Crimson Sunk Across City

By the time the Harvard women’s basketball team awoke from a four-minute nap last night, it found itself on the wrong end of a 15-0 score.

The Crimson (4-5) missed six shots and committed three turnovers before it finally found the bottom of the basket four minutes into last night’s game at crosstown rival Boston University (5-4), eventually dropping an 80-61 decision at the Terriers’ Case Gymnasium.

“We really have no excuses for what happened,” sophomore forward Emma Markley said. “It’s really disappointing, and we’re all a little embarrassed.”

Harvard came within as few as seven points during the second half and played that period to a 36-36 tie, but it needed far more to climb out of its deep first-half hole.

Nine of those first 15 Terrier points came from star forward Jesyka Burks-Wiley, who ended the night with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor and added five rebounds. She got plenty of help: each of the other four BU starters scored in double figures, with Aly Hinton and Kristi Dini chipping in nine and seven rebounds to their scoring totals.

After senior forward Katie Rollins made a layup to stop the bleeding with 16:01 to go in the opening half, the Crimson began to get its bearings and hang with the Terriers. A three-pointer from sophomore forward Claire Wheeler made the score 19-11 with 12:46 to go, but Harvard would not get within single digits again until late in the second half. Three-pointers from Dini and Hinton kept the lead hovering close to 20 points late in the opening half.

After the Crimson surrendered 20 offensive rebounds in Saturday’s loss at Providence, turnovers were the latest eye-popping stat to hand victory to an opponent. Harvard turned the ball over 22 times last night, 11 in each half.

“We were trying too hard,” Rollins said. “We knew we need to pick up the energy and get things going, but we were rushing a little too much instead of slowing down and playing our game.”

“Once we faced such a big deficit, everything fell apart,” Markley added. “Once one thing goes wrong, a lot of things can just slip through the cracks. Those turnovers are a product of the way we were reacting to the score.”

Crimson fouls and ensuing Terrier free throws stifled any chance for a second-half comeback—BU shot 16-of-17 from the line after the break.

“That’s the game difference right there,” Rollins said.

Harvard, meanwhile, shot a respectable 41 percent from the floor for the game, but dismal marks from long range (4-for-15) and the charity stripe (3-for-13) spelled disaster. Markley led a Crimson attack that found life after the break, shooting 48.7 percent from the field after mustering just a 34 percent clip in the first half. With 12 points and eight boards, Markley notched her eighth straight game scoring in double figures. Freshman point guard Brogan Berry had an efficient night, turning in 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field.

Trailing by 19 at the break, the Crimson used several runs over the course of the second half to chip away at what proved to be an insurmountable deficit. The most key was a 12-2 spurt in the middle of the period—highlighted by six points from Markley—to narrow BU’s lead to just 10. A Markley jumper with nine minutes to play made the score 56-49—the most favorable deficit Harvard would see all night—but four different Terrier scorers contributed points over the next five minutes to push BU’s lead back about 10.

The inability to put together a complete, 40-minute performance has characterized the Crimson’s losses so far in the young season. As it prepares to play three games in the next week, it will have to simultaneously keep last night’s game in the past but also learn from what can happen if the game slips out of its grasp after just four minutes.

“We just didn’t start the game with the same focus and intensity as they did,” Rollins said. “Too often we started halves not ready to attack and this time, it cost us.”

Harvard continues nonconference play tomorrow evening, when it will host Vermont. Tip-off at Lavietes Pavilion is scheduled for 7 p.m.

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.