W. Basketball Closes Break with Victory

The Harvard women’s basketball team headed to Long Island on Saturday looking to wrap up its holiday swing with a victory. And while it appeared early on that its game against Stony Brook was a belated-Christmas gift, a late Seawolves charge threatened to spoil the Crimson’s present. But Harvard (6-5) withstood the late push, ultimately emerging victorious, 72-64.

With sophomore off-guard Jess Holsey still recovering from a dislocated shoulder—the same injury that sidelined her for much of her freshman season—junior Katie Murphy took the court for her fourth career start and immediately made her impact felt, netting a career-high 12 points—including the Crimson’s first eight.

“Anybody who has been in that starting position has played a big role,” co-captain Tricia Tubridy said.

But Murphy wasn’t the only one to play a large role on the offensive end against Stony Brook. Co-captain Hana Peljto, Tubridy and junior center Reka Cserny each posted double-digit tallies, with Peljto and Cserny tying for the game-high with 21 each.

“We went out and just shot well,” Tubridy said. “We came out and we were just hitting everything.”

Cserny’s total pushed her past the 1,000-point mark for her career, making her just the 11th player in Harvard history to eclipse that mark.

“We didn’t miss a shot for five or six minutes,” Cserny said. “We were up by 15 or 20 points.”

But the shots would not continue to fall, nor would the crisp style of play that characterized the first half for the Crimson persist.

Peljto—who moved into third all-time on the Harvard rebounding list with her performance—and Tubridy mopped up on the boards, pulling down 16 and 13, respectively, allowing the Crimson to keep the momentum firmly contained within its corner.

As has been the case all too often of late, sharp performances gave way to sloppiness that allowed the Seawolves back into the game.

After opening up a sizeable lead in the opening minutes, Harvard’s advantage had shrunk to nine by the break.

The Crimson’s fluctuating level of intensity did not increase in the second half, when Stony Brook actually outscored Harvard 31-30. However, six of the Seawolves’ points came from a pair three-pointers in the final minute of the game when the Crimson defense was not at its most alert, as Tubridy explained.

“I think it was settling into a big lead and our defense was often a little lax,” Tubridy said. “Right at the end of the half, they hit two quick threes. We shouldn’t have let them take them, but our defense wasn’t really that intense at that point.”

Despite holding Stony Brook to fewer points in the second than in the first half and shooting slightly worse over the final 20 minutes, the team perceived the overall level of play in the first period as much better.

“We have been working on our zone a lot lately,” Cserny said. “It might be really effective against Ivy league teams. I think for the most part in the first half, it was really good. We were aggressive and on time. In the second half, we just didn’t anticipate what they were going to do on offense and we were a little slower in our rotation.”

After losing as the underdog to powerhouse Rutgers last Tuesday, Saturday’s game gave Harvard the chance to play the favorite—a role that the Crimson will consistently fill during the Ivy season, which begins Saturday against Dartmouth.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.