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With a little over two minutes left on the clock in the fourth quarter, senior Shilpa Tummala shook her defender and took a three with the shot clock winding down—and for the first time in 33 minutes Harvard had the lead over Dartmouth, 63-62.

During the next two minutes of the contest, the Big Green would go on to score 7 more points, while the Crimson mustered only one more basket. The lack of offensive production down the stretch handed the Harvard women’s basketball team (6-9, 1-1 Ivy) its first conference loss of 2016. Win the win Dartmouth (6-12, 1-1) avenged a n earlier season loss in Hanover.

In a game that saw the Crimson trail throughout most of the matchup, a late comeback against the Big Green was not enough to put the team ahead. After going down late, Dartmouth responded in the manner it had the whole night— with a three of its own only seconds after. After four trips to the line, the Big Green walked out of Lavietes Pavilion with its first Ivy League win of the season, 70-64.

“We have a very, very young team,” head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We rely on everyone to think the game and know the game. While that comeback was a really good comeback, we’ve got to play smart and we didn’t.”

This year’s team is comprised of seven freshmen, making them the most represented class in this 2015-2016 squad.

This was the second time in two weeks that the teams game head to head, with an earlier match up taking place on Jan. 9 in which Harvard came away with a 56-43 victory. This time around, the Crimson couldn’t seem to make up the deficit of a difficult first quarter that saw Harvard shoot 23.5 percent while allowing 46.4 percent shooting from the Big Green.

“A lot of shots didn’t fall,” Delaney-Smith said. “We got away from our system and executing our system. That’s what we’ve been trying to do. I’m pretty disappointed with the whole game. We’re better than that.”

Despite turning the ball over a season-low eight times, Harvard couldn’t close out its late run in the fourth, missing its last five shots and sending Dartmouth to the line for the Big Green’s last five points.

After holding Dartmouth to a season low 43 points in their previous meeting- a game in which Harvard led for the vast majority - the Crimson found itself trying to make up an early deficit on Saturday afternoon against the Big Green.

Despite coming up with offensive boards and steals, Harvard simply couldn’t get shots to fall early in the game.

It was again the Crimson’s three seniors that led the way for Harvard— forward AnnMarie Healy and guards Tummala and Kit Metoyer combined for 43 points and 18 rebounds. Healy and Tummala lead the team in scoring thus far this season, with 14.9 and 13.3 points per game, respectively.

Despite the effort, Harvard couldn’t find a way to shut down Dartmouth’s two leading scorers. Sophomore guard Kate Letkewicz lead the way for the Big Green with 26 points and 17 rebounds while senior forward Lakin Roland added 18 and 11.

“She did the same thing to us over and over and over with no game adjustment from us,” Delaney-Smith said. “Someone has to step up and do something.”

In the second half the Crimson capitalized off of Dartmouth errors, more than doubling the Big Green’s points off turnovers and second chance points. Harvard totaled eight steals in the second half and shot 40 percent, but timely shots kept Dartmouth in the lead.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Healy said. “They had their run and we came back and had our run and it feels good, but one thing we’re going to be working on is consistency. It’s okay to be punched in the mouth and they hit some clutch shots but when that happens we get right back up and do the same thing.”

For much of the fourth quarter the Crimson traded shots with the Big Green. Despite making big stops in the third quarter to close the deficit, Harvard struggled to make hold on late in the game.

With both teams in the bonus early in the fourth, the Crimson got to the line on key possessions, but struggled to keep Dartmouth from scoring or making it to the line. The combination of Letkewicz and Roland scored nine of the Big Green’s last 10 points to hand Harvard the loss.

“What it came down to, especially in those last five minutes, was defensive breakdowns,” Healy said. “I think that a lot of emphasis are on those last five minutes but there were always ways in the first, second, and third quarters that we could’ve won that game.”

–Staff writer Troy Boccelli can be reached at tboccelli@college.harvard.edu.