UTILITYMAN

Like it had all game—and like it has all season—the Crimson relied on reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Saunders when it counted most on Friday night.

A series of missed Harvard free throws and a timely Princeton triple had kept the home team in the game, and a costly Crimson turnover with just eight ticks remaining in the contest gave the Tigers the ball under their own basket, down just four points.

Princeton inbounded the rock to forward Steven Cook on the right wing. While play seemingly stood still as Cook held the ball in front of him, deciding on his next move, Saunders’s hands never stopped moving. The senior swiped the ball out of Cook’s grasp, ending Princeton’s possession and, effectively, the game.

The last-second defensive effort marked just one of Saunders’s three steals on the night to go along with his 14 points, seven rebounds, and game-high eight assists.

“Wesley does a lot for us,” Amaker said. “[I]t’s not so much the points he scores, it’s the points he’s responsible for. He’s responsible for a lot for our team, and I thought his playmaking ability throughout the game was key for us. There’s no question he made some dynamic plays, and Jonah, Corbin, and others were the beneficiaries of his decision-making and his playmaking skills.”

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at juliet.spies-gans@thecrimson.com.