Women's Basketball Uses Second-Half Surge to Defeat UMass

After an up-and-down first half offensively for the Crimson that allowed the Minutewomen to stay in the game, senior guard Ali Curtis turned it on to lead a rejuvenated Harvard attack in the second half.

Curtis hit two threes in the first minute of play and registered an assist as part of a 10-3 run after the break that saw the Crimson stretch its 33-32 halftime lead to eight. After the run, UMass (3-4) never got closer than six as Harvard (4-3) was able to close the game out from the free throw line in route to a 75-62 victory over the Minutewomen.

“Coming out of the locker room [at halftime], I knew I hadn’t done everything I could do to contribute for the team,” Curtis said. “I happened to have open threes, and I took them and made them. I think our mentality as a team was to come out firing in the second half.”

After a lay-up and a made free throw brought UMass back to within six with 16 minutes to play, the Crimson turned to its frontcourt to answer, and senior forwards Temi Fagbenle and Erin McDonnell came through. A Fagbenle layup and a McDonnell three stretched the lead back to 10, as the two seniors were the most reliable players for Harvard all night.

Fagbenle finished with an efficient 13 points, hitting six of her seven shots, and added seven boards and five assists. Not to be outdone, McDonnell finished with a team-high 15 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists.

“[Temi and Erin] are really instrumental on both the offensive and defensive end,” captain Kaitlyn Dinkins said. “Rebounding is something that we have really been focusing on, and it wins us a lot of games. Having them be so strong and consistent on the boards is definitely something we can count on, and our whole team looks to them when we really need boards and leadership.”

The Minutewomen had one last run in them down the stretch, as UMass was able to cut it to six with under five to play on a Rashida Timballa layup. But sharpshooting junior guard Kit Metoyer iced the game with a deep three, and the Crimson defense was able to hold the Minutewomen to just five points in the last five minutes of the game.

Harvard shot the ball well all night, hitting 50 percent in the first half from the field on the way to 49 percent for the game. But the hot shooting was not an indicator of great offensive play, especially during a first half that saw the Crimson turn the ball over 14 times.

“In the first half we definitely had a stretch there where we kept turning the ball over,” Dinkins said. “We kept trying to get a shot off of the first ball screen or the first pass; we were just trying to thread the needle and it wasn’t working. In the second half we tried to get a little more ball movement, throw more fakes, and make the defense work harder.”

Harvard took an early 10-6 lead out of the gates behind two layups from Fagbenle and treys from Curtis and Dinkins, but the Minutewomen were able to claw back and tie it at 12-12 with 13 minutes left in the half.

Two quick threes for the Crimson coming out of a 30-second timeout pushed the lead to 18-12, but Harvard turnovers allowed UMass to recover and pull ahead 26-22 with six minutes left in the half.

“They worked harder than us [in the first half], which is unacceptable for us,” Curtis said. “But in the second half I thought we really turned it around and played as a team, and, ultimately, that is what won us the game.”

Harvard succeeded in cleaning up its passing in the second half, only turning the ball over 8 times while assisting on 11 of its 14 made baskets. The Crimson also upped its defensive intensity, holding the Minutewomen to just 32 percent shooting in the second half and 16 percent from behind the arc.

I definitely think [this game] showed us that we can always leave more out on the floor,” Dinkins said. The first half was not our game of basketball. In the second half we really turned it around and played with more heart and more discipline. We saw how successful that was, so I think that is one of the big takeaways from this game.”

—Staff writer Ty Aderhold can be reached at michael.aderhold@thecrimson.com.