Berry Hits Four Treys, Sparks Harvard Over NJIT

It was a three-point shooting clinic yesterday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion, as the Harvard women’s basketball team used its deadly range to take down a helpless NJIT squad.

The Crimson (7-6) matched its season-high 14 three-pointers—last achieved against Maine in the first game of the campaign—and shot 51.9 percent from beyond the arc to frustrate the Highlanders (3-10).

The final score, 76-64, suggests that the game was much closer than it actually was. At one point Harvard led by as many as 25 points, allowing coach Kathy Delaney-Smith to give almost the entire roster minutes on the court.

“We were not the underdogs,” Delaney-Smith said, “but we needed to have a better defensive effort at times. The start of the game and most of the first half I was pretty pleased with, but I thought we needed to get out to some of the threes a little more.”

NJIT also reached double digits in three-pointers made, hitting 10-of-29—six of which came in the second half. But it was all Harvard in the first period, led by point guard Brogan Berry.

The junior scored the first basket of the game, grabbing an offensive rebound and quickly putting the ball back up into the hoop. Berry spearheaded a confident Crimson squad, posting 16 points and adding five rebounds and six assists.

The visitors never got close after that basket. After a fruitless Highlander possession, Harvard sophomore Miriam Rutzen found senior Emma Markley inside for the easy layup.

NJIT once again failed to score, and co-captain Christine Matera punished the Highlanders with a shot from downtown. NJIT coach Margaret McKeon had seen enough and called for a timeout.

The visitors still had no luck with their shots, and soon the ball was once again in the hands of Berry, who passed to Rutzen at the top of the arc for an open three, extending the lead to 10-0.

The Highlanders kept having troubles from close range, unable to make shots off the backboard. After two wasted NJIT possessions, freshman guard Christine Clark drained another three in the face of a defender.

Trailing by 13 with 14:52 left in the half, the Highlanders called for another respite.

“We had a really good game today,” Berry said. “After a tough loss to BC and putting a great effort there, we wanted to carry that effort and teamwork over. We really executed early in the game and got up early. Everybody came in to play, and it was a great team effort.”

Right out of the timeout, guard Jessica Gerald hit a trey for NJIT's first points of the contest. The senior guard was the game’s scoring leader, finishing with 25 points on 9-for-19 shooting.

But the Crimson kept lighting up the scoreboard, especially after sophomore Victoria Lippert came into the game. Lippert opened up her scoring with a shot from downtown, and on the following possession, she found sophomore guard Jasmine Evans for another three-pointer.

Harvard made 10 shots from beyond the arc in the first half, three of which came from Berry.

“We get up a lot of [three-point] shots in practice, so it’s nice when they start falling for us,” Lippert said. “We have a lot of deadly shooters—Brogan was hitting nicely, and Christine is deadly—and we like when those [shots] fall.”

NJIT had a small run of its own towards the end of the half, led by Gerald and guard Rayven Johnson, but the Crimson finished the half with a shot characteristic of the period. With five seconds remaining, Rutzen created enough space around her to shoot the trey and made it, setting the score at 43-26.

The large lead ballooned to 25 points in the second half, thanks to a quick start by Harvard.

Markley started the period with two baskets—one thanks to a nifty inside dish by Matera—and Berry controlled the tempo of the game, finding Clark for an open three and making a layup on a fast break off a miss by the Highlanders. Her basket made the score 56-31 with 16:14 left to play.

Given the luxury of a large lead, Delaney-Smith slowly incorporated her bench into the game. The coach gave her starters a well-deserved rest and allowed her substitutes to get some playing time.

"I played 15 players, and normally that’s tough to do,” Delaney-Smith said. “You don’t get a rhythm and a synergy. I was very happy with a lot of players I put in. Others didn’t appear to be quite ready, but again, they worked hard and they didn’t give up, so I’m pleased with today’s game."

Kimberly Dweck came alive in the second half for NJIT, finishing with 15 points. The visitors slowly chipped at the deficit but the final score would be the closest the Highlanders ever got.

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.