Huskies Edge Women's Basketball in Overtime

Jody Burrows’ hanging 20-footer as time expired should have cut the Northeastern women’s basketball team’s margin of defeat to a slightly more respectable figure.

But Harvard’s poor play in the final four minutes allowed the Huskies to draw even at the end of regulation—courtesy of a 15-6 run capped by Burrows’ desperation jumper—before finishing off their comeback in overtime, defeating the Crimson 72-69 at Lavietes Pavilion last night.

“I thought we looked tight [and] played tight,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “They hit big shots when they needed to. We didn’t.…I mean, we could have put the game away in regulation several times.”

A combination of Crimson miscues and clutch Northeastern shooting thwarted those efforts down the stretch, though. After extending its lead to a game-high nine points, Harvard (4-2) converted on just one field goal in the final 3:55, then turned the ball over three times in the final 2:59—on 22 occasions overall, many times on simple traveling violations—rendering its attempts to protect its dwindling lead, or at least stave off the Huskies’ push, increasingly difficult.

“We need to learn to maintain our lead,” captain center Reka Cserny said. “We were up eight or 10 points in the first half, and the same thing happened against USC. We just have to make sure that we maintain our confidence, and that we don’t lose these close games.”

Cserny—who posted 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting and 11 rebounds, both game-highs—intercepted Burrows’ telegraphed pass with 3:05 remaining and drove to the three-point arc, where she pulled up and dished to junior guard Jess Holsey, trailing on her left. Holsey, whose 11 points and nine assists were offset by her nine turnovers, attempted to drive the lane, but was quickly whistled for an offensive foul, handing possession back to Northeastern (3-4).

“The shame of it is, the turnovers were unforced in my opinion,” Delaney-Smith said. “I don’t think the defense did anything to us to cause us to turn the ball over. Our turnovers were unfortunately, most of the time, bad decisions…I think it’s mostly Jess.”

Huskies’ leading scorer Maralene Zwarich, who poured in 20 on the evening, capitalized seconds later, knocking down a trey from the right corner to pull the Huskies within five. Aided by the Crimson’s turnovers—one of which was a lane violation negating a made free-throw—Zwarich added five points in the final 61 seconds, including one from the charity stripe with nine seconds left to pull Northeastern level at 56, knotting the score for the first time since the last minute of the opening half.

But she missed the second of two, which was quickly rebounded by junior forward Shana Franklin, who was fouled by Zwarich—her fifth—just as quickly. She sank both her free throws to stake the Crimson to a two-point lead with eight ticks left.

Wasting little time, Burrows sprinted to the three-point line, where she encountered stiff resistance from the Harvard defense before losing her handle on the ball. Reaching back to regrip it, she turned and heaved an off-balance shot from just inside the arc that gently caught the rim before dramatically rolling around the cylinder and dropping in to send the contest into the extra frame.

“We were aware that the momentum had shifted their way,” Delaney-Smith said. “I’m sure if you kept stats of teams that hit the last-second shot and then can go into overtime and win, they would probably have the advantage. So I asked [my team] to show more emotion and communicate more on the floor to start of steal the momentum back our way.”

Though Harvard claimed the period’s first lead, Northeastern quickly asserted itself, despite Zwarich’s absence. After the two sides traded a pair of free throws, forward Michelle Decerbo powered home a lay-up with 3:36 remaining, drawing a foul on Franklin in the process. Her sky-high free throw swished through, extending the Huskies’ lead to two, 63-61.

Despite twice tying the score, the Crimson could not subsequently recapture the lead. Burrows knocked down a trifecta from along the baseline with just 78 seconds left and the shot clock about to expire. A missed 18-footer by Holsey and Franklin’s subsequent foul moments later appeared to seal Northeastern’s victory, but Burrows’ two foul shots clanged off the iron, granting Harvard a temporary reprieve, initially made good upon by sophomore forward Christiana Lackner’s lay-in.

Trailing by one, the Crimson again fouled Burrows, who would not vindicate Harvard’s poor play twice. Her free throws put Harvard back down three with eight seconds to play.

Holsey rushed across the half-court line, then handed possession off to junior forward Maureen McCaffery, who launched a straight-away three to tie it. But her effort fell no good, and, despite corralling the rebound, Harvard could not muster another attempt before the final buzzer.

“It’s supposed to be a handoff for a three, but Maureen was beside her instead of behind her,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think they were going to be covering Reka, so we chose Maureen who is a tremendous three-point shooter. So we knew we’d at least get the shot off.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.