Harvard Follows Presidential Library Visit with 63-47 Clobbering of Division III UChicago

After an eventful weekend in which the Harvard men’s basketball team toured the recently opened Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago, the Crimson ended its visit to the Windy City with a 63-47 rout of the Division III University of Chicago on Sunday afternoon.

Harvard (2-0) — the first college program to practice at the center’s home court — won its second consecutive game over a D-III program as it left the No. 24 (D-III) Maroons (0-1) no room for an upset during their season opener.

Co-captain Thomas Batties II proved his versatility in the paint and on the perimeter as the senior scored 19 points on nine-for-14 shooting with three blocks. Junior guard Tey Barbour — who scored 18 points on six-for-eight shooting in the team’s season opener last week — had another efficiency masterclass, adding 13 points on five-for-eight shooting and two-for-three shooting from behind the arc.

With all four of its seniors on the court to start the game, the Crimson opened up shop early, as co-captain guard Xavier Nesbitt — one of the team’s two Chicago natives alongside senior guard Payton Pitts — drained a three in the first minute of the game to take an early 3-2 advantage. Senior forward Luca Ace-Nasteski extended the lead to three as he made a layup on the next possession.

The visitors went on a dry spell soon after, as in four scoreless minutes for Harvard, UChicago was able to flip a three-point deficit into a four-point lead thanks to a jumper from senior guard Phillip Lawrence and a pair of shots from junior forward Daniel Cochran.

The Crimson finally ended its streak of misses with a layup from freshman forward Julian Adigun, and after the hosts made two free throws, Harvard showed the Maroons why they are two divisions higher in competition.

Over the next six minutes, the Crimson orchestrated a 20-0 run — a rare double-kill shot where it shot nine-for-10 from the field — to take a massive 27-11 lead with seven minutes to play in the first half. In the stretch, Barbour made four shots for nine points, while Batties added a trio of his own to score seven points. Freshman guard Jason Singleton, the Ivy League’s highest-ranked recruit, added the last four points on a pair of back-to-back layups.

UChicago finally ended the scoring run with a three-pointer, and the final minutes of the first half featured more back-and-forth action. Harvard walked into the locker room at the end of the half with a commanding 35-20 lead as both Barbour and Batties scored nine points in the first 20 minutes of play.

Shooting 60 percent on field goals with 21 points coming off the bench, the Crimson was able to rely on its deep roster to help force some of the Maroons’ 14 missed three-pointers in the first half. Harvard also cleaned up its previous struggles in allowing offensive rebounds against MIT, allowing only two while securing 18 defensively against UChicago.

Barbour opened the second half by converting a four-point play amid a seven-point run to give Harvard its largest lead of the game at 43-20. Three early turnovers from the Crimson then enabled the Maroons to score seven of their points — including two back-to-back threes by junior guard Arhan Lapsiwala — in the first five minutes of the second half, cutting Harvard’s lead to 18.

Lapsiwala — who recorded all 10 of his points in the half — assisted Cochran for UChicago’s third three-pointer of the half, though Batties and Adigun scored once apiece amid a stretch of misses and offensive turnovers by the Crimson

Batties scored twice more, followed by sophomore guard Frankie Mannino’s first bucket of the season, to extend the visiting team’s lead to 20.

The teams exchanged 11 points to close the half, though a three-pointer from senior forward Noah Pit — who appeared in all 26 games for the Maroons last season — temporarily cut the lead to 15.

The Crimson responded rapidly off a UChicago timeout, scoring twice in 10 seconds thanks to four final points from Singleton and Nesbitt. Sophomore guard Drew Kahn hit a three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining to cut the deficit, but Harvard rounded out its 63-47 victory.

The Crimson improved from its lackluster 41 percent shooting mark against MIT, going 27-for-51 from the field while adding a four-for-12 clip from deep in its second game of the season.

UChicago continued its prowess scoring off turnovers throughout 40 minutes of action, outscoring Harvard 14-8 despite ending with a nearly identical number of turnovers, nine and 10, respectively. The two squads played fundamentally different basketball, highlighted by the Crimson racking up 42 of its 63 points in the paint compared to the Maroons, who notched only 10 under the rim.

Harvard will continue its four-game road trip in much more familiar territory to face Northeastern (0-2) in its temporary home, the Cabot Physical Education Center, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST. After a 97-72 loss to the No. 9/10 University of Virginia, the Huskies are hosting two Ancient Eight opponents in a row, taking on Yale on Friday.

The Crimson has fallen to Northeastern in both of their past two meetings, yet leads in all-time victories with a 30-17 advantage. Harvard will prepare for Tuesday in hopes that the third time isn’t the charm for the Huskies in what will be the Crimson’s Division I season opener.

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

—Staff writer Leo P. Petropoulos can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.