Chambers, Saunders lead No. 25 Harvard past MIT

Cambridge, MA (SportsNetwork.com) - Siyani Chambers and Wesley Saunders both scored 15 points to lead No. 25 Harvard to a 73-52 victory over MIT in the season opener for both teams.

Chambers was a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range and Saunders added nine rebounds and six assists for Harvard (1-0), which is the first Ivy League program to begin the season ranked since 1974-75.

Steve Moundou-Missi, Jonah Travis and Kenyatta Smith all finished with eight points apiece in the win for the Crimson, who upset Cincinnati before falling to Michigan State in the third round of last season's NCAA Tournament.

Justin Pedley led all scorers with 19 points, Tim Butala supplied 16 points and Andrew Acker had eight points and nine rebounds for the Engineers (0-1), who dropped their 12th straight game to the Crimson.

Pedley drained a 3-pointer to get MIT within one and his jumper less than a minute later made it a 22-21 game midway through the first half.

Harvard seized control of the game with a 21-5 run to take a dominating 42-27 lead into halftime. Corbin Miller's trey put the Crimson ahead with 9:10 to play and Chambers made three shots from beyond the arc during the final four minutes.

The Crimson's advantage never dipped under 13 points and swelled to as much as 23 on Zena Edosomwan's dunk with 6:10 to play.

Game Notes

Harvard now leads 52-9 in the all-time series ... The Crimson made 24-of-44 of their shots (54.5 percent), while the Engineers were 18-of-45 (40.0 percent) ... Harvard, which is 50-3 at Lavietes Pavilion since the start of the 2010-11 season, scored 21 points off 17 MIT turnovers.