Overcoming Princeton, Crimson Rounds Out Sweep of Killer P’s

After the disappointing opening home loss to Dartmouth—perhaps its main rival for the Ivy crown—the Harvard women’s basketball team had three weeks to mull over the fact that it needed to sweep this weekend’s play to kick start its season. Two games, two wins, job done.

In dominating the first 18 minutes against Princeton, the Crimson showed why it was the preseason favorite to win the conference. Harvard (10-7, 2-1 Ivy) jumped out to a 41-22 lead en route to an 82-73 victory over the Tigers (6-11, 1-2) Saturday night in New Jersey.

“These wins are really big, especially after the 20-day break where we had to sit with the loss against Dartmouth,” said sophomore guard Christine Matera, who had perhaps her best weekend in a Crimson uniform.

While Matera’s hot shooting was central to the victory, Harvard got a lot of help from their post players as well.

Sophomore Emma Markley led the Crimson with 22 points, going 10-14 from the field. She added 11 rebounds to claim her fourth double-double of the season.

Her partner in the paint, senior Katie Rollins, just missed out on a double-double herself, contributing 12 points and nine rebounds to the cause.

“We have a really strong low post game, so it’s just a matter of gaining confidence,” Rollins said. “We haven’t really had the impact we wanted to have in the last couple games. We wanted to really make their defense play us [Saturday].”

The two forwards made their presence known from the start, scoring three of Harvard’s first four baskets. With the score tied after five minutes of play, Crimson freshman Brogan Berry made a layup to give Harvard a lead that it would keep until the sound of the final buzzer.

A three-and-a-half minute span close to the end of the first half saw the Crimson go on an 11-0 run and take a 19-point lead.

“We put on a clinic at both ends of the floor,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said.

“We were really hitting the open person and moving the ball,” Rollins added.

Matera’s play was the story of the first half. Coming off her career-high 17-point-performance on her birthday Friday at Penn, the sophomore went 4-4 from behind the arc in the first half off the bench.

“Christine [Matera] is one of the best shooters I’ve ever played with,” Rollins said. “Her decision-making and shot selection is great. We all have so much confidence in her. She’s really finding her rhythm.”

“Prior to this I haven’t been shooting the way that I’ve wanted to,” Matera said. “But it finally clicked this weekend.”

But Princeton refused to allow the Crimson to take the insurmountable lead into the break. The Tigers answered back with a 13-2 run of their own in the final three minutes of the period to pull back to within eight at halftime.

Princeton was in the game the whole second half, making Harvard sweat it out for the entire 20 minutes. Tigers’ sophomore Addie Micir scored a game-high 24 points, showing that Princeton will be able cope fine without the now-graduated Meghan Cowher.

“I think Princeton is going to be right there at the top of the league this year,” Rollins said.

With 46 seconds remaining, the Tigers pulled to within three. But Harvard went 6-for-6 from the line to ice the game, with Berry, co-captain Emily Tay, and then Markley each making both of their free throws.

“We relaxed and Princeton ended making it a ball game,” Delaney-Smith said. “But we hung tough and ended making enough big plays to win.”

Tay had a sensational weekend in leading her team to the two big wins. The senior followed up her 22-point night against Penn with 14 points and nine assists Saturday night.

Her co-captain Niki Finelli also provided a solid contribution, with nine points, eight boards, and five assists in the game.

It’s the same story for the Crimson next weekend, as it travels to Yale and Brown: expecting—and needing—two victories.

“We now need to build upon these two wins and go right into the next weekend and do the same thing,” Matera said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.