W. Hoops Splits at Tourney

After winning the Dead River Company Classic in Maine last weekend, the Harvard women’s basketball team (4-3) hoped to take that momentum into this weekend’s Fifth Third MU Classic in Huntington, W. Va.

The two straight weekends spent on the road took its toll on the Crimson as it dropped its opener against Pittsburgh (5-2), 70-54.

But Harvard was able to bounce back by securing a 69-66 win over Jackson State (3-5) in the consolation game of the tournament.

HARVARD 69, JACKSON STATE 66

After a disappointing effort Friday night, the Crimson pulled out a close win over Jackson State on Saturday.

“It was a very, very tough matchup,” Delaney-Smith said. “We had to be able to weather different changes in momentum. Rebounding was a key, key element and we did a much better job today.”

“This morning, we came into the game having a bit of a chip on our shoulder,” junior guard Niki Finelli added. “We wanted to bounce back from the Pittsburgh game and show that we’re in this tournament to play and compete.”

Juniors Finelli, Emily Tay, and Katie Rollins all scored in double digits, with Rollins (10 points, six rebounds) earning a spot on the all-tournament team for her weekend performance.

Harvard led for much of the game, but the Lady Tigers made a run late in the first half to take a three-point edge into halftime and came back to grab a lead with just under five minutes remaining in the game.

“You’re nervous when there’s a momentum change and don’t want to make any mistakes but at the same time you have to keep attacking as though you’re down by 10 points,” Finelli said. “You can’t think about the score because you can’t hesitate or think about what you’re doing because that’s when you’ll mess up.”

Jackson State went up, 57-53, on a three-pointer with 4:21 left, but the Crimson rallied to force ties at 57, 59, and 61 on two free throws by Tay, who finished with 16 points and six assists, and six straight points by rookie Emma Markley. Tay went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 1:16 to seal the win.

PITTSBURGH 70, HARVARD 54

Harvard’s turnovers and poor shooting allowed Pitt to take an early lead and never look back. The Crimson was outscored, 31-18, in the first half by the eventual tournament winners.

“We’re disappointed, even though Pitt was clearly picked to win,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “But we had a good gameplan. We needed to hit a couple big shots and we didn’t do that as well as I wanted to.”

Harvard managed just six points in the final 13 minutes of the first half as Pitt closed the frame on a 17-6 run.

All-American Marcedes Walker led the way, piling up 14 points and 13 rebounds.

“I was pretty happy with our gameplan and the execution of the gameplan for a major portion of the first half,” Delaney-Smith said. “But there were some Pitt runs where they had momentum.”

The Crimson’s last points from the field came with 10:34 left in the period and it did not score at all in the final 3:26 of the half.

“We kind of defeated ourselves in that we just didn’t execute the plan and preparations that we set out to do,” Finelli said.

The deficit proved too large to overcome after the break, even though Harvard doubled its first-half output with 36 points in the final 20 minutes.

Ultimately, one statistic contributed most to the outcome of the game.

“The thing that hurt us was rebounding,” Delaney-Smith said. “We had too many breakdowns in our rebounds and our rotations.”

The Panthers out-rebounded the Crimson, 53-39, and shot 41.8 percent from the field, compared to just 29.5 percent shooting by Harvard.

“This team has the ability to do well against big teams,” Delaney-Smith said. “We clearly let Pitt slip away from us and we’re not going to have many opportunities like that. We have to raise our bar.”