Women's Basketball Goes 1-1 on North Dakota Road Trip

After losing just one starter from the 2011-12 squad, a deep Harvard women’s basketball team entered 2012-13 with questions surrounding who would become this team’s leaders and contributors. Through two games a host of answers have emerged.

In an 81-72 loss to North Dakota State on Friday, four Crimson players scored in double figures. Two days later, five contributed at least 10 points in a 65-52 win over North Dakota.

“I’ve never played on a team that’s so deep and that has so many scoring threats,” co-captain Emma Golen said. “I think that’s a huge strength of our team coming into this year, just the fact that we have so many scoring options.”

HARVARD 65, NORTH DAKOTA 52

The Crimson jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back on Sunday, topping North Dakota at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, N.D.

Last year, it was UND that gained a quick lead and held on for a 60-57 victory, but this time around, North Dakota was held scoreless for the first three minutes and entered halftime with just 19 points. On the day, UND shot just 33 percent from the field.

“What Emma and I talked about in the locker room…was that it was all about defense [on Sunday],” co-captain Miriam Rutzen said. “And I think that defensive mentality allowed us to get easy buckets on the other end.”

Most of those easy buckets were distributed among four scorers that combined for 59 of the Crimson’s 65 points. Junior Christine Clark led the team with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting during a team-high 37 minutes of play.

Senior Victoria Lippert only made three of her 10 shots but tallied 14 points by going seven-for-eight from the free-throw line. Lippert also added eight rebounds.

In just her second college game, sophomore Temi Fagbenle had a double-double, finishing the day with 14 points and 10 rebounds thanks to a seven-point, six-rebound second half.

While those three starters had strong performances, the most efficient double-digit scorer came off the bench. Golen, who started last year, went four for four from three to score 12 points.

“I was feeling pretty confident in my shot,” Golen said. “It helps a lot that our bigs, Temi and Miriam, and [junior] Elise [Gordon] are getting in there, having a huge post presence, and drawing double teams—triple teams even—and that left me wide open.”

Two of Golen’s threes came within 30 seconds of each other six minutes into the second half to turn a 40-32 lead into a 14-point edge.

UND wouldn’t cut the deficit to eight or lower for the remainder of the contest.

“In terms of winning [on Sunday], it’s huge,” Rutzen said. “0-2 doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t sit well. Knowing we didn’t play well Friday and just lost by nine and didn’t play that well [Sunday] and still won by [13], that just shows how much potential we have, and I’m very excited about that.”

NORTH DAKOTA STATE 81, HARVARD 72

Harvard cut North Dakota State’s lead to one point three times in the final 15 minutes of Friday’s game at Bison Sports Arena in Fargo, N.D., but could never gain a lead of its own, eventually losing to the Bison by nine.

“We just weren’t able to stay consistent and get the defensive stops that we needed,” Golen said. “We had some feel-good, quick, easy shots that gave us a lot of momentum, but then we weren’t able to make a stop, and they were able to get the momentum going back in their way.”

Several Crimson comeback attempts during the game were foiled by Harvard’s 23 turnovers.

“I think there were a lot of first-game nerves,” Golen said. “The first half was very, very sloppy.”

NDSU tallied 30 points off Crimson mistakes, while Harvard netted just 12 points on the Bison’s 12 turnovers.

“It was a combo of first game jitters and a lot of new people coming into the rotation,” Rutzen said of the turnovers.

Despite the errors, Harvard found itself in the game with six minutes left, after Lippert hit a three to cut the home team’s lead to six. But over the next four minutes, the Crimson went zero for three from the field and committed a turnover as the Bison extended their lead to 11.

NDSU sealed the win by going 10 for 12 from the free-throw line in the game’s final two minutes.

“What’s really exciting is fact that we only lost by nine and that was a really bad game in terms of playing with each other,” Rutzen said. “We definitely improved [on Sunday.]”

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu.