A Happy Thanksgiving for Women’s Basketball

This past week, Harvard had a lot to be thankful for. En route to a pair of victories that bookended Thanksgiving, the Crimson (6-2) shot its best shooting performances of the season and extended its winning streak to three games. In its most recent game on Saturday, the squad knocked down over half of its shots from all over the court and exclusively from three point range.

HARVARD 77, QUINNIPIAC 68

Harvard and Quinnipiac (1-4) met on Saturday coming off of diametrically opposed performances in each of their prior games. The Crimson stepped onto the court with strong morale, carrying energy from its dominant shooting victory against Boston University that players surely basked in over the holiday.

In contrast, on Saturday the Bobcats were still licking their wounds from a 55-point loss against No. 9/10 Maryland, which scored a remarkable 107 points against Quinnipiac.

Though the Crimson fell short of Quinnipiac’s triple digit scoring performance, the squad did record its most prolific scoring performance to date this season in the game, notching 77 points.

Largely responsible for this achievement were four Crimson players who scored in the double digits. Freshman guard Lola Mullaney led both teams in scoring with 24 points, the second time the first year has scored more than 20 points in a game. Senior guard and co-captain Mackenzie Barta notched 13 points, including three threes. Junior forward and co-captain Rachel Levy scored 11 points and pulled in 5 rebounds, while sophomore forward Tess Sussman scored 10 points and also tallied six assists.

By shooting 54.9 percent from the field, and 55 percent from three, Harvard put on its most efficient offensive performance of the season.

HARVARD 66, BOSTON UNIVERSITY 39

Distributed scoring across Harvard’s roster highlighted the team’s victory over Boston University on Tuesday.

While Harvard’s offense was blunted at the start of the season by a dearth of scoring from its bench, the team’s depth was unquestionable against the Terriers. 10 Crimson players scored a bucket to help the team achieve victory.

Passing facilitated this contagious scoring. For a team that averages 13.9 assists per game, Harvard was especially selfless on Tuesday, tallying 18 assists. Senior forward Jeannie Boehm dished a career-high seven assists. She also pulled in 13 rebounds and contributed eight points.

The Crimson put concerted effort into its passing after first struggling against the Terriers’ man to man defense, which double teamed Harvard players in possession of the ball. After a series of early turnovers, the Crimson found offensive success by passing the ball quickly into the paint and then back outside. This in and out offense forced BU’s defenders to initially collapse, thereby putting Harvard’s guards in scoring situations to knock down shots around the arc off of a pass. Sharp shooting enabled the Crimson to get out to a double-digit lead to start the second half.

At the same time, Harvard’s eagerness to pass the ball gave rise to a slew of turnovers. The team, which averages 19 turnovers per game, coughed up the ball 21 times against Boston.

From beyond the perimeter, Mullaney shot her most efficient ever, hitting threes at a 60 percent success rate. This high percentage was more than a fluke; she knocked down six threes to finish the game with 18 points.

Mullaney’s hot shooting both fed off of and reinforced the team’s overall proficient scoring performance. The Crimson shot 47.1 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three point range.

In contrast, Boston University did not hit an outside shot until a few minutes into the third quarter of the ball game. Though Boston had not scored below 60 points in its first four games of the season, in its fifth against the Crimson, Harvard held the team to just 39 points.

The Crimson will host Northeastern on Wednesday, November 4 at 11 a.m. for Education Day, an annual event that invites elementary school students from the greater Boston area to Lavietes Pavilion.

— Staff writer Ema Schumer can be reached at ema.schumer@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @emaschumer.