Women's Basketball Advances to Classic Final with Win Over Tulsa

NEW YORK, N.Y.—Despite shooting at just 23 percent in the second half, the Harvard women’s basketball team held on for a scrappy victory over Tulsa, 61-57, in the first round of the Fordham Holiday Classic on Sunday at Rose Hill Gym. The tilt was the second to last outing before the Crimson starts its Ivy League season.

“We are just lucky that we are walking out with a W,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “There was not one good aspect of the game; however, when they needed to get some defensive stops and some big rebounds, they did, and that’s why we are walking away with the W.”

With just over two minutes to play and a tenuous two-point lead, a steal by Golden Hurricane point guard Kelsee Grovey could have been a death sentence for the Crimson (9-3), but Tulsa (4-5) could not pull off the comeback.

Aggressive physical play landed the Golden Hurricane in foul trouble late in the game with 13 infractions in the second half. The double bonus proved friendly to Harvard as guards Christine Clark and Ali Curtis each knocked down one from the line in the final 16 seconds to ensure a Crimson win.

Things weren’t always so down to the wire for Harvard, who led by as many as nine points during both halves. While the first frame saw the Crimson shoot at an efficient 54 percent, field goals didn’t come as easily during the second 20 minutes.

“We got a lot of really easy buckets that didn’t fall, and then it becomes contagious,” Delaney-Smith said. “What we should be better at and are better at is sort of leaving the misses behind us and then picking everybody up and making them believe the next one’s going to fall. We didn’t connect with each other today on the floor.”

Integral to the shots that did fall was senior guard Jasmine Evans. Evans led the team with a career-high 17 points, and chipped in two steals and six rebounds. With Tulsa struggling to defend the perimeter, Evans capitalized on the open lane and drilled three of four attempts from behind the arc.

“It was definitely teammates finding the open player,” Evans said. “We always want to push the ball in transition and find the open player. They just kept finding me, and I just happened to be open. They did a good job of assisting that.”

Evans, who has battled injuries that threatened to end her basketball career, spent much of last season playing in a defensive capacity, but she has transitioned to powering the Crimson’s offense this fall.

“We have individual meetings with the coaches every year,” Evans said. “They were telling me that as a senior [that I should] be there for the team not just defensively but offensively, and try to keep the poise and be a leader out there on the floor…. They have a lot of confidence in me, and that definitely helps my game.”

Trailing Evans in the points column were junior forwards Erin McDonnell and Temi Fagbenle, who had 11 and 10 points, respectively. McDonnell established a versatile post presence in the first half, while Fagbenle was reliable on the interior throughout the game. Fagbenle also provided power on the glass, with 14 rebounds to round out her fourth straight double-double.

The Crimson will return to Rose Hill for the Holiday Classic championship game on Monday to face tournament-host Fordham, who routed UNC Greensboro, 79-48, in Sunday's first semifinal. Led by redshirt senior point guard Erin Rooney, the Rams are riding a nine-game win streak and are poised to challenge the Harvard squad.

“Fordham is a really well-coached, similar team to us in many regards with probably one of the best points guards I’ve seen in a long time,” Delaney-Smith said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us tomorrow.”

—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordelia.mendez@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonCordelia.