Women's Basketball Win Streak Ends at Three

Playing in Tampa, it was a tale of two teams on offense for the Crimson on Thursday night against the No. 23/24 University of South Florida (2-1). The Harvard women’s basketball team shot a season-worst 44.4 percent from the line Thursday in addition to a mere 37.1 percent from the field and 21.7 percent from behind the arc. The 86-59 loss snapped a three game win streak for the Crimson (4-3).

Even with a 64.3 percent team free throw percentage on the season, Harvard was only able to make eight of its 18 chances from the line on Thursday night. Contrarily, the Bulls shot 90.9 percent from the line.

The Bulls were the first nationally ranked opponent Harvard has seen this season.

“Not all of our games go our way,” junior forward Destiny Nunley said. “I think that we’re all very confident in our outside shooters, but we also need to know that the ball is not going to go into the basket 100 percent of the time. We struggle with having the mindset that we need to crash [the basket].”

The second quarter proved to be fatal for Harvard. The Crimson, after gaining a one point lead at the end of the first quarter, was outscored by the Bulls 19-8 in the second frame.

Harvard kept its lead for just two minutes of the second quarter, and it would be the last lead of the night for the Crimson. After a made jumper by senior guard Courtney Williams, USF managed to build up a 10 point lead going into the half.

Co-captain AnnMarie Healy was kept silent in the second quarter. Healy has been the team’s leading scorer all season, averaging 14.4 points per game. Though she ended the game with 13 points and four rebounds, the team followed her trend. Healy scored the majority of her points in the first and third quarters, which was also when the Crimson had the most overall success on offense.

The first quarter, however, was all Harvard. The two teams traded points early on, but after senior guard Shilpa Tummala hit a 3-pointer halfway through the quarter, the Crimson began to pull away. With 5:16 left in the opening period, Harvard went on a five point run to open its lead to 19-11, its largest of the night. The Crimson ended the quarter up 22-21.

Unlike the rest of the contest, Harvard’s shots were falling in the first quarter, as the team shot 56 percent in the frame, including 44 percent from behind the arc.

“I thought that our start of the game was phenomenal,” Nunley said. “We were rotating very well, and it proved itself when we won the first quarter. I think we had our confidence start to shake a little bit with adversity in the second and third quarters, and that’s when we sort of fell apart. What we’ve been working on in practice is staying strong...from start to finish, and I think that we failed at that tonight.”

Although Harvard was able to bring the Bulls’ lead to single digits early in the third quarter, offensive explosiveness by USF and turnovers by the Crimson led to a 20 point Bulls’ lead before the final quarter. With the offensive explosiveness, USF was able to set a quick pace for the game, scoring 19 fastbreak points compared to Harvard’s two.

Fouls and turnovers plagued the Crimson, as the team had 20 fouls on the night, and three of the starters had at least three fouls. The team turned over the ball 12 times.

USF was led by senior forward Alisia Jenkins and Williams who each recorded double-doubles for the Bulls. Jenkins had a game-leading 27 points, which was also a career high, and 20 rebounds.

Williams, who came into the game averaging 28 points per game, finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds. The Bulls nearly doubled Harvard’s rebounding totals, with 55 to the Crimson’s 30.

Healy led the team with 13 points and four rebounds.Though the senior had the highest point total, she shot just 6-for-16 from the floor, including 0-for-5 from three.

Nunley sank five of the team’s eight made free throws. Nunley, freshman guard Madeline Raster, senior co-captain Kit Metoyer, and sophomore Kirby Porter added seven apiece.

“I felt as a team we needed to do a better job of defensive rebounding,” Raster said. “That goes for everybody…. We’re taking pretty good shots. Sometimes they just don’t fall.”­