Woeful Shooting Cripples W. Hoops

For the Harvard women’s basketball team, the only thing harder than pronouncing host Quinnipiac’s name was adjusting to Ashlee Kelly.

The senior center scored 30 points and grabbed a school-record 24 rebounds to lead the Bobcats (8-3) past the Crimson (6-7) 76-67 at Burt Kahn Court.

The loss marked the first time since Dec. 5, 2001 that Harvard has lost two games in a row. Co-captain Hana Peljto did her part, scoring 31 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. But it wasn’t enough for the struggling Crimson.

“We feel a lot of pressure to win and it has made us not play well,” Peljto said. “When teams are close we tighten up a little because we think we should win every game.”

The Crimson got out to an early 14-10 lead thanks to a layup from junior center Reka Cserny. But Harvard’s second leading scorer’s impact would not be felt for long, as she was held to four points on one-of-nine shooting.

Cserny’s production was limited by foul trouble which forced her to the bench for all but 25 minutes of action. Co-captain Tricia Tubridy, who notched 14 points, six rebounds, and four steals, also fouled out in the waning minutes of the game.

“When you get two fouls in the first half it definitely limits your time,” Tubridy said. “You don’t want to pick up that third foul [before halftime].”

Trailing 32-29 at the half, Harvard went on an 11-2 run to take what would prove to be a short-lived lead.

Junior guard Katie Murphy’s jumper with 11:40 remaining gave the Crimson its last lead at 46-45. Murphy finished with four points, seven boards, and four assists.

Kelly and the Bobcats were just too much for the Crimson. Quinnipiac followed the Murphy basket with a 7-0 spurt that gave her squad the lead for good. As a team, the Bobcats shot at a 50-percent clip in the second half, while Kelly dropped 20 of her 30 points.

“She had a great game tonight,” Tubridy said. “She was all over the boards.”

“We didn’t make a lot of adjustments to stop her from getting rebounds,” Peljto added.

The Crimson stayed active on the offensive glass, edging the Bobcats 24-23 in that category. Overall, however, Harvard was out-rebounded for the second straight game. Harvard pulled down 42 boards to Quinnipiac’s 51.

“That’s how they won the game—they out-rebounded us,” Peljto said. “Their first shots were not going in, but when you have opportunities for second and third shots, that’s when you can win games.”

Harvard had another tough night from the field, shooting 33 percent and sinking only seven of 30 shots from three-point land.

“We obviously didn’t shoot very well, but the biggest problem was that we didn’t respond well to not shooting well,” Peljto said.

At 6-7, the Crimson has dropped some close decisions that observers and the team itself might have expected to be victories before tip-off.

“It’s hard to have such high expectations,” Tubridy said. “We need to start playing within ourselves and ignoring the hype.”

Harvard has a chance to recover quickly, matching up against Lafayette at Lavietes Pavilion on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.

It’s the Crimson’s last non-conference match-up before the bulk of the Ivy League portion of its schedule.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.