Women's Basketball Routs Columbia at Lavietes

With Harvard University President Drew Faust featuring as honorary coach, it was all Crimson on Friday night at Lavietes Pavilion as the Harvard women’s basketball team (11-11, 6-3 Ivy) completed a season sweep of visiting Columbia (12-12, 1-8) with a comfortable victory, 84-54. It was the team’s biggest margin of victory this season, with the previous high coming in an 18-point win over Boston University.

Led by freshman guard Sydney Skinner, who collected a career-high 14 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals in just her sixth start of the season, the Crimson ran off 14 straight points midway through the second quarter into the third quarter, extending a 29-26 lead to 43-26. The key word of the day was distribution, with five Crimson scorers taking part in the run and four scorers finishing the game in double-figures.

“Where I see Sydney in the bigger picture is that she’s a great scorer,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “She can take it to the basket, she can shoot the three, and she can shoot the pull up. What I didn’t want to happen to her was to bury at the point so that she’s distributing.”

Harvard started the game hot, grabbing an 8-2 lead within two minutes. The Lions, however, responded by bringing on freshman guard Emily Surloff, who deposited a trio of triples to hand Columbia a 16-15 lead just five minutes later. Surloff’s introduction saw the Lions look more threatening offensively, and the Los Angeles native finished with nine points, six assists, and four rebounds.

Last time the two teams played, Harvard was made to sweat in a 69-66 win. But just as it looked like Columbia had a foothold in this game, the Crimson responded with a couple triples of its own courtesy of Skinner and senior guard Shilpa Tummala. Harvard finished 10-for-21 (47.6%) on the night from downtown, its highest percentage of the year from outside of the arc.

“We’ve definitely grown into the team that we are now, we’ve learned about each other,” Skinner said. “I think now that we knew the style, putting our players against them, we were on a different level. I think we entered the game knowing that, and having confidence in ourselves and in our team, and knowing that we should beat them by 30, which we did.”

After the run late in the first half that saw Harvard start to pull away, the Lions looked to respond in the third quarter but could only muster two free throws in their first four possessions. The Crimson’s defense was aggressive, with the guards pressing high into the passing lanes and the forwards shifting side to side quickly, forcing 23 Columbia turnovers on the night.

That defensive solidity helped Harvard start the second half with another 14-4 run, with freshman guard Kelsey Bogdan’s triple and sophomore forward Kirby Porter’s layup stretching its lead to 57-30 with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter. It was Bogdan’s first career three-pointer, and it sent the entire Crimson bench, especially captain Kit Metoyer, into a frenzy.

“Kit is one of the biggest people on the team who has the most passion,” Skinner said. “She is really good at expressing it, even when we’re up or we’re down… If we’re down, she keeps it real, which is really good for us.”

The Crimson benefitted heavily from dominance on the boards, leading the Lions 47-36 on the glass. Freshman guard Madeline Raster led the team with eight rebounds, the third time she’s led the team this season. Porter and captain AnnMarie Healy also had six apiece. Harvard controlled the paint, scoring 24 points from inside compared to Columbia’s 14.

“The kids played great,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think that we’re learning to make better decisions, see one another, and play together, which you can’t always get out of a young team. The longer we play together, the more experience we game, and I think that’s what we saw tonight.”

–Staff writer Manav Khandelwal can be reached at manavkhandelwal@college.harvard.edu.