Late Free Throw Pushes Stony Brook Past Women's Basketball

Facing off against Stony Brook for the first time in 10 years, the Harvard women’s basketball dropped a close one, 64-63, to the Seawolves on the road on Wednesday. Despite a strong shooting night from the Crimson (4-7), Stony Brook (8-5) came away with a victory after freshman guard Davion Wingate split a pair of free throws with three seconds remaining to give her side a one-point edge.

Looking to end a three-game Seawolves' winning streak, the Crimson struggled late. Following a 21-point second quarter, Harvard struggled to get boards in the latter stages of the game, as Stony Brook outrebounded the Crimson 23-11, in the second half.

Yet, after trading shots and free throws for much of the fourth quarter, Harvard found itself down by three late in the fourth before freshman guard Sydney Skinner pulled up from deep to tie things up at 62 with less than three minutes left on the clock.

But for the next few minutes, neither team would register a field goal, as Harvard and Stony Brook would earn the game’s final three points from the line. Both sides earned four attempts, with the Crimson hitting one and the Seawolves converting two.

“I was pretty happy with our defense on the last possession and at the end,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “It was tied, and at the end of the 30-second clock, a kid drove and they got the call.”

Despite the loss, the Crimson shot over 40 percent both from the field and from beyond the arc for the first time this season. The senior trio of Shilpa Tummala, AnnMarie Healy, and Kit Metoyer combined for 39 points, while freshman guard Nani Redford put up a season-high nine.

Despite the high shooting percentage, Harvard’s struggles in the paint continued. After putting up only six points in the paint against Fairfield on Monday, the Crimson nearly tripled that amount to 16, only to fall short to Stony Brook’s 32.

“Something we’re working on is consistency and being full-time players,” Healy said.

The two teams traded blows for much of the first half. After Harvard went up 7-3 early in the first quarter, the Seawolves responded with a 9-0 run before the Crimson could respond with a jumper from Healy. Despite falling behind following the Stony Brook run, Redford closed the quarter with a layup and a three-pointer to pull Harvard within three at 17-14.

After trailing for much of the first, the Crimson exploded for 21 points in the second, with Metoyer scoring all of her 12 points in the quarter on four-of-four shooting from beyond the arc. The barrage of threes gave Harvard a 35-30 advantage going into the half.

After going 5-of-8 from beyond the arc in the second quarter, however, the Crimson’s offense struggled in the third period. Turning the ball over four times and going 0-of-5 from beyond the arc, Harvard only managed to put up 12 points in the frame.

Furthermore, the struggles at the free throw line continued. After shooting 74 percent from the charity stripe last year, the Crimson shot only 10-of-18 from the line on Wednesday, closing out the fourth quarter with three misses in a row.

“The breakdown fell at the tail end of the 30-second clock a number of times, and then they hurt us really bad on the offensive boards,” Delaney-Smith said. “It come down to rebounding and foul-shots—we did not shoot our foul shots very well.”

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