Crimson Avenges Loss To Quakers

After having its Senior Night spoiled last weekend, the Harvard women’s basketball team gave as good as it got on Saturday night at The Palestra.

The Crimson (15-11, 8-5 Ivy) defeated league champion Penn 72-67, dealing the Quakers (17-10, 11-3) their first home Ivy loss of the season on Senior Night.

“There’s no better feeling than revenge,” said junior guard Rochelle Bell. “It wasn’t error-free, but we came together as a team...[Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith] was pretty proud of us and that felt good.”

Co-captain Hana Peljto notched nine straight points in the final three minutes and blocked Penn’s potential game-tying shot with less than 10 seconds to go with the score at 70-67. Peljto then sent the ball up to Bell, who iced the victory with a layup.

Harvard also beat league cellar-dweller Princeton (7-20, 4-10) 68-53 on Friday night, the same night the Quakers clinched the league title with a 78-61 win over Dartmouth.

The Big Green went on to lose to the Tigers on Saturday 66-58, leaving Dartmouth tied with the Crimson for third place in the Ivies, though both have a shot to move into a tie for second with Brown tomorrow night when Harvard plays its final game against the Big Green in Hanover, N.H. at 7 p.m.

Although the Crimson has little time to prepare specifically for Dartmouth, and the Big Green’s main threat Elise Morrison, Bell is confident that her team will be ready.

“I think Dartmouth will prepare itself because it’s the last game for three amazing seniors and the last game we get to play this year,” Bell said. “We’ll all be ready for practice [today].”

HARVARD 72, PENN 67

After losing four of its Ivy League contests in the final minutes—and sometimes seconds—of the game, the Crimson did not allow the Quakers that pleasure on Saturday night.

“We knew that we had to stay balanced and we knew we could control the game,” said junior center Reka Cserny, who notched a game-high 21 points. “In the past, we have had a couple games that we lost in the last minutes of the game. I think we had the confidence [on Saturday]...it was really important for us to beat the Ivy League champions. It was important to show that we were a better team, even if we had more losses.”

Penn persevered in the last minutes, but Peljto answered every Quaker attempt to take the lead. With 3:25 remaining in the game, Penn’s Joey Rhoads hit a three to give the Quakers a two-point advantage, 63-61. Peljto was fouled grabbing an offensive rebound and made both free throws to tie the game at 63.

Penn star Jewel Clark, who notched 18 points for the night, knocked down a jumper. Peljto hit one of her own.

After Rhoads hit a layup, Peljto did her one better in nailing a three pointer that gave Harvard the lead, 68-67, with 2:05 left. Peljto added another two points on free throws for a 70-67 advantage, leaving the Quakers a little time to even the score.

The Crimson’s defense, however, would not make that easy.

“We had a timeout...when we decided what defense we were going to play,” Cserny said. “We started to switch on all screens so Penn didn’t know what we were going to play.”

With only 10 seconds left, Rhoads once again held the ball for Penn and launched a shot from behind that arc—that was blocked by Peljto.

After rejecting the Quakers’ final shot, Peljto passed the ball to Bell, who made an easy layup.

“I was a little overly excited,” Bell said. “I was kind of thinking do I take the layup or do I hold it? I saw my teammates on the bench and I thought, it’s going in.”

After struggling with consistency throughout the season, Harvard has managed two complete games this weekend. The difference?

“Good defense,” Bell said. “That has been our downfall pretty much the whole season.”

At the start of the game, the Crimson was off and running—literally. Harvard went on an 8-2 run and had a 24-14 lead halfway through the first period. Penn answered with a 12-0 rally and closed the gap to 39-37 by halftime.

The Crimson and the Quakers exchanged the lead six times in the second frame, until Peljto sealed the win in the final minutes. Peljto finished the game with 19 points.

Senior point guard Bev Moore completed an outstanding weekend from behind the arc, as she registered a season-high 14 points and went 4-6 from three-point land on Saturday.

In addition to her superior offense, Cserny hurt the Quakers on defense. The junior, who leads the league in steals, tallied five swipes and two blocks against Penn, and four steals and a block against Princeton on Friday.

HARVARD 68, PRINCETON 53

When you look at Peljto’s statistics, it’s easy to see why Harvard had a 35-19 lead over the Tigers after the first half at Jadwin Gymnasium on Friday night.

Peljto notched 15 points and 10 boards by halftime, on her way to 25 and 12, respectively, for the game.

But the Crimson did not begin the game as auspiciously as the halftime score would indicate.

“We had some bad turnovers in the first few minutes so they could score in transition, but after that we took care of the ball,” Cserny said. “During the last couple minutes, they tried to press us, and we had some more turnovers, but for the most part we handled it well.”

Harvard handled the ball well enough that every player on the team saw significant time on the floor, including freshman Christiana Lackner, who scored two points in nine minutes, and fellow freshman Kyle Dalton, who notched four points in five minutes.

Cserny registered 17 points, while sophomore guard Jessica Holsey notched 11 on 4-8 shooting.

“Jess was awesome,” Cserny said. “No one could stop her.”

Harvard shot only 28.9 percent in the first and 34.3 percent for the game, but the Crimson’s 18 boards on offense aided its cause.

Harvard managed 45 rebounds, compared to Princeton’s 36.

—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.