Harvard Women's Hoops Impresses in Home-Opening Rout

Following its loss against Holy Cross last Sunday, the Harvard women’s basketball team was looking to rebound in a big way. The fact that its next game was the team’s home opener and took place in front of a packed Lavietes Pavilion—students clad in matching white shirts—provided all the more motivation.

The Crimson (4-2) would not disappoint the raucous home crowd of 1,202, as it used a balanced attack to overwhelm Hartford (1-7) in an 85-61 rout Friday night.

“I’m very happy,” said Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “Our last outing was pretty disappointing. And I thought we responded the way we were supposed to. We knew we were better, and it was important for us to start strong and I thought we did.”

“We were really hungry for a win to bounce back after last weekend,” sophomore guard Victoria Lippert added. “So we had a good week of practice; we were really fired up to be at home for our first game, and that energy carried over.”

Harvard looked crisp from the get-go. Freshman guard Christine Clark drove baseline down the left side on back-to-back plays to help build an early Crimson lead, while senior forward Emma Markley set the tone defensively, blocking two shots on back-to-back plays in the opening minutes.

Three-pointers from Lippert and junior guard Brogan Berry, along with a breakaway layup, put the Crimson up 25-13.

“We had a couple slow starts [in the past]—so starting off strong was [important]—it really just gives us momentum early on in the game,” Berry said.

Sophomore guard Elle Hagedorn drove into the lane and beat the buzzer off a layup to give Harvard a 39-26 advantage going into halftime.

The Hawks came out of the break strong, rattling off six straight points. A three from sophomore guard Alex Hall pulled Hartford to within eight points, at 44-36 with 16:20 left in the game.

But the Crimson would respond. Ignited by a layup from Markley, Harvard went on a 15-6 run, including 11 straight points from Lippert. The run was capped by a fast break layup from sophomore guard Jasmine Evans.

“I thought we survived the runs of momentum in the game,” Delaney-Smith said. “The little runs they had at us—and we did it by rebounding, and we did it by defense.”

“We really wanted to bury them right at the start of the half and not let them chip into our lead,” Lippert said. “So we really wanted to stop three-pointers, and buckle down on defense, and just get stops. They had a few threes, but we were able to extend it in the second half.”

Keyed by a layup from Clark and a triple from co-captain Christine Matera, Harvard went on an 18-6 run, earning its biggest lead of the game at 79-51 with 3:25 left on the clock.

Four Harvard players scored in double digits on the night. Lippert led all scorers with 21 points off 9-for-13 shooting including 3-4 from behind the arc.

Markley—who was honored before the game for scoring 1,000 career points—earned her first double-double of the season, garnering 16 points and 10 rebounds while blocking three shots.

Berry had 13 points and distributed the ball well, dishing out five assists.

Clark was active at all ends of the floor, scoring 11 points, pulling down three rebounds, and grabbing a pair of steals.

“I was pretty happy with our team defense,” Delaney-Smith said. “And I was pretty happy with our balanced scoring and our team work…we haven’t been balanced, so that was good.”

Stifling man-to-man defense from the Crimson left the Hawks looking disorganized on offense, shooting 35.8 percent from the field for the game. Harvard also outworked Hartford on the glass, pulling down 42 rebounds to 25. The Crimson shot 52.4 percent from the field, including 37.5 percent from behind the arc.

“Overall, it was just a great team victory,” Berry said. “And the only reason I got my shots was because my teammates were giving me the open passes—it was really a team effort.”

—Staff writer David E. Lopez-Lengowski can be reached at delopez@college.harvard.edu.