Offensive Glass is Crimson’s Undoing

Going into Saturday’s game against Providence, the Harvard women’s basketball team hoped that it would be able to continue its recent hot shooting—after all, the Crimson has not claimed victory over the Friars since the arrival of this year’s seniors. Harvard (4-3) was unable to counter several key runs made by the opposition and was slower on the offensive glass, as it fell to Providence (4-4), 70-58, on Saturday afternoon.

After a sharp-shooting night of nearly 60 percent against the University of New Hampshire its last time out, the Crimson shot almost half that mark, connecting on fewer than 35 percent of its shots from the field for the game.

“Sometimes you just have a bad night as a team, shooting-wise,” said captain Niki Finelli, who was one of three Harvard players that scored in double figures. “Sometimes it’s out of your control whether someone’s on fire or not. We want people to take those shots, because we have confidence in them. When those shots aren’t falling, we have to find other ways of putting the ball in the basket.”

“I never felt at any point that we weren’t hitting shots,” added senior forward Katie Rollins, who had another double-double for her resume with 16 points and 14 rebounds. “It was a very physical game, and the referees officiated a great game, because they weren’t calling everything. I’m sure we were missing shots because of that aspect of it. For the most part, I felt the offense connected well, we might have just shot worse in the second half.”

The three main contributors to Harvard’s 58-point performance were Finelli, Rollins, and sophomore forward Emma Markley, who also chipped in a double-double. Markley led the team in scoring with 17 points, giving her a string of six games in which she has scored in double figures, and she also added 10 rebounds to her total.

The issue for the afternoon was less the field goal percentage and more the Friars’ ability to penetrate the defense and score in the paint after getting the offensive rebound. Providence put together a string of runs and build a lead that Harvard was unable to overcome, using these second chances (11 offensive boards in the first half, nine in the second) to get easy points.

“Every game is runs, so I don’t get very concerned about runs to be honest,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We did a great job defensively, we were pretty happy with our gameplans, and [the players] executed. We’re good enough to be able to stay with a team like that and even beat them, but you cannot give up 20 offensive rebounds and win against anyone.”

After leading by as many as eight points in the first half, the Crimson found itself on the wrong end of a 9-0 run to end the frame, giving the Friars a lead which they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

“There’s always natural momentum changes in a game,” Rollins said. “We need to respond better to that and get on our own momentum shifts. We sat back on our heels a little bit instead of getting pissed off and getting back and putting the ball in the basket.”

After halftime, Harvard finally saw its first three-pointer fall after missing all five of its opportunities in the first half. However, it also saw its overall field goal percentage drop as well, as Providence settled down on defense and maintained a comfortable lead for the rest of the game.

Harvard did have some highlights on the defensive end. The only statistical category in which the Crimson bested the Friars was blocks, as Markley single-handedly had more blocks of her own (four) than the entire opposing team (three). Although the team suffered a loss Saturday, it hopes to take a sense of improved teamwork and communication into its next game tomorrow at Boston University.

“We all just have to be mentally focused on the game and be prepared and find it within ourselves to do the things that are in our control,” Finelli said. “It’s not talent versus not. Just playing with each other more, feeding off each other more, and playing team basketball will help us get it together in the next game to two.”

“Everyone’s very motivated and on the same page to put this loss behind us and move forward,” Rollins added. “We have a really busy schedule coming up, a game almost every other day, so to dwell on this isn’t going to help us. We’re going to push forward.”