W. Hoops Downs Rhode Island in Overtime

Happily healthy at Lavietes Pavilion for the first time in three years, Jessica Holsey shrugged her oft-injured shoulder and then hoisted Harvard on her back.

With a career night, Holsey thrilled the Crimson (2-0) to an 83-77 overtime victory over Rhode Island (1-1) in the season home-opener.

The junior point guard from Potomac, Md. scored 28 points—shattering her previous career high of 16—and brought the arena crowd to its feet by sinking 5-of-9 clutch three-point field goals.

“If you’re not afraid to take them,” said URI head coach Tom Garrick, “you don’t make them. Jessica Holsey was the difference in the game.”

Cheers, jeers and pumped-up stereo music electrified Lavietes, where fans got a glimpse of just about everything.

On the negative side, the two teams combined to turn the ball over 44 times. Harvard head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith was unimpressed with her team’s overall effort.

“We rotated slowly. We didn’t help each other out,” Delaney-Smith said. “We were a very, very poor team tonight.”

Defensive lapses and mental miscues hurt the Crimson in the first half, when the team turned the ball over 16 times, and in the second half, when Rhode Island sharpshooter Peta Kneen flurried 19 points and four threes.

“This was an absolute steal,” Delaney-Smith said. “We should never have won this game.”

Then again, there was Holsey. The point guard took over the game when it counted most.

With 0:58 left in the game, Harvard had trailed for nearly 15 minutes. Rams forward Katie Stailing hit two straight free throws, building a 71-67 Rhode Island lead.

That’s when Holsey answered with a commanding three, cutting the lead to one point and revitalizing the crowd.

Harvard then regained control of the ball at 0:34 with a chance to tie, but committed yet another turnover.

Quick-as-lightning URI freshman Safi Mojidi stole the ball and dashed down court on the break. With the game clock down to 16 seconds, junior Maureen McCaffery managed to chase her down and force a missed lay-up and Holsey hustled out of nowhere for the rebound.

“[Holsey] just imposed her will on the game,” Garrick said. “And that’s the bottom line.”

Holsey had the ball in her hands with 9.4 seconds left when she drew a foul from Mojidi. She made only one of two free throws to tie the game at 71, but after she managed to stop Rams point guard Justine Boisvert on the ensuing possession, the game went into overtime.

And with Kneen on the bench after fouling out with 1:30 left, the Crimson finally turned the tables in overtime.

Harvard was pushed by a superb overtime effort from captain Reka Cserny, who scored 8 of her 21 points and pulled down 6 rebounds during that period.

But there was Holsey again, whose thundering three-pointer from four feet behind the arc at 2:05 in OT gave the Crimson a 79-77 lead that it wouldn’t relinquish.

The 5’8 point guard hazarded a guess as to what enabled the prodigious offensive production.

“I don’t have a huge brace anymore on my shoulder,” she laughed, “so that helps.”

Garrick was more overt in his praise.

“She played with a lot of heart, a lot of intensity, and a lot of confidence,” he said. “Harvard’s lucky to have her.”

Cserny was equally impressive in overtime, but disappeared for stretches during regulation. Her 21 points came against a team with only two healthy regulars over six feet.

“Reka does it all: rebound and defense,” Delaney-Smith. “She’s been struggling with her offense.”

Cserny’s performed well in overtime, but her problems shooting from outside—she has not made a three-pointer this year after finishing third on the team from long-range last season—have hindered her ability to truly become dominant.

“We’re going to sit down and talk about it and rethink a few things, maybe,” Delaney-Smith said.

Helping with the down-low scoring was McCaffery, whose defensive stop near the end of regulation overshadowed her career night in the paint.

She scored 15 points and pulled down 9 rebounds, both career highs.

But the night, in the end, belonged to Holsey.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.