Big Green Proves No Obstacle in Finale

Bring on North Carolina. Or Duke. Or whoever.

The Harvard women’s basketball team put the finishing touches on its Ivy League title last night with a 72-54 thrashing of archrival Dartmouth (15-13, 9-5 Ivy) at Lavietes Pavilion, and now awaits its placement in the NCAA Tournament bracket unveiled on Monday.

The Crimson ended its regular season on a 12-game winning streak to move to 15-12 overall and 13-1 in Ivy play, a far cry from the 2-11 mark it brought to Hanover, N.H. for its first meeting with the Big Green just two short months ago.

“The pain of 1-10 and [2-11] is forever within us,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “Quite often when you lose that many you sort of give up. Hats off to their determination.”

Harvard came from behind to knock off Dartmouth, 71-68, in that Jan. 6 encounter, and completed its first season sweep of its traditional nemesis since 2003 last night with a stifling defensive effort and dominance in the paint.

Sophomore Katie Rollins led four players in double figures with 16 points and the Crimson out-rebounded the visitors, 40-27.

On the defensive end, Harvard hounded the Big Green from the opening tip, holding it to 33 percent field-goal shooting and just 2-of-14 connections from three-point range. Junior Jessica Knox assumed primary responsibility for guarding Dartmouth’s leading scorer, Ashley Taylor, and held the senior guard to 10 points on 2-of-13 shooting from the floor.

“And we are not known for our defense and never have been,” Delaney-Smith said. “I believe that we are one of the best defensive teams, if not the best defensive team, in the league. I love our defense.”

The Crimson also forced 21 turnovers, including six first-half steals from sophomore guard Niki Finelli, three of which she converted into fast-break layups.

Finelli finished with 14 points and sophomore forward Liz Tindal chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds.

Harvard seized control of the game with a 17-2 run on both sides of halftime, after Dartmouth had rallied to trim a initial eight-point Harvard lead to 23-20. Rollins contributed eight points during the stretch and junior guard Lindsay Hallion added five of her 11. The Crimson’s cushion expanded to as much as 22 in the second half, and though the Big Green managed to trim it to 12 on three occasions, the home team was never seriously threatened.

“They’re a huge rival for us,” Hallion said. “Even though we had the title locked up, this was the Ivy championship, coming in and playing them on our home court. We really wanted to play the way we’re capable of playing.”

The win also marked the final home game for the team’s senior co-captains, Christiana Lackner and Kyle Dalton. Lackner tallied nine boards, many in heavy traffic, to mark her final Lavietes appearance, while Dalton picked up four points and two assists in her six minutes of work.

“It was kind of dangerous going into it,” Lackner said, “because we all wanted to kill Dartmouth. So sometimes when that happens you get too fired up. Running off the floor for the last time, I thought, ‘Last time!’ [It was a] good way to go out.”

Harvard’s attention now shifts to Monday’s Selection Show, when the Crimson can expect to be awarded a No. 16 seed in one of the eastern regionals.

“16 seed, here we come,” Delaney-Smith said. “Everyone [says], ‘Maybe we’ll be higher.’ I don’t think there’s a chance in this world. I think the top eight teams in this country are pretty darn good and pretty tough matchups for us. We’ll have to come up with some kind of gameplan.”

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.