The Harvard men’s basketball team played a barn-burner of a game against Columbia on Friday night that took three overtimes and two separate buzzer-beaters to force the extra periods in order to decide the eventual outcome. They walked away with the 98-96 win, led by Bryce Aiken, who finished with 44 points and was responsible for a three-pointer at the end of the first overtime to keep the Crimson alive.
Harvard was leading 69-66 with just seconds remaining in regulation when Columbia’s Gabe Stefanini took the inbounds pass the length of the court and drained a three at the top of the key to force the first overtime. Stefanini finished with 26 points for the Lions.
Columbia led 81-78 in the waning seconds of the first OT, and that’s when Aiken put up a wild shot at the sound of the buzzer to force yet another overtime.
Harvard’s win over Columbia included all this 😳:
– Buzzer-beater 3 to force OT
– Buzzer-beater 3 to force 2OT
– Clutch 3 to force 3OT pic.twitter.com/CsGNolD5CU— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 9, 2019
But the theatrics didn’t end there. Harvard led 98-96 toward the end of the third overtime when they fouled the Lions’ Quinton Adlesh as he hoisted a three-pointer as time expired and sent him to the line for the potential game-winning free-throws. But Adlesh would miss all three gimmes and allow Harvard to escape with the win.
The game was an instant classic for a Harvard basketball team that isn’t necessarily known as a hoops powerhouse in the collegiate ranks. Regardless, they’ll be happy to etch this one into the history books as one of the most memorable in school history.
