W. Hoops Squeaks Out Road Victory

A dominant post presence, a solid performance from the free-throw line, and tight defense gave the Harvard women’s basketball team (5-4) enough to edge New Hampshire (3-5), 59-53, Saturday in Durham, N.H.

“I think it was a hard-fought game,” co-captain Lindsay Hallion said. “I think we did some things really well—for instance, when we weren’t shooting well, we stepped up our defense.”

In the first start of her collegiate career, senior Adrian Budischak dominated the boards with a career-high 14 rebounds. In the first half, Budischak had 10 of the Crimson’s 24 total rebounds. Overall, Harvard out-rebounded UNH, 46-41.

Budischak’s strong effort on the glass was a welcome change for the Crimson, which has been struggling to find a consistent rebounder since Christiana Lackner ’07 graduated.

“I have finally found my rebounder,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said.

In its game on Wednesday against Providence, the Crimson made only 63.6 percent of its free throws, including a 2-for-8 effort in the first half, but that problem was certainly rectified in yesterday’s game.

Harvard made 78.9 percent of its foul shots, going 8-for-9 in the first half and 7-for-10 in the second half. Hallion, the game’s high scorer with 13 points, shot 5-for-7 from the stripe.

The Crimson hit its most clutch free throws—one from Hallion and two from junior guard Emily Tay—in the last 26 seconds of the game to seal the win.

“I still think we have some work to do on the free-throw line,” Hallion said. “But we know we are a good free-throw shooting team, and we just can’t let it get in our heads.”

Going into the game, Harvard knew that the Wildcats were going to be a tough defensive matchup. New Hampshire, which starts four guards, runs a lot of screens and shoots a lot of three-pointers. But the Crimson played tight defense and shut the Wildcats down.

“Our defense basically won us the game,” Delaney-Smith said. “We worked hard and took them out of their screening sets.”

After UNH scored the game’s first five points, Harvard went on an 11-0 run to take an 11-5 lead. The Crimson never trailed again and ended the first half up, 27-22.

After a jumper from Budischak, Wildcats senior Ashley Cerniglia hit a three-pointer, and sophomore Candace Williams—who finished with a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds—had a bucket to trim the lead to two. But three-pointers from co-captain Jessica Knox and junior Niki Finelli helped give Harvard a 12-point cushion with 13:07 to go.

An 18-7 run by New Hampshire brought it back within two, but the Crimson sank its free throws to hold for the win.

The game remained close in part because Harvard shot poorly from the floor, making only 35.1 percent of its shots.

“We got every conceivable shot out of our offense,” Delaney-Smith said. “We missed everything from basic lay-ups to perimeter shots. Nothing was falling for us yesterday.”

Saturday’s was the teams’ first meeting in seven years, and the Crimson now holds a 7-16 record against UNH since 1977.

The game against the Wildcats was the first of three straight against teams from the America East conference. Harvard takes on Boston University tomorrow and Vermont on Sunday.