Raster Reaches 1,000 Career Points as Women's Basketball Sails Past Yale

With two seconds left in the first half, Madeline Raster drove to the basket, drew a foul, and hit a tough layup to the delight of an exuberant Lavietes Pavilion crowd. She added the free throw to put Harvard up 52-27 at the half. It was a fitting end to a dominant first half for the Crimson, which went on to beat Yale 83-69, avenging the heartbreaking loss Harvard suffered in New Haven three weeks ago.

For Raster, the game was notable beyond just being the perfect end to a terrific weekend for the Crimson (14-9, 7-3 Ivy). She led Harvard with 24 points, the ninth of which was her 1,000th in a Crimson uniform. About a month after junior guard Katie Benzan became the 21st Harvard player to reach the 1,000 point milestone, Raster became No. 22.

“I’m really honored [to reach 1,000 points],” Raster said. “I’ve played with a lot of great teammates here and obviously I have a coach like Kathy [Delaney-Smith] who has believed in me from freshman year and has let me play and grow as a player, so I’m just really honored.”

For the second straight night, Harvard blitzed its opponent from the opening tip, ensuring that there would be no repeat of the buzzer-beater that made the Bulldogs (15-10, 5-5) victorious the first time around. The Crimson ended the first quarter up 24-14 and then scored the first 12 points of the second quarter — including three straight threes to start the quarter — to take a 24 point lead before Yale could gain a foothold in the game.

“I think we came out really strong in this game,” Raster said. “We moved the ball really well like we did against Brown last night and got everyone touches and baskets. That really helped us get a lot of momentum in the first half.”

The three triples in the span of about one second quarter minute were part of an efficient first half performance from long range. Harvard’s six first half threes were a welcome change from the first game against the Bulldogs, when the Crimson hit just five shots from beyond the arc on 23 attempts.

As has become the norm of late, Harvard emphasized getting the ball down low early on, with junior forward Jeannie Boehm and sophomore forward Jadyn Bush leading the team with six first quarter points apiece. Boehm and Bush both eventually fouled out, but not before they poured in a combined 24 points, 15 rebounds, two steals, and three blocks.

While the Crimson’s four top scorers — Raster, Benzan (who poured in 18 points), Boehm, and Bush — ended up leading the team in scoring once again, Harvard’s best stretch of the game was actually spurred by big shots from junior guard Mackenzie Barta and sophomore forward Rachel Levy. Levy ended the game with nine points on 3-of-4 shooting, as she played 22 minutes largely in relief of the foul-ridden Bush.

“They’re both really really good shooters,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “For them to step up offensively was great. We were really happy with that contribution for sure.”

The Crimson came out in the second half noticeably less sharp, as they had multiple long stretches in which they struggled to manufacture good looks on the offensive end and forced some contested shots. The Bulldogs outscored Harvard 42-31 overall in the second half, although the inroads Yale made largely came well after the game had been decided.

Even in the second half, the Crimson played solid defense, limiting Yale to 36% shooting. The emphasis for Harvard was shutting down impressive freshman forward Camilla Emsbo, who led the Bulldogs with 15 points and seven rebounds in the first meeting between the teams.

The Crimson chose to double-team Emsbo when she received the ball in the post, a strategy that clearly paid off. She ended up shooting just 1-of-8 for two points, the worst performance of her young Yale career. The Bulldogs were outscored by 23 points in her 19 minutes on the court, giving her the worst plus-minus of any Yale player.

“I think [Emsbo] is 6’5” and she had been scoring a lot,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think teams have decided to do things differently to take her out of her game. We had decided to double-down on her. She’s not a great passer yet so I thought that disrupted her a little bit. Now that the heat is on her, I think it’s sort of a welcome to Division I basketball. I think all big players go through that. It’s a hard transition for inside players.”

Junior Roxy Barahman led the way for the Bulldogs, notwithstanding a scary fall midway through the third quarter that turned out to be less serious than was initially feared. Barahman scored 21 points, two above her season average, but she had to work for those points, hoisting up 21 shots as she was guarded closely by Benzan throughout.

“Katie Benzan did a great job on [Barahman],” Delaney-Smith said. “The unfortunate thing is I did not rest Katie very well tonight. For most of the game Katie did a great job, but I think Katie got dog-tired at the end is what I think happened to her.”

It was the second straight blowout win for Harvard, which secured its first weekend sweep of the season and kept pace with Penn (8-1) and Princeton (7-2) in the battle for seeding in the Ivy League tournament, which will take place in three weeks in New Haven. The Crimson will travel to Philadelphia and then Princeton next weekend and will be looking to prove that this year there are three teams seriously contending for the Ivy League championship.

—Staff Writer Lev Cohen can be reached at lev.cohen@thecrimson.com