Sports

Weekly Recap SCORES Men’s Basket all vs. Columbia W, 77-73 ___________________________________________________________ wrestling Vs. Hofstra l, 20-17 ___________________________________________________________ Women’s lacrosse s. Niagra , 15-3 ___________________________________________________________ Women’s Basket all s. cor ell , 73-58 ___________________________________________________________ Men’s Tennis vs. Prin eton , 4-2 ___________________________________________________________ Women’s Ice Hockey Vs. U io W, 3-2 ___________________________________________________________ women’s squas s. cor ell , 9-0 ___________________________________________________________ Men’s squas s. cor ell , 9-0 ___________________________________________________________

F n ing Harvard Fencing Trending Upwards After Beanpot

By Ad m M. Xi Contr ibuting Wr iter

Harvard fencing placed extremely well against stiff competition this past weekend at the Ivy League Champion ships. The No. 2 men’s team (20- 3, 5-0 Ivy League) became the first Crimson team to win the Ivy League Championship Ti tle outright since their triumph back in 2013. The No. 7 wom en’s team (16-11, 3-3) finished fourth.

On the men’s side, the team had a clean sweep of the com petition, going 5-0. The men’s squad also had a clean sweep in individual championships at foil and sabre weapons. Captain Geoffrey Tourette finished first in foil, followed by first-year Kenji Bravo, and captain Dun can Rheingans-Yoo took third. First-years Mitchell Saron and Filip Dolegiewicz finished first and second respectively in sa bre, while senior Erwin Cai came in third.

The highlight of the event for the men was a close 15-12 victo ry over No. 1 Columbia. Senior sabre Erwin Cai was down 2-0 in his match against Columbia first-year Christopher Walker before coming back two touch es to tie the bout. His opponent secured another touch, but Cai was able to storm back and se cure a 5-3 victory for Harvard. First-year sabre Mitchell Saron also was able to win a nailbiter against his Columbia opponent by a score of 5-4.

“Columbia was our first op ponent, and we knew it was going to be a tough bout,” said Dolegiewicz. “We had to bring the intensity up to 100%. After we beat them, we were excited and knew we had a really good shot at winning the whole title.”

Dolegiewicz went on to clinch the outright Ivy League Championship title after de feating his Princeton opponent. “It was a very special mo ment, especially to be able to do it in front of friends and family. You work so hard for moments like that, and when it actually happens, the feeling is so sur real,” said Dolegiewicz. “Having all of my teammates rush me afterwards was extremely spe cial and something I will never forget.”

For the women, sophomore Veronica Czyzewski notched a second place finish in sabre, first-year Karina Wang finished third in foil, and junior Saanchi Kukadia took third in epee. The three all claimed first-team All Ivy-League honors.

All of the bouts were five touch bouts, as opposed to the more conventional longer 15 touch bouts. The fencers had to be extremely focused; one sub tle movement could be enough to decide these condensed bouts.

“I came in super nervous, but gave it my all in every bout,” said Wang. “To be honest, in these five touch bouts, you have to want it a lot more than your opponent because of the limited number of touches. Even when I was down, I told myself I can still beat my opponent.”

The women’s team defeated Cornell, Brown, and Yale, while falling to Princeton, Colum bia, and Penn, the former two of which rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation.

Though the women have not yet had as much success as they did last year, when they lost just six regular season matches be fore placing fourth at the NCAA Championships, the past week was an important response to a tough St. John’s Invitational, in which they lost all five bouts.

The Crimson continued to build momentum following a strong performance at Ivy League Championships with two Beanpot titles last Wednes day.

The men’s team extended its win streak to 10 after dominat ing its competition at the Beanpot, hosted by Boston College. They were able to win 25-2 over Brandeis, 23-4 over MIT, and 20-7 over Boston College. Five fencers went undefeated in all three matches. This is the men’s squad’s 12th straight Beanpot title.

Rheingans-Yoo and To urette handily defeated their opponents combining to go 6-0. Tourette’s exceptional perfor mance continued his remarkable undefeated season.

