Loss Against Princeton Terminates Harvard’s Title Hopes

Harvard women basketball’s hopes for the Ivy League title were crushed Saturday night by Princeton. The Crimson (17-10, 9-4 Ivy) entered this weekend’s road trip needing to win games against Penn (11-16, 5-8) Friday and the Tigers (23-4, 12-1) Saturday. Harvard kept its hopes alive with a win against Penn, but the team’s defensive mistakes kept it from success at Jadwin Gymnasium in New Jersey.

Disappointment was the word on everyone’s lips.

“We’re pretty disappointed with the weekend,” said Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “We got a win [Friday] night at Penn and thought we were going to be able to get a win at Princeton.”

PRINCETON 68, HARVARD 59

“It was a win we definitely could have gotten,” co-captain Christine Matera said.

After coming off of a victory the night before, the Crimson could not match up to the Tigers in its final game of the regular season.

The Crimson women performed well offensively, with four players tallying double-digit figures. Matera led the squad with 13 points, including three three-pointers. Junior Brogan Berry and sophomore Victoria Lippert each scored 12 points, and freshman Christine Clark netted 11 as well.

“Emma [Markley] didn’t play a lot, and she’s generally a big scorer for us,” Delaney-Smith said. “Her leg really flared up tonight and was in a lot of pain, so she wasn’t able to help us out statistically.”

Harvard’s offense was 40.4 percent from the field, while Princeton’s was 43.5 percent. The Crimson had a couple of big three-pointers to stay in the game—though shooting 38.9 percent from downtown—and edged out the Tigers in rebounds, 40-39.

Princeton took a 12-4 lead six minutes into the game, but the Crimson battled back with a 9-0 run. The Tigers moved the ball well, capitalizing on rebounds and scoring 17 points total off of Harvard turnovers. Princeton went on a 6-0 run just before the half to make it 32-26.

In the second period, Matera started off on a tear, scoring five times in five minutes. The Tigers came right back, bringing the score in their favor to 53-49. On a string of Harvard turnovers, Princeton widened the gap using a 10-2 run to set the score at 63-52 with just over three minutes left. Despite baskets from Berry and Clark, the Tigers held onto their lead, extending the Crimson’s deficit to 12 points.

“[Princeton] definitely came out strong and scored on our turnovers,” Berry said. “They’re a good transition team and they really took advantage of us in that sense. We weren’t able to make quick enough adjustments.”

Delaney-Smith cited three main errors: bad transitions, missing box-outs, and lack of focus.

“It was a very close ball game. It wasn’t over until it was over,” Delaney-Smith said. “But you don’t play a team to try to stay in the race and make those kinds of errors. Unfortunately, we did.”

HARVARD 56, PENN 48

Friday night had a better ending for Harvard at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa. After being down at the half, the Crimson squad regrouped in the locker room and came out strong to grab the victory.

“It was a classic matchup with a team trying to stay in the race and a team not in the race,” Delaney-Smith said.

The young Penn squad surprised Harvard with a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the game. The Quakers maintained their lead throughout the half—up by 11 at one point—until a three-pointer from Lippert cut the deficit to 30-22.

“We came out really flat, and Penn came out really hard,” Berry said. “They got up on us early, and it took halftime for us to recollect.”

Besides the bad defensive start, the Crimson shot only 29.2 percent at the half, while the Quakers sank 50 percent of their shots.

After halftime, Harvard started to lock down on defense and improved its passing and transitions, capitalizing on Penn’s turnovers. The Crimson also scored five points in 45 seconds to bring its deficit to just three points.

“We gutted it out,” Matera said. “We started to D-up, and we were able to take the lead.”

Matera hit a couple of three-pointers to tie the game at 39, and with three and a half minutes to play, sophomore Jasmine Evans made a lay-up that brought Harvard on top for the first time of the night. The Crimson remained ahead until time ran out, extending its lead to eight points.

“I want to credit our players for being poised and patient.” Delaney-Smith said. “We staged a great comeback and did what we needed to do on both ends.”