The only college basketball game between Rice and Harvard not involving Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin was a one-sided affair Saturday in Cambridge.
Harvard shot 65 percent from the floor to easily defeat Rice 92-62. The Owls fell to 3-10 entering Wednesday’s Conference USA opener against Southern Mississippi. Harvard is now 8-5.
Lin played for Harvard in both of the other matchups between the two well-known institutions of higher education. Rice downed the Crimson 67-64 in 2008, but Harvard won the next year 85-64.
While Lin had a 20-point night in the Rockets win at Cleveland Saturday, current Crimson guard Wesley Saunders scored 21 points on eight of nine shooting. Another Harvard guard, Laurent Rivard, also had 21 on seven of nine shooting, including five of seven from 3-point land. In fact, the entire Crimson team only missed seven of 22 shots in the second half.
Rice missed plenty of shots, 30 to be exact. The Owls shot just 25 percent in the first half (6 of 24), though they did improve with a 52 percent shooting performance in the second half. However, by then the deficit was already more than 20 points and Rice never got back in the game.
The victory was the 100th for coach Tommy Amaker at Harvard. He is 100-61 in six seasons leading the Crimson.
There were a couple of Rice highlights from the last non-conference road game of the season:
- Freshman Max Guercy scored a career high 19 points. He made all four of his 3-point shots..
- The Owls forced Harvard into 17 turnovers, which Rice converted into 27 points
- Tamir Jackson just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.
Here’s the box score from the game.
Southern Miss is 11-4 this season, the fourth best mark among Conference USA squads in non-conference play. Rice faces them at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Tudor Fieldhouse.
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