The epee squad made up of sophomore Josh Wilcox, soph omore Andrew Lee, and firstyear Jonas Hansen went a per fect 9-0 against their Brandeis opponents. The foil squad also was able to go a perfect 9-0

UND EFEATED The men’s fencing team rejoiced as Geoffery Tourette won his bout, remaining undefeated on the season. owen A. Berger—Crimson photogr pher

against their Boston College op ponents.

The women’s team was also able to go a perfect 3-0 to claim its 13th straight Beanpot Title. They were able to win 19-8 over Brandeis, 22-5 over MIT, and 16-11 over Boston College. Four fencers posted 8-1 records, in cluding first-year sabre Maria Theodore, Wang, sophomore foil Cynthia Liu, and junior epee Cindy Gao.

The women’s epee squad was also able to secure a 9-0 re cord against their Brandeis opponents, while their foil squad went undefeated against MIT. “We tried to feed off all the good things we did at Ivies at Beanpot,” said Wang. “We’ve been training really hard since J-term and it really showed with this win at Beanpot.”

Harvard will look to build on its recent wins at the NCAA regionals next month on March 8th.

A strong performance there would send them to the NCAA Championships, which will be held on March 19-22 in Detroit, Mich.

Me n’ B k ll History Repeats: Crimson Beats Columbia in Second OT

By Le v C h n Cr imson Staff Wr iter

It was the second overtime, and Noah Kirkwood looked tired. The sophomore guard had just missed a three point shot bad ly, making him 1-for-9 from beyond the arc. But when Harvard needed points most, it turned to Kirkwood and he de livered, as he so often has in the absence of Bryce Aiken. First, with the Crimson down three points, he drained a difficult, stepback long two from the top of the key. Then, with the game knotted at 69 with just over a minute to play, the Ottawa na tive, again isolated at the top of the key, drilled a triple to give Harvard a lead it would not re linquish. When a Mike Smith would-be game-tying triple came up short, Kirkwood was fouled and walked to the line having missed four of his first six free throw attempts. But that did not matter, either. He cooly knocked down both free throws and — finally — put the game away, allowing the Crim son to sneak past Columbia 77- 73 at Lavietes Pavilion on Sat urday.

“Over the course of the sea son so far without [Aiken], a big clutch player on our team, coach has really allowed me to have that spot now and given me the confidence, and more importantly my team has given me that confidence,” said Kirk wood. “Even though my shot wasn’t falling, every time down guys were saying ‘keep shoot ing, keeping shooting, it will fall,’ and that’s really what got me going.”

The game felt very familiar. “Unbelievable,” head coach Tommy Amaker said. “I don’t know what it is about us with Columbia but it certainly has been par for the course for a number of years now in terms of how tight and overtimes and amazing games that both teams have played.”

A year ago, it was Aiken who prevented what would have been a crushing loss at home against the Lions with an im probable off-balance, double-clutch three pointer that sent the game to double over

time. Harvard eventually won in triple overtime on the back of Aiken’s career-high 44 points, overcoming an inspired road ef fort by a team with one win in league play.

Saturday night, the Crimson (16-7, 5-3 Ivy) again entered a home matchup against one-win Columbia (6-18, 1-7) as a sub stantial favorite. But as was the case in both meetings last year — the game in Morningside Heights also went to overtime — this was the furthest thing from a walk in the park for Har vard. With Aiken out indefinitely with a sprained foot, Columbia’s Smith was the diminutive point guard who put on a show, nearly willing the Lions to vic tory.

First, with Columbia down by two points at the end of reg ulation and the shot clock unplugged, Smith weaved his way through the Crimson’s defense and made a layup to knot the game at 53, completing a 6-0 Li ons run in the game’s last three minutes. Harvard, which had led for most of regulation, then had two chances to win the game without overtime. A loose ball following a missed three by senior point guard Christian Juzang caromed off of Colum bia with 1.4 seconds to play, but the Crimson was unable to get a shot off after the inbound, as Ju zang’s effort to create space for a game-winning three resulted in a travel.

