No. 12 Harvard notches upset for 2nd straight year, tops No. 5 Cincinnati
Jeremy Lin warned everyone that Harvard basketball was on the rise. The public should have listened.
A year after winning in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever, as a No. 14 seed, Harvard is back as a No. 12 seed this year. They found some Round of 64 magic for the second straight year on Thursday, upsetting No. 5 Cincinnati in a 61-57 victory.
The Crimson came out red hot in the first half, opening up a seven-point lead at the break after shooting 50 percent overall and 55 percent on threes. This, against the country's ninth-best defense when factoring for pace and opponent difficulty.
Cincinnati also did them the favor of neglecting to put Jermaine Sanders on the team's roster sheet, leading to an administrative technical foul for the Bearcats and an extra point for Harvard.
The lead looked tenuous in the second half, however, as Harvard's shooting went ice cold. Instead, it was their defense tasked with securing the win, holding Cincinnati scoreless for long stretches, including a nearly six-minute long, 5-0 run in the middle of the half.
Even with the defense locking down, however, the Bearcats continued clawing.
Trailing by three with 1:33 remaining, Cincinnati's star senior Sean Kilpatrick committed an offensive foul at the end of a broken play, losing possession. Shortly after, Kilpatrick coughed the ball up, allowing Siyani Chambers to split a pair of free throws.
Even then, the win wasn't secure. With just 29 seconds remaining, Kilpatrick hit a pair of free throws to bring his team within two once again. But a Jermaine Sanders missed triple and some timely free throw shooting from Harvard - they hit their final five after going 12-of-23 to that point - sealed the victory.
With that, the Crimson move on to face the winner of No. 4 Michigan St. and No. 13 Delaware on Saturday, while the Bearcats go home winless in the tournament for the second straight season.
Prospect Watch
Sean Kilpatrick, Cincinnati - The potential second-round pick tried to put his team on his back but came up short despite a game-high 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting.
Siyani Chambers, Harvard - Another potential second-round pick, the sophomore struggled to 2-of-10 shooting but managed to get to the stripe enough to tally 11 points.