Women's Basketball Clinches Share of Ivy Title

From the basement to the Big Dance: that might be the best way to characterize the Harvard women’s basketball team’s season.

On Dec. 21, the team suffered a 87-77 setback to crosstown rival Northeastern to fall to 1-10 on the season. Two months later, thanks to nine straight wins in Ivy League play, the Crimson is one victory away from a definite berth in the NCAA Tournament.

With weekend wins over Penn and Princeton, coupled with back-to-back Dartmouth losses, Harvard seized a three-game lead in the league standings and clinched at least a share of its tenth Ivy title.

After a hard-fought 66-59 victory over the Quakers Friday evening at the Palestra, the Crimson (12-12, 10-1 Ivy) cruised to the weekend sweep on Saturday, defeating the Tigers, 66-51, at Jadwin Gym.

“Honestly, I am very proud,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “It was not our best basketball this weekend, but they found a way to pull through.”

Best basketball or not, it left the Crimson needing only one win in its next three games—against Cornell, Columbia, and Dartmouth—to lock up the Ivy League title and the automatic NCAA bid.

But Delaney-Smith wants her team to remain focused on its next challenge,

“We take it one day at a time. A share of the title does not mean the NCAA’s,” she said. “We will not look ahead. Right now we are focused on next Friday’s game [against Cornell].”

Harvard returns to Lavietes Pavillion for its final three regular-season games. The Crimson plays the Big Red on Friday, the Lions on Saturday, and its regular-season finale against the Big Green the following Tuesday.

HARVARD 66, PRINCETON 51

Behind strong efforts from senior Christiana Lackner and sophomore Niki Finelli, the Crimson rolled past Princeton to win its ninth consecutive game and hit the .500 mark for the first time this season.

“Our team chemistry is part of our winning,” sophomore Emily Tay said. “We couldn’t have pulled it off at the start of the season. It was crazy in the locker room when it was announced we were .500.”

Harvard started the game strong with a 10-2 run, stretching that lead to 21-9 on a Lackner jumper with 11:17 remaining in the first half. Princeton would not get closer than seven for the rest of the period, and the Crimson took a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

Lackner led the team in both points and rebounds, scoring 12 on 5-of-7 shooting and picking up seven boards to pace Harvard on defense.

The Crimson seized control for good in the second half, stretching its 11-point lead to an insurmountable 17-point advantage with 12 minutes remaining in the game.

Finelli had six of Harvard’s 16 points during that stretch, finishing the game with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the floor.

Princeton brought the lead down to 51-39 with 11 minutes to play, but a three by Finelli ended any hope of a comeback and the Tigers would not get closer than 15 for the rest of the game.

The Crimson shot 54.2 percent as a team and out-rebounded Princeton, 31-27.

HARVARD 66, PENN 59

Led by Tay and fellow sophomore Katie Rollins, Harvard found a spark in an evenly-matched game and outlasted Penn down the stretch for a 66-59 victory. Rollins scored 10 of her team-leading 15 points in the final 6:30 as the Crimson turned what had been a seesaw battle into a comfortable seven-point victory. Tay led the team in both steals and assists with seven and six, respectively.

Harvard took a 4-0 lead to start the game on baskets by junior Lindsay Hallion and Rollins, yet that was the largest margin either team would gain until just before the half. For the next 15 minutes, the teams played back and forth in a game that included seven lead changes and four ties. Neither team could find its rhythm, with short spurts of offense punctuating lengthy scoreless stretches.

“We need to make better decisions with the ball,” Delaney-Smith said of her team’s performance. “We were not as patient as we need to be and can be.”

With the Crimson clinging to a 28-27 lead with one minute remaining in the half, Harvard went on a quick 8-2 run highlighted by a Tay jumper at the buzzer to go into the locker room up by seven, 36-29.

The second half featured more of the same, with Penn chipping away at the Crimson’s halftime lead to tie it at 47 on a Joey Rhoads jumper with 10:30 remaining in the game.

In the game’s waning minutes, however, Rollins provided the spark Harvard needed, scoring 10 points in the final 6:30. With Harvard up by just two points with a little over a minute remaining, Rollins scored five of her team’s last seven to stretch a 59-57 lead to a 66-59 final.