W. Hoops Holds On For Sloppy Win

Tricia Tubridy is often overlooked behind the tall shoulders of Harvard women’s basketball stars Reka Cserny and Hana Peljto. But last night she couldn’t be missed.

With 80 seconds left in regulation, and visiting Central Connecticut on a 8-0 run, Tubridy, a junior, knocked down a much-needed three-pointer to give the Crimson an insurmountable 61-52 lead.

On the night, Tubridy was 5-for-5 from behind the arc, scoring 17 points and pulling down six rebounds to lead the Crimson (5-2) to a 64-52 victory over the Blue Devils (1-6) at Lavietes Pavilion.

“Tricia was huge for us tonight,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “She hit those threes and basically iced the game for us.”

Tubridy touted the necessity of her sharp-shooting. “I think my shots tonight reminded our team that this was our game to win, that we should be dominating this team,” she said.

The Crimson needed a lift after a sub-par first half that saw junior forward Peljto shoot 3-of-11 from the field, the offense commit 13 turnovers and the team allow Central Connecticut to fight itself back from an early 12 point deficit.

“In the first half we were just lazy with the ball,” Delaney-Smith said. “Those turnovers were uncharacteristic for our team.”

Peljto echoed her coach’s take on the team’s careless play.

“We tried very hard to be frenetic on defense. That’s how we want to be,” she said, “But we were frenetic on offense in the first half. That’s dangerous.”

Harvard jumped out to a 9-0 lead and led 17-5 with 14:27 left in the first half. Things began to unravel for the Crimson from there, however, as Central Connecticut outscored Harvard 22-8 in the next 10 minutes.

Spearheading the Blue Devil attack, Central Connecticut forward Elena Kalnina led all scorers with 13 first-half points.

“She’s an excellent talent,” Delaney-Smith said. “We had to find a way to stop her in the second half.”

Harvard found its antidote in sophomore forward Cserny. Cserny, who had a mediocre night on offense (nine points, five rebounds), stepped up on defense, limiting Kalnina to three second-half points.

“I just tried to tire her out with defensive intensity,” Cserny said “I think it worked.”

With Central Connecticut’s most potent weapon neutralized the Crimson held the Blue Devils scoreless for the first 4:45 of the second half.

Reasserting herself as an offensive force, Peljto scored 10 second-half points, finishing with 16 for the contest.

“I got on a bit of a roll late in the game,” Peljto said “But our whole team, including me, lacked consistency tonight.”

With 5:44 left in the game, Harvard opened up its largest lead of the night, 58-44, on a lay-up by junior guard Dirkje Dunham.

“We really thought we had them on the shelf at this point,” Delaney-Smith said.

But Central Connecticut had not yet exhausted its energy reserves, going on a 8-3 scoring run over the next four minutes. After the short spurt, however, Tubridy nailed the timely three-pointer.

Despite the 12-point victory, this was certainly not the Crimson’s finest performance.

“We haven’t strung together 40 solid minutes yet this season.” Peljto said “That’s what we’re striving for.”

The Crimson next faces No. 18 BC on Sunday in Chestnut Hill.