifth foul and was forced to exit the match.

The teams traded jabs over the next couple of minutes, but an A. Hinton three-pointer with 49 seconds left gave Cornell a late lead — one that was insurmountable for a Crimson unit that was without R. Hinton and soon missing Piggé.

Harvard failed to score inside the final minute, giving the Big Red its second Ivy victory of the season while the Crimson suffered its second Ivy loss.

“Another dramatic Ivy game, unfortunately, we were on the short side of this one,” Amaker said.

R. Hinton’s 19 points led his team, with Barbour scoring a season-high 18 and Batties adding 14 of his own in the loss. Off the bench, freshman guard Frankie Mannino shot five-for-five from the floor on his way to a career-high 11 points in 21 minutes.

Due to foul trouble, Piggé, who averages 33.4 minutes per game, was only on the court for 15:06, and R. Hinton, who sits at 32.3 minutes per game, saw just 19:32 of playing time.

Harvard continues Ancient Eight play when it begins a three-game road trip next Friday against Brown in Providence.

—Staff writer Connor Castañeda can be reached at [email protected].