In an early Friday evening battle between fifth-place teams at Lavietes Pavilion, the Brown men’s basketball team held Harvard without a bucket for over nine minutes in the second half to help overcome an 11-point deficit and come away with a hard-fought 59-52 victory.

The result marks the eighth time in the last nine meetings between the two New England rivals that the visiting team came away with the win.

After all of the Ancient Eight’s contests were in the books for the evening, the Bears (14-11, 6-6 Ivy), which evened their season series with the Crimson (10-15, 5-7), sit alone in fifth place one game off the pace of Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton. Harvard, meanwhile, is alone in sixth place with only two games left in the regular season.

While Harvard opened a small 5-4 lead over the game’s first four minutes, the bigger news was the two quick fouls picked up by Brown junior forward Landon Lewis.

Despite the big man having to play cautiously, the rest of the Bears picked up the slack.

Senior guard Kino Lilly Jr. nailed a deep three from the top of the key to spark an 8-0 run that put Brown up 12-5.

Bruno was still up seven, 14-7, when first-year guard Tey Barbour sank a triple from the left baseline. On the Crimson’s next possession, senior guard Louis Lesmond was fouled and went 1-for-2 from the line. The following time up the court, the Paris native was open from the right elbow and hit a three to knot the game at 14. 

With Brown up 16-14 at the eight-minute mark, Harvard first-year guard Robert Hinton was backing in towards the hoop, but he decided to dish it off to Chandler Pigge, who was cutting towards the basket. The sophomore guard made the spinning layup and forced Lewis into his third foul of the game.

Pigge made the ensuing free throw to put the Crimson up 17-16 and the Bears’ big man went to the bench.

Harvard was up two, 24-22, late in the half when sophomore forward Thomas Batties II hit a three-pointer to lead a 9-2 run that opened the Crimson’s advantage to 33-24 with less than a minute remaining.

Junior guard Alexander Lesburt Jr., was double-teamed on Brown’s next trip up the court and his triple from the left elbow ended the half with Harvard up six, 33-27.

The Crimson, which have a smaller lineup than Brown and most teams in the Ivies, overcame a 9% disadvantage on the boards and eight fewer points in the paint by shooting well from the outside. Over the first 20 minutes of action, Harvard went 5-for-9 from three, including success on four of its last five trey attempts, compared to a 2-for-11 effort from the Bears.   

On the host’s first possession of the second half, Batties missed a baby hook from inside the lane, but Hinton was there for the putback. Over a minute later, senior guard Evan Nelson followed that with a three in transition to give Harvard it’s largest lead of the game, 38-27.

Lewis, who went scoreless in the first half, finally got on the board, going 1-for-2 from the free throw line to help Brown cut its deficit to 40-32, but he picked up foul number four at 15:49 mark and went back to the bench.

After Nelson hit a turnaround jumper from the free throw line to make it a 44-35 game with 13:54 left in regulation, the Bears made their biggest run of the evening.

While Bruno still struggled from downtown over the next 9:06, going 0-for-3 from beyond the arc, the visitors went 6-for-13 from two, grabbed four offensive rebounds, forced four turnovers and most importantly, held the Crimson to a 0-for-8 effort from the field.

By time Nelson’s goaltended layup got Harvard back on the scoreboard, Brown was up 47-46 with just under five minutes left on the clock.

With Brown up 49-48 and under 2:30 to go in the game, Lewis made a baby hook for his first basket of the night.

On Harvard’s next possession, Batties was on the left side and sent an alley-oop layup for Pigge. Unfortunately for the Crimson, the ball hit the rim and went to the Bears.

Lewis was fouled and sank both free throws to make it a five-point game.

Hinton followed that with a fadeaway jumper in the paint to cut its deficit to three, 53-50, and Harvard coach Tommy Amaker took the team’s last timeout.

The Crimson double-teamed Lilly, but he was able to dish it to Lesburt, who quickly fired a pass to Lewis for another bucket.

After Brown’s Mike Martin took a timeout, Pigge drove to the hoop from the right side and hit a close-range bank shot to make it 55-52 with 59 seconds to go.

Lilly worked the shot clock down to single digits and made his move to the hoop, but Lesmond got his hand on the ball and caused the ball to go out of bound off of Lilly.

With a chance to tie, Barbour found Hinton alone from the top of the arc and the heralded rookie’s three-ball hit the back of the rim.

Lewis was fouled coming down with the defensive rebound and hit both free throws to make it a two-possession game with only 22 seconds left.

Hinton rushed another three, this time from the left elbow, but senior guard Lyndel Erold was there to block it into Cooley’s hands.

By time Erold was fouled and hit both shots from the charity stripe, Brown was up seven and the game was over.

In the all-important second half, the Bears offense made 48% of its two pointers and went scoreless from three. Fortunately, its size advantage kicked in and its +11% on the glass contributed to eight more shots and four more baskets, while the team held Harvard to 47% from inside the arc and a 1-for-9 result from outside the arc.

The visitors also managed to keep the Crimson off the free throw line over the latter 20 minutes of the contest, while going a perfect 6-for-6 over the last 1:40 and 8-for-12 for the half.

Cooley, a native of nearby Roxbury, Mass., overcame a heavily bandaged right shoulder to lead the way with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Lewis came up big in his limited minutes, finishing with nine points, including a perfect 2-for-2 from the field and 4-for-4 effort from the free throw line in the last several minutes, as well as a team-high six rebounds.

Hinton and Nelson had 10 points, while Pigge added nine points and nine rebounds, for the Crimson.

Both teams have a quick turnaround with Brown traveling up to face Dartmouth (13-12, 7-5) for a 4 p.m. Saturday tip-off. The Bears lost game one to the Big Green and need a win to even the season series. With Cornell and Princeton facing off on Sunday, a win for Martin’s squad will boost it into a three-way tie for third place heading into the final game of the season.

Things don’t get easier for Harvard, as the Crimson welcome undefeated Yale (19-6, 12-0) for a 4 p.m. Saturday start to try and keep its hopes for a trip to the Ivy League Tournament alive.