Women's Basketball Falls to Ancient Eight Leader Penn

The opening tip fell into her path, and freshman guard Madeline Raster collected the ball, raced towards the basket, and laid it in.

That was about as good as it got for the Harvard women’s basketball team (8-10, 3-2 Ivy), who shot a dismal 25.0% from the field in a 68-48 loss to Penn on Friday night at Lavietes Pavilion.

The conference-leading Quakers (15-3, 4-0), fueled by an 18-1 run from that Raster basket until well into the second quarter, led by as many 29 on the night. The Crimson were never closer than 16 in the second half.

“[We] were supposed to take care of the ball, [we] were not supposed to thread the needle with their decisions,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We played tight. We played like a team that had expectations. They played like a team that’s confident and believe in themselves… they played looser.”

The team’s top scorer, captain AnnMarie Healy, led all scorers once again with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Her two fellow seniors, captain Kit Metoyer and guard Shilpa Tummala, shot 1-for-12 and 1-for-10 from the field, respectively. It was the first time either had taken double digit attempts without converting at least two baskets this season.

Harvard’s ice cold shooting saw the team go over 11 minutes without a field goal during Penn’s early run. After Raster’s opening layup, the Crimson didn’t hit from the field until Healy converted a mid-range jumper with nearly two minutes gone in the second quarter.

“Our offense just wasn’t where it needed to be, so that dug us into a really deep hole,” Metoyer said. “We missed a lot of shots that we normally make. We missed a lot of freebies, like layups, free throws, which can really hurt you against a team that is defensively-oriented like Penn is.”

Penn came into the game with its traditional 2-3 zone setup on defense, while its twin tower pairing of Sydney Stipanovich and Michelle Nwokedi patrolling the paint and denying ball entry. Healy was often isolated on one side of the paint, with the Quakers’ Lauren Whitlatch doubling her when the ball rotated to Healy’s side.

This left openings for Metoyer, Raster, and Tummala from the outside, but Harvard missed its first 16 three-pointers. It took over 24 minutes of game time for the first to fall, with Tummala’s trey cutting Penn’s lead to 42-16 midway through the third frame.

“We couldn’t put the ball in the basket. Period. It’s that simple,” Delaney-Smith said. “When you’re statistical leaders are [so poor], that’s no good. Penn’s a good team, you can’t beat them and shoot like that… and then get blown off on the boards.”

Stinpanovich and Nwokedi, both 6’3”, came into the game as the Quakers’ leading scorers, but were quiet for the most part on Friday night. They combined to shoot 8-of-22 (36.3%) from the floor with the Crimson’s guards constantly hounding them. Penn’s guards weren’t particularly hot, but a couple of wide open triples by Kasey Chambers, who led the team with 16 points, helped to reverse any momentum Harvard picked up.

“The quick ball movements and the shots, they’re not going to beat us on that,” Delaney-Smith said. “They’re going to make some, since they’re Division I basketball players, but they’re not great. It looks nice, but it’s not what’s actually going to hurt you.”

Harvard also struggled to clean up on the glass, with the Quakers leading in the second-chance points department, 17-3, thanks to 18 offensive rebounds and a +16 rebound differential overall.

“They didn’t shoot too well from the field,” Metoyer said. “But the big thing is you need to get that rebound. If you are going rely on them missing shots, you have to get that first rebound and not let their bigs get easy buckets. That’s kind of how they got going, I think."

–Staff writer Manav Khandelwal can be reached at manavkhandelwal@college.harvard.edu.