Resurgent Second Half Effort Powers Women's Basketball

With a 16-game winning streak at Lavietes Pavilion on the line, the Harvard women’s basketball team was feeling the pressure as it left the court for halftime with a 32-23 deficit on the scoreboard.

After a first half defined by turnovers and missed opportunities, the Crimson (3-1) came out of halftime, cleaned up sloppy passes, and took control of the rebounding game. With these adjustments, the team finally reclaimed the lead with just over five minutes left on the game clock and managed to prevail over Florida International (0-3), 64-52, preserving its undefeated home record.

Momentum started to fall onto the side of the Crimson halfway through the second half when senior forward Elise Gordon recovered a loose ball and sneaked the pass to a wide open sophomore forward AnnMarie Healy, who was waiting for a layup under the goal.

The play marked the first time Harvard had taken the lead since five minutes into the first period.

“We got open shots because we played good defense,” co-captain Christine Clark said. “We played big defense, and shots came out of it.”

Seconds after Healy’s play, senior guard Jasmine Evans hit a three-pointer that further solidified the lead for the Crimson.

“We had a lot of really great shots [in the second half],” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “Elise had some great shots, Clark had some great takes, [and] Ali and Kit both hit some big threes for us.”

With 27 points coming off of the bench, the victory was a team effort through and through. Although the team’s leading scorer, Clark, led the squad with 21 points, several others contributed as well to secure the game.

“I think that we came together really nicely,” Gordon said. “We faced a little bit of adversity going into the second half, but we did a really good job of coming together and facing this adversity as a team, rather than trying to take it upon ourselves individually.”

Emerging victorious after struggling in the first half was a major accomplishment for the Crimson. After a slow start notched just 23 points in the first half, Harvard nearly doubled its offensive output, pouring in 41 points after halftime.

“This game showed how tough our team is,” Clark said. “It showed how much we’ve grown from last year. Coming back and playing like we did after shots weren’t falling is a testament to how tough we are and how good we can be this season.”

Going into the second half, the Crimson had to make some big adjustments in order to keep FIU from widening the gap.

“Basically, it was a get-on-your-girl strategy,” Gordon said. “It was about making sure everybody knew that we had help defensively and knowing that we had each other’s backs.”

Along with turning the heat up defensively, the Crimson also began to take control on the offensive side as well, as it began to grab key rebounds and shots began falling on the right side of the net.

In the first half alone, the Crimson registered 14 turnovers, eight more than it had recorded in last week’s entire match against North Dakota. The home team turned this around after halftime, only coughing up the ball twice in the second half.

“Nothing went right the first half,” Delaney-Smith said. “Our reaction to that was turning the ball over way too much, and that was my giant criticism. We were trying to do things too quick, and that’s not the way you play that sort of team.”

FIU also had its fair share of turnovers in the first half, but the difference was that the Panthers capitalized on the Crimson’s mistakes. As Harvard missed shot after shot, FIU continued to use the offensive turnovers to its advantage, going on a 20-4 run in the half to extend its lead.

“Everything about our offense was ugly,” Delaney-Smith said. “We had to play smart and execute better.”

A further weakness from the Crimson’s offense stemmed from Clark’s early foul trouble. The senior guard, consistently Harvard’s top scorer, was kept on the bench for much of the first half after tallying two fouls early on.

Harvard’s defense had its own fair share of troubles in the first 20 minutes, as FIU guard Jerica Coley, the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, scored 16 points on the Crimson defense before halftime, accounting for half of the number on the scoreboard for the Panthers.