Overtime meant more of the Mike Smith show. To an even greater degree than in regula tion, when Smith scored 19 of Columbia’s 32 first half points before cooling off in the second stanza, the Lions became a oneman team. And it came ever so close to working. Smith poured in 15 more points on 11 shots across the two overtimes and finished with a nearly Aikenian 38 on 17-of-37 shooting.

“We certainly could not guard him,” said Amaker. “He’s fast, quick, and shifty, and so creative with the ball. He doesn’t get tired and he just has a great deal of confidence and he’s so creative and crafty, with shot fakes and step-throughs. You try not to foul him, so it takes a lot of effort and disci pline to try to defend that kid.” Smith’s NBA-range three pointer — which he took with out hesitation with Juzang right in his face — put Columbia up by two with 24 seconds to go in overtime, and after a missed Juzang three it appeared that Smith’s heroics were going to be enough to secure a monumental upset.

But nobody informed senior forward Justin Bassey of that likelihood. As he has done so often throughout his Harvard career, including with a vital rebound in last season’s triple overtime win, Bassey made the big hustle play when it counted. He snatched the offensive re bound from Juzang’s miss and converted the putback to send the game to a second overtime — and the sixth overtime in the last three games between these two teams.

Smith then had a good look to win the game at the buzzer, but his three rimmed out, set ting the stage for the second overtime and for Kirkwood’s heroics.

Before the late-game fire works, the packed student section did not have many opportunities to erupt in what was a low-scoring, sloppy affair, as Saturday nights in the Ivy League often produce. The main exceptions came on a number of tremendous blocks by the Crim son’s rim protectors. Senior forwards Chris Lewis and Robert Baker repelled three shots apiece, with Lewis stifling three attempts at the rim in a 10-min ute span and Baker rejecting a pair of shots at the rim and a three point attempt by Colum bia’s Jake Killingsworth, who was surprised by the amount of ground the spindly senior was able to quickly cover.

“They had a big time pres ence back there, which they should,” said Amaker. “We have always had that in our program. We’ve taken pride in the back line of our defense all the way through the years. These guys have adopted that and have been tremendous for us, so it’s an added weapon for us on the defensive end.”

Harvard’s winning streak at home — it remains undefeated at Lavietes Pavilion this season — had largely been spurred by strong shooting, but the Crim son’s touch from deep abandoned it on Saturday. Harvard connected on just eight of its 43 three point attempts, easily the team’s worst shooting per formance in league play. Lewis made a number of timely baskets, including an and-one layup to tie the game at 69 in the second overtime. In addition to his three thunderous blocks, the Alpharetta, Ga., native finished with 16 points, joining Kirk wood (22) and Juzang (10) in double figures, and a team-high 11 rebounds and four steals.

“With our offense, a lot of the time we just have to realize that [Lewis] is our main guy, we go through him and we play in side-out, that’s our big calling card,” said Kirkwood. “On a lot of possessions we were settling for threes that we just weren’t making. So when that was go ing on we really went through [Lewis] a lot more and then the kickouts helped us a lot from him. He was a great player to day.”

The Lions matched the Crimson’s futile shooting. Har vard shot 37% from the field and 19% from three; Columbia finished at 37% and 17%. Aside from Smith, only forward Ike Nweke, who was plagued by foul trouble for most of the first half and finished with 11 points, scored for the Lions in either overtime period.

Looking ahead the Lions have a pair of home games next weekend, starting on Friday against Brown followed by a bout against Yale on Saturday. Then on the following weekend, Columbia will have a chance to get revenge on Harvard with a home game against the Crim son. The win paired with a Yale loss brings Harvard within a game of first in the Ivy League and keeps the Crimson in a three-team tie for third place with six games to play. Harvard will have the chance to avenge losses at Princeton and Penn next weekend as it looks to stay in the hunt for an Ivy League championship.