Providence Pulls Away From Harvard

Last time it was offense, this time, defense was the problem for the Harvard women’s basketball team.

The Crimson dropped its seventh straight game, a 70-59 loss to Providence at Lavietes Pavilion. Harvard (2-8) received a career-high 22 points from freshmen center Emma Moretzsohn, but it was not enough to overcome the Friars (3-8, 0-1 Big East).

While the Crimson played much better on the offensive end than in its previous game, a 44-39 loss to Marist, they had trouble stopping Providence on the defensive end.

“I thought we should have played better defense,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We have been pretty happy with our defense, it has been our offense that has been a little troubled. I did not expect our defense to be my major complaint.”

The two teams battled evenly through most of the second half. With the score tied at 53-53 with six minutes left, Friars forward Shauna Snyder scored eight straight points, including two three pointers, to give Providence a lead it would not give up.

Trailing 61-53, Moretzsohn scored two straight baskets to cut the lead to four, but the Crimson would only score two more points the rest of the way.

With Harvard resorting to fouling, Providence made only 5-of-10 free throws down the stretch, but got the offensive rebound after one of those misses and scored, helping it pull away from the hosts.

Overall, the Crimson did well on the boards, out-rebounding the Friars 38-35, and picking up 18 offensive rebounds.

“I think we did a great job rebounding tonight,” said co-captain and forward Maureen McCaffery.

Starting forwards Christiana Lackner, a junior, and McCaffery led Harvard with eight and six rebounds, respectively. Both of them, however, were in foul trouble throughout the game. Each had two fouls at halftime and were limited in the second half by more foul problems.

“I don’t like to let [Christiana Lackner] and Maureen [McCaffery] get into foul trouble because they bring some defensive experience to the floor,” Delaney-Smith said. “[Lackner] for whatever reason was making some late, poor defensive decisions which maybe got her into foul trouble, or maybe she tried to do a little too much which got her into trouble. Generally she is one of our smartest defenders. So I felt that hurt us. Having her sit so much in the first half, I wasn’t happy about that.”

The Crimson went in to the locker room at halftime down 34-30.

“Our defense was not very good in the first half,” Delaney-Smith said. “It allowed Providence a comfort zone that we shouldn’t have allowed them. They shot 52 percent from the floor in the first half. That was the result of, I feel, a defense that should have been better.”

The second half didn’t start any better, as the Friars opened with an 8-3 run to take their largest lead of the game to that point, at 42-33. Harvard was able to rally, outscoring Providence 13-1 over a stretch of play to take a 46-43 lead with 11:20 to play.

Snyder, who scored 17 points for the Friars, would tie the game with a three on the next possession and Providence would never trail again, as the Crimson could not go on another run.

“There were spurts of greatness,” McCaffery said. “But we didn’t play the whole game. That’s been our problem. We can’t play a full 30 minutes, we will have a good couple minutes here and there, but not so good after that. We need to have a complete game.”

Harvard was led by its freshmen, Moretzsohn, who scored more points than she had in the previous games combined, and guard Emily Tay, who pitched in with 10 points and seven assists.

“[Tay and Moretzsohn] both have enormous potential,” Delaney-Smith said. “They are two players who are getting better and better in every practice and every game, so I think they have exciting futures. I’m not surprised by this performance, I believe they have that ability.”

The Crimson was without co-captain guard Jess Holsey, who missed her fourth straight game with an injury. Delaney-Smith expects her back in early January.

Harvard players will now enjoy a short break for Christmas, starting on Thursday and returning to practice Monday. The next game is Dec. 28 against Hofstra at Lavietes Pavilion.