First Half Woes Plague W. Hoops in Split

The Harvard women's basketball team needed a win against Penn at the Palestra on Friday night to prevent the Quakers from pulling away from the pack in the Ivy race, but the Crimson found mostly frustration in Philadelphia.

The Crimson (8-12, 5-2 Ivy) shot just 21.4 percent and scored just 13 points in the first half against Penn. Trailing 48-30 partway through the second, Harvard got back in the game with a furious 16-2 run that cut the deficit to four, but the Quakers held on for the 65-51 win.

The Crimson's Ivy title hopes appeared to take another turn for the worse on Saturday when the team found itself trailing by 12 at the half to Princeton--this year's consensus pick for the Ivy cellar. But on this night, Harvard mounted a successful comeback with a 23-2 run and held on for a 64-58 win.

"We started off slow, but our team has the tendency to pick it up with a sense of urgency when we fall behind," said freshman forward Hana Peljto. "In one night it worked, and the other night it didn't."

Halfway through the Ivy season the Crimson now stands firmly in second thanks to the weekend struggles of Brown (10-11, 5-3), but trails Penn (15-5, 6-0) by two games. Harvard will get a second chance against the Quakers when they visit Lavietes in two weeks.

Harvard 64, Princeton 58

A 16-game losing streak to start the season had left Princeton (1-18, 1-5) with little to hope on any given day. But on Saturday, which was National Girls and Women and Sports Day, the hapless Tigers drew a team-record crowd of 2,192. For at least one half, Princeton thought it could compete with Harvard.

"I definitely think the crowd gave them some motivation," Peljto said.

A trio of threes by sophomore forward Maureen Lane and another from junior guard Hillary Reser gave Princeton an early 12-2 lead, which the Tigers held for a 35-23 halftime advantage. Harvard shot just 9-of-26 in the half. Other than nine points from junior forward Katie Gates, the Crimson had little reason for optimism. But adrenaline could only take Princeton so far. The Crimson came together in the second half and completely dominated the Tigers. Harvard shot a remarkable 62.5 percent from the floor for the half, while holding Princeton to just two points in the first 11 minutes.

"The first half was probably one of the worst we had played all season," Peljto said. "We knew we had to come out with more intensity, shoot better and play stronger defense."

Freshman forward Tricia Tubridy started off the rally, scoring back-to-back baskets--in fact, her only points of the game--to cut the deficit to 37-27. Peljto also heated up, scoring 14 points in the second half. She led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds overall.

Sophomore center Sarah Johnson tallied 11 points--nine in the second half--including the shot that put Harvard up for good, 38-37.

Princeton cut the Crimson lead from 46-37 down to 55-50, but a basket by Gates and a three-pointer from junior guard Jenn Monti iced the victory.

Gates--the Crimson's lone source of consistency in the first half--finished with a career-high 16 points for the game. Lane led Princeton with 21 points, including a 5-for-8 performance from behind the arc.

Penn 65, Harvard 51

All the improvement Harvard had made throughout the course of the season thus far seemed to disappear in one night, as the Crimson's totals on Friday were reminiscent of the team's games in December.

The Crimson shot just 6-of-28 in the first half en route to a 23-13 deficit and just 6-of-15 from the line for the game. The performance was a far cry from the team's 35-of-40 effort from the line in its most recent game against Columbia.

Just as in each of its two losses against Penn last season, Harvard forced itself to stage an impossible comeback. Freshman guard Jennifer Lee, who had nine points, started the Crimson rally from the 48-30 deficit, and Peljto drained a shot soon after.

Then Harvard, for the only part of the game, suddenly became proficient in hitting from outside the arc. Gates, who led the team with 13 points on the night, started off the shower of threes, and junior guard Laura Barnard and Monti followed with their own to cut the deficit to 50-46.

But Harvard shot 5-of-25 from three-point range on the night, making it difficult for the team to get any closer. Penn center Diana Caramanico, one of the top-10 scorers in the nation, garnered her only offensive rebound of the night at the worst possible time for the Crimson. Her putback put Penn up 52-46.

The Harvard string of missed three-point shots, illegal screens and missed-free throws that followed allowed Penn to win by the comfortable score of 65-51. Harvard fouled Penn an unprecedented 20 times in the second half, although many came in the final two minutes. The Quakers hit 14-of-16 from the stripe in that stretch to bury the Crimson.

Harvard did a solid job shutting down Penn's top scorers Carmanico and guard Erin Ladley from the floor. Although the two combined to shoot just 9-of-30, Penn won the game with clutch shooting from the line, where the two combined to shoot 20-of-23. Caramanico led all scorers with 21 while Ladley followed with 18.

"Our shooting comes and goes, but we did play great defense," Peljto said. "That was a highlight for us."

The Crimson will host Brown and Yale next weekend to resume its Ivy schedule. Anything other than a sweep would deal a grim blow to its chances of catching Penn. The Quakers have come close to falling in Ivy play before, as Yale and Dartmouth have both taken them to overtime, but the rest of the league has yet to figure out how to beat them in crunch time.

"Penn is a great team and they connect well with each other," Peljto said. "They're close with each other which is why I think they always pull out [the close games]. But there's still time to see who'll came out on top. Anyone can beat anyone on any given note. The title is still up for grabs."