Just Out of Reach

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Two long, lonely years have passed since the Harvard women’s basketball team last took part in the pageantry of March Madness.

After Saturday night, the Crimson will have to wait at least one more.

Behind the hot shooting of point guard Angela Soriaga and a swarming defensive effort, the Dartmouth Big Green (17-10, 13-2 Ivy) knocked off Harvard (20-8, 12-3), its recently crowned Ivy League co-champion, by a score of 75-61 at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center. It took the Big Green two full attempts in one week to claim the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid against the red-hot Crimson.

“We changed the defenses constantly,” Dartmouth coach Chris Wielgus said. “We changed a lot up. We changed the rhythm of our game. We never think Harvard, or any of our Ivy opponents, are ever really out of a ballgame.”

Wielgus’ wisdom proved true in the teams’ previous two matchups. Harvard accomplished, but later squandered, a 19-point comeback in Hanover on Jan. 8 and pulled off a magical 14-point come-from-behind victory in Cambridge on Tuesday to force the playoff.

Finding itself down by a 41-28 margin with 18:04 left on Saturday night, Harvard hit consecutive three-pointers to cut the lead to seven.

Dartmouth center Elise Morrison said the Big Green hoped not to “screw up like last time.”

“I think they prepared for that,” Harvard captain Reka Cserny said. “Because in the first two games I think they were too comfortable when they were up by like 15 and that’s why we could come back. And I think this time they focused more.”

And so when the Crimson pulled within seven, it tried, and failed, to find the same spark that brought it to life on Tuesday.

Junior forward Maureen McCaffery, who sparked the team with four threes last week, shot 1-of-8 from behind the arc on Saturday.

Senior guard Katie Murphy, who converted countless big plays on both ends to help Harvard to a championship, nonetheless found herself scoreless from the field.

Even Reka Cserny, recently named Ivy League Player of the Year by a vote of the coaches, was held to 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting.

“You have to put the ball in the basket to win, basically,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “To overanalyze the win, we couldn’t put the ball in the ocean tonight. Shots that normally go for us didn’t go.”

And thus, a comeback never materialized. Dartmouth clamped down on defense, changing zones and instituting a collection of “subtle” changes, according to Wielgus.

“Basketball’s a series of broken plays,” she said, “and it runs in alternating currents. It doesn’t flow one way or the other. And you have to just maintain a certain amount of control of the momentum.”

While Harvard struggled from the field in the game’s waning moments—the Crimson shot a lackluster 6-of-30 from three-point range during the game—Dartmouth point guard Angela Soriaga devastated the Crimson with a series of cuts to the basket and dead-on jump-shots. She finished with 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

Her three with 12:31 left in the first half gave the Big Green its final, permanent advantage.

“I was just looking to be aggressive,” she said.

In all, it was a melancholy ending for a Harvard team that surprised observers with its gutsy championship run in the first place.

Cserny and Murphy, together the heart and soul of the Crimson squad, each exited in the final minute of the contest to standing ovations and teary salutes.

“This is a team that had peaks and valleys,” Delaney-Smith said. “I honestly feel that the seniors’ leadership allowed us to be co-champions. I just adore them for that.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.