SIDEBAR: Harvard Offense Stumped In Loss

HANOVER, N.H.—First Brittney Smith, then her sister Margaret, grabbed offensive rebounds on Dartmouth’s final possession of the game, keeping the ball with the Big Green as the team clinched the Ivy League title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

For the Harvard women’s basketball team, this was the story of the night as a whole.

The Crimson was completely manhandled on the boards, getting outrebounded, 51-27, in the 13-point loss. Of the 51 Dartmouth rebounds, 20 came via the offensive glass, leading to 15 second-chance points.

Good rebounding has been a staple of the physical Big Green squad all year, and its athletic prowess helped to expose the Crimson’s deficiency in the area.

“We know they’re strong rebounders, so we knew we had to keep them off the boards,” senior forward Katie Rollins said. “They’re a great defensive team—number one statistically—so we had to find a way to put the ball in the basket. And we didn’t do either of those things.”

With Harvard leading the league in scoring, the game had been billed as a battle of offense versus defense. As it turned out, Dartmouth was better on both ends of the floor.

The Big Green shot 41 percent from the field and had three players in double figures. 36 of the team’s 64 points came in the paint, as Dartmouth was able to outmuscle the Crimson down low. The Big Green was consistently able to use its athleticism to find holes in the Harvard zone, leading to a number of easy baskets.

The Crimson, on the other hand, was made to work for everything. The Big Green defense held the Crimson to just 51 points, 19 below its season average.

Most impressive, though, was how Dartmouth was able to shut down Harvard’s two most dangerous weapons, sophomore Emma Markley and co-captain Emily Tay. The two lead the Crimson in scoring, averaging 14.1 and 12.8 points per game respectively. Markley and Tay’s success this season has been due, in large part, to their athleticism.

The 6’3 Markley has the speed of a guard, controlling her body as if she were half her size. And Tay flashes her natural gifts on a regular basis—anyone who has made the trip across the river to Lavietes Pavilion will have seen her fly through the air and sneak in a reverse layup.

But last night, the two were almost non-factors. Markley managed to finish the game with 11 points, but was limited by some early foul trouble that prevented her from finding her usual rhythm.

“[Dartmouth’s] really athletic, really physical,” Rollins said. “We found ourselves going over their back and fouling them.”

Tay, who scored a career-high 34 points on Saturday, went into halftime scoreless, with only one assist to show for her 20 minutes of play. The senior was never really able to penetrate the Big Green’s zone, and at times seemed hesitant to push the tempo.

“We were playing not to lose instead of playing to win and attacking them,” Rollins said.

Dartmouth’s speed on the court allowed the team to use a quick double team to shut down Markley and Tay, and the Big Green was never really challenged by the Harvard offense.

But with the stands in Leede Arena full of Dartmouth fans in awe of their team’s physical gifts, there was at least one person who left the building talking about the mental side of the game.

“I think we’re just as athletic, they’re a little taller,” Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “They just played looser than we did—we were real tight.”

However, the knowledge that Harvard could have dealt better with the Big Green’s athleticism will be little consolation. Dartmouth now heads to the NCAA Tournament, while the Crimson settles for the WNIT.

“To be honest, there was nothing good about the game except how Dartmouth played,” Delaney-Smith said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.