Women's Basketball Collapses at Fordham, Eliminated from WNIT

UPDATED: March 19, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.

NEW YORK — Two halves on Friday night epitomized the encouraging potential, all too frequently replaced by disappointment and frustration, that has typified the season for Harvard women’s basketball.

The Crimson (18-11, 10-4 Ivy) entered the evening hoping to extend its postseason, but left Rose Hill Gymnasium rueing what could have been, suffering a season-ending 65-47 loss to Fordham in a game that left head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith nothing short of perplexed.

“For whatever reason, even with defense as good as Fordham played, we’ve seen that before,” Delaney-Smith said. “I just had kids that normally don’t fall apart, fall apart, and I don’t know why.”

Despite Harvard carrying a 33-24 lead into halftime, the Rams (24-9, 12-4 Atlantic 10) utterly dominated the third and fourth quarters, outscoring the visitors by a 41-14 mark.

Fordham’s redshirt freshman guard Bre Cavanaugh took over the game after the intermission and finished the contest with 26 points, registering 19 second half points to outscore the entire Crimson team by five points.

Harvard’s defeat in New York was its second straight in an NIT game after dropping last year’s second round contest to St. John’s. Friday night’s game represented the Crimson’s sixth appearance in the past seven NITs, but despite the stage’s familiarity, prior experiences did nothing to quell Harvard’s inexplicable second-half meltdown.

Supporting Cavanaugh’s heroic 39-minute performance, the Rams clamped down on Harvard sophomore guard Katie Benzan, limiting her to just eight points, three of which came late in garbage time. Benzan was frustrated by the same face-guarding defense that Penn employed at the Ivy League tournament to neutralize the Wellesley, Mass., native for large chunks of the game.

The matchup was an opportunity to extend the season of seniors Taylor Rooks and Kirby Porter, who have both been key cogs for the team this season. While Porter served as a captain, Rooks battled injury after her transfer from Stanford, but has played a crucial role this season as the team’s second leading scorer.

“I just respect them so much as leaders, and the effort and the example that they have set for this team is unmatched,” said junior co-captain Madeline Raster of the graduating seniors. “We are really going to miss them next year.”

In her last time donning the Crimson colors, Rooks came out firing early Friday night, knocking down several jump shots from beyond the arc on her way to a 10-point quarter. The Warren, N.J., native’s efforts were needed to keep the visitors in the game, with Benzan drawing much of the Rams’ defensive attention while fellow frontcourt players’ Jeannie Boehm and Jadyn Bush struggled to score.

Even the typical boost that junior guard Sydney Skinner provided off the bench as a sixth man was noticeably absent on Friday night. Skinner was held to two-of-seven shooting, along with five turnovers in 30 minutes of action.

Despite the team’s scoring troubles, Harvard led by a 19-13 margin at the end of the first quarter due to Rooks’ efforts. Though the team pushing the lead to nine entering halftime, the Crimson appeared entirely unprepared for Fordham’s second half barrage. Fueled in part by a raucous crowd at Rose Hill, which loudly implored its team and the referees throughout the game, the squad out of Cambridge collapsed.

In many ways, Friday night’s loss represented the struggles that Harvard has become familiar with away from Lavietes Pavilion. Despite the contest being the Crimson’s first loss when leading at halftime, the 20 turnovers and the -11 rebound margin were all too recognizable signs of a road defeat.

The Rams excelled at home this season, cruising to a 14-3 mark before Friday, while Harvard had struggled mightily at 4-8 in road contests. In spite of the Crimson’s road struggles, the loss ultimately boiled down to shot making, as the visitors converted 58 percent of its shots entering halftime, and a whopping 72 percent of its three pointers. The second half told a completely different story, with Harvard scoring a mere seven points in each of the final two quarters and ending the game shooting just 35 percent from the field.

“I think we lost our confidence on defense, and a lot of the time our defense feeds our offense,” Raster said of the disparity. “We had some bad plays on defense and that led to some not-smart plays on offense.”

In addition to the offensive struggles, the stark disparity in free throws proved costly for the Crimson. Fordham was sent to the line 22 times, converting 20 free throws, while Harvard converted on two of a mere four free throws.

The officiating during Friday night’s game was a point of clear frustration for the visitors, with Boehm in particular visibly frustrated with traveling calls. The sophomore from Winnetka, Ill., struggled all evening, scoring just two points on one of five shooting and finishing the night with six turnovers. Boehm was severely hampered by forward G’Mrice Davis, who led the Rams in scoring this season while imposing a physical presence defensively in the paint.

Despite a disappointing end to the season, with the Crimson crashing out of the Ivy tournament and WNIT in two games that were well within reach, the team will hope to improve on the positive elements of the season.

“I think we’re continue to work hard, and try to just back to the [Ivy League] Tournament next year,” Raster said.

Although Harvard will graduate Rooks and Porter, much of the team’s core will remain intact next season.

With juniors Raster, Skinner, and role-player Nani Redford as rising seniors, in addition to an extra year of maturity for to-be juniors Benzan and Boehm, next season holds promise for the Crimson. To advance beyond this season’s results, Harvard will also need to lean on Bush and the other rising sophomores, to blend youth and veteran leadership to capture the tough wins.

Eventually, the long-term success of this Crimson team will rest on its ability to take care of the ball and play with the poise that it demonstrated at Lavietes Pavilion all season. Although Harvard was able to narrow the gap between Penn and Princeton and the rest of the league, beating both, becoming a fearsome road team will be the next item on coach Delaney Smith’s checklist.

“We had pockets of success, that we should feel good about. But we let a lot slip away, and there is still an overwhelming disappointment present,” said Delaney-Smith of her youthful team. “I would hope that we can learn from what we let slip away this season.”

Despite the bitter taste of Friday’s loss, coupled with a second straight early Ivy tournament exit, the future remains bright for the Crimson. A third-place conference finish, compiled with an astonishing undefeated, 12-win home campaign, demonstrate the potential for greatness for the future of Harvard women’s basketball.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: March 19, 2018

A previous version of this article incorrectly indicated that Harvard lost in the opening round of last year's NIT. In fact, the Crimson won that game and subsequently lost in the second round.

—Staff writer Amir Mamdani can be reached at amir.mamdani@thecrimson.com.