“Don’t let up, pedal on the gas,” Carrie Moore said midway through the third period with Harvard women’s basketball building a scoring run against Yale.
Moore’s Crimson defeated host Yale, 61-43, in a surprisingly competitive game Saturday to open Ivy League play.
Consider that Harvard (12-1, 1-0 Ivy) had already defeated Boston University by 60 (86-26) and Yale had fallen to the Terriers, 77-56, just last week.
“You always know that this (Yale-Harvard) is always going to be a scrappy game,” Moore said.
“We focused a lot on their pressure,” Yale coach Dalila Eshe said. “They are the best team in conference.”
Yale kept it close early, trailing 13-9 at the end of the first period and 24-18 at the half.
Harvard came out more focused in the third quarter and used a tenacious press and some timely shooting by junior forward Katie Krupa (16 points) and senior guard Harmoni Turner (14 points) to fuel a 25-5 run to put the game out of reach at 44-18.
Yale didn’t score in the period until freshman guard Ke’iara Odume made a layup at the 3:07 mark.
The Bulldogs outscored Harvard 20-12 in the final quarter.
“Despite the record, we focused on small things. This is a new (Ivy) season,” Eshe said.
Harvard forced Yale into 23 turnovers and controlled the offensive glass, 20-12.
Yale leading scorer senior guard Mackenzie Egger once again led her team in scoring with 14 points.
Eshe shortened her bench, only playing seven players.
Harvard should once again grab the No. 1 spot in the CollegeInsider.com Women’s Mid-Major Top 25 next week.
Yale is next in action on Saturday at Brown at 2 p.m. In the same time slot, Harvard will take on host Princeton in a key early-season Ivy matchup.