W. Hoops Earns Second Straight Come-From-Behind Victory

BOSTON, MA—Following this afternoon’s 66-62 comeback victory at Northeastern, the Harvard women’s basketball team was certainly pleased to have overcome a 16-point late first-half deficit, especially on the road. But the Crimson, who won last Tuesday against Rhode Island despite an eight-point halftime deficit, acknowledged that it can’t expect to continue that pattern all season.

“We won’t win bigger games if we don’t play a full game,” senior guard Jenn Monti said. “What we did today, you can’t do that against Penn or Dartmouth.”

Harvard (6-3) trailed Northeastern (1-6) 46-33 at halftime but outscored the Huskies 33-16 in the second half and limited them to just 19.2 percent shooting. Northeastern sophomore forward Melissa Kowalski, who exploded for 20 points in the first half, was held to just two points in the second half.

“We have a tendency to start slow with a lack of defensive intensity,” said sophomore forward Hana Peljto, who scored a team-high 16 points. “This is typical of every game we play. We’re going have to learn to pick it up before the Ivy season begins.”

Fittingly, Harvard took its first lead of the afternoon on a rebound and putback by sophomore forward Tricia Tubridy, whose 12 clutch rebounds and 14 points kept the Crimson in the game. That lead, which came with 7:29 left, was bolstered by three-pointers from Monti and Peljto, who added another outside jumper with three minutes left to extend the Crimson lead to 63-56.

The Huskies cut the deficit to 64-62 on a third-chance layup with 21 seconds left, but the Crimson played out the remainder of the game to perfection. In an impressive display of keep-away, Peljto, Tubridy, sophomore Dirkje Dunham and freshman center Reka Cserny cycled the ball around the perimeter as the Huskies tried in vain to foul. Dunham was finally caught, but not before 19 seconds had run off the clock. Her two free throws iced the game.

Dunham, who started in place of injured co-captain Katie Gates for the second game in a row, also hit a crucial coast-to-coast layup in the final minute of the first half to cut the peak Husky lead of 16 down to 14.

Peljto and Cserny, who both posted career-high scoring totals in combining for 55 points on Tuesday, scored just 26 together against the Huskies. Cserny struggled with foul trouble and played just seven minutes in the first half. Peljto was not her usual sharp self and was held scoreless for the first 13 minutes of the game before heating up.

With Peljto and Cserny having average games offensively, Monti and Tubridy stepped up. Monti, who had just five three-pointers entering the game, hit four three-pointers on seven attempts. The rapid change in Monti’s production was likely the result of a conversation she had with Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith.

“We have these meetings,” Delaney-Smith said. “I said, ‘Jenn, I like your shot. You don’t take bad shots and you’re very accurate. But for some reason that’s gone south this year. I like you when you’re open to take the shot.’ And so she did it, and it worked.”

Three of Monti’s treys came in the first half and kept Harvard in the game while Cserny and Peljto were being kept off the scoreboard. By proving herself to be a three-point threat, she freed up room for the post players inside.

“[Delaney-Smith and I] had a little talk about all the pressure Hana and Reka are getting in the posts,” Monti said. “I always thought it was a better-percentage shot near the posts, but when I’m wide open, I need to shoot and open things up for them. I wasn’t really being guarded in the first half.”

Defensively, Harvard played a mixture of zones and man-to-man in the first half. Neither worked.

Delaney-Smith thought the Crimson was allowing easy baskets outside. The Huskies shot 6-of-12 behind the arc in the first half but just 1-of-7 in the second half.

“I wasn’t happy with any defense we were playing,” Delaney-Smith said. “I did stay man-to-man in the second half because their three-point shooters were hot. We needed to play better defense on their three-point shooters, and we did in the second half.”

Northeastern Coach Willette White said she was thoroughly disappointed with her team’s lack of intensity in the second half.

“Maybe [my players] felt good about their lead, but I sure didn’t,” she said. “I think we played into their hands.”

Harvard has three more non-conference games over winter break before its Ivy opener on Jan. 5 against Dartmouth—Dec. 20 at Syracuse, Dec. 30 against Bucknell and Jan. 2 against Manhattan. The busy schedule will provide the Crimson with a welcome opportunity for improving itself.