Three-Point Spree Gives Brown Advantage Against W. Hoops

The Harvard women’s basketball team silenced Brown’s lethal interior game on Friday night, but it did little else to contain a Bears offense that netted seven three-pointers in the first half. And even as Brown’s outside shooting stalled in the second half, the Bears compensated on the boards and buried the Crimson, 78-63 at Lavietes Pavilion.

It was a painful blow for a Harvard team that hoped, and failed, to solidify sole possession of second place in the Ivy League standings.

“There were too many times when I was saying, ‘Brown is beating you to the ball. You should be ashamed of that,’” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “The zone [defense] was awful, the rebounding was awful, [and] the transition defense was awful.”

Brown center Holly Robertson, the Ivies’ second-leading scorer at 14.9 points per game, never established herself against Harvard’s 2-3 match-up zone while finishing the night with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. But guards Lena McAfee and Hayes exposed a Crimson defense that left the perimeter unattended, combining for 34 points.

McAfee netted three three-pointers in the first half, en route to an unexpected 15-point performance, 11 above her season average.

“As soon as she hits one, it’s okay,” Delaney-Smith said. “As soon as she hits two, do something. You have to do something to a player who’s having a hot night. We didn’t.”

The Crimson had similar trouble at the offensive end, shooting just 30.9 percent from the field on the game. After scoring the game’s first five points and taking a 23-22 lead with 12:20 remaining in the first half, Harvard went scoreless for more than eight minutes and fell behind 34-25. Forward Shana Franklin’s layup with 2:25 remaining ended the offensive drought, but Robertson’s buzzer-beating jumper at the end of the half gave Brown a 40-31 advantage at the break.

“We couldn’t shoot the ball today,” Delaney-Smith said. “That shouldn’t have affected us as much as it did.”

The lead fluctuated throughout the second half, with Harvard pulling to within six on junior guard Jessica Holsey’s layup less than two minutes in. But the six-point Brown lead grew to 12 with just under 15 minutes remaining, and the Crimson never came within single digits again.

“We dug ourselves too big a hole,” senior guard Katie Murphy said. “We were down by 15, and if we made a five-point run, we were still down 10. It was hard to get the momentum.”

Harvard shot just 9-of-35 in the second half, its post game bullied by the Bears’ physical interior defense. Captain Reka Cserny, who had averaged 21.5 points in her last four outings, found her path to the basket blocked by Robertson and reserve Ashley King-Bischof. Cserny shot 3-of-15 during the evening and finished with 11 points, with many of her shots deflected by Brown forwards.

“Reka had an off-night, which is unfortunate,” Delaney-Smith said. “You can’t play a team playing as well as they played tonight and have Reka be off.”

Meanwhile, the Brown offense appeared to hit nearly everything in sight. At halftime, Delaney-Smith switched the defense from the zone to a half-court man-to-man defensive set, with the aim of stemming the Bears’ outside shooting.

Hayes flourished against the man-to-man, providing Brown with the offensive toughness that its post game could not. The 5’8 guard tallied nine rebounds on the game—five of them on the offensive glass.

“That’s not unexpected. She’s a very athletic guard,” Delaney-Smith said. “We were supposed to box her out. And even when we tried to box her out, she showed enormous desire, athleticism, and strength. She’s a talented player, but I think what we saw tonight was tremendous toughness and heart.”

Hayes turned in 12 second-half tallies, most of them on second-chance points or layups.

When Harvard collapsed on the perimeter, Hayes dismantled the man-to-man defense with quick drives to the lane. She finished with a game-high 19 points and four assists.

Holsey was the top performer for the Crimson, recording 19 points and three assists before she fouled out with less than three minutes remaining. Junior forward Maureen McCaffery finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

Brown shot 46.2 percent from the floor, the third-highest percentage Harvard has surrendered all season. Four Brown players—Robertson, Hayes, McAfee, and reserve guard Jackie Vocell (11 points)—scored in double figures. Harvard last allowed four players to record double-digits in a January loss to Dartmouth, its only Ivy League defeat before Friday’s meeting with Brown.

“My team should be deeply disappointed,” Delaney-Smith said. “We didn’t show up tonight.”

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.