Harvard Easily Dispatches Big Red

Although back in Cambridge its male counterpart was struggling against a gritty Cornell lineup, the Harvard women’s basketball team had no trouble disposing of a young Big Red squad.

The Crimson (15-7, 6-2 Ivy) visited Cornell (5-17, 1-8) Friday night in the second leg of their seasonal matchup. In Cambridge two weeks ago, the Big Red was only able to put up 53 points, and the outcome was no different at Newman Arena. The Crimson’s defense held Cornell to the same number of points, but this time around—led by freshman Victoria Lippert’s 20-point game—Harvard extended its winning margin by five for a final score of 74-53.

“I was pleased,” said Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “The team weathered some runs of momentum by Cornell. Cornell is not one of those teams that are in the race. They have nice young players, but they have nothing to lose, so they played without pressure. We started strong and Cornell made a couple of runs, but they were never closer than nine.”

Delaney-Smith’s analysis of the game captures the gist of the Crimson’s first game in the Empire State.

Junior co-captain Christine Matera nailed a jumper a minute into the game to start the barrage of scoring. Harvard tallied 13 straight points to open the game, and the defense took care of leaving Cornell scoreless for the first seven minutes of the contest.

The Big Red was slowly chipping away at the deficit, but with 11:02 left in the half, the Crimson distanced itself on the scoreboard with a layup by freshman Miriam Rutzen and a shot from long range by sophomore Brogan Berry, extending the margin to 22-7.

Cornell was not deterred and kept insisting on a comeback. A three-pointer by the Big Red’s Lauren Benson made the score 26-17 with seven minutes left before the break.

Unfortunately for Cornell, that would be the closest it would come in the first half. A series of turnovers by the Big Red, big rebounds by the Crimson, and steals by Matera and Lippert ensured that Harvard would keep a double-digit lead entering halftime. Sophomore Caitlin Rowland scored a trey to procure the Crimson’s biggest lead of the half, 35-19. Harvard would end the half with a 40-28 advantage.

“[Cornell] rebounded the ball well, but we beat them there by double digits and that is something that we’re always trying to focus on,” Matera said. “However, we started out well defensively, and that was key for us.”

On the boards, the Crimson outrebounded the Big Red throughout the game, particularly in the first half. Harvard went to the locker room with 25 rebounds and finished the game with 48, while Cornell could only come up 16 in the first and 33 boards on the night.

Big contributors to these totals were junior Jackie Alemany and Lippert. Apart from leading the team in scoring, Lippert also had 10 rebounds, and Alemany flirted with a double-double, posting nine points and 10 rebounds.

“Jackie had a great game with the offensive and defensive rebounding,” Delaney-Smith said. “Everyone did a great job on the boards. I was pleased with the changes we made to the defense, and everybody did a great job adjusting.”

Alemany’s three-point shot in the second half with 11:06 to go gave the Crimson a 17-point lead. But the Big Red wanted one more opportunity to make it a close game, and it got that shot, thanks to an 8-0 run with seven minutes to play.

Harvard didn’t let Cornell’s last surge cause any distress, and the Crimson answered back with a nine-point run of its own, essentially sealing the deal with 4:39 left on the clock.

Missed jumpers by Lippert led to some charity points for Cornell, but fouls in the waning moments of the game led to two free throws and a three-point play by junior co-captain Claire Wheeler.

“We changed our defense to put together three or four stops late in the game,” Delaney-Smith said. “Our transition game was outstanding [Friday] night. The change in our transition game put the momentum back on our side.”

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.