Down one to Brown with 25 seconds to go and Harvard women’s basketball’s dream of an Ivy League regular season title slipping away, the Crimson’s Harmoni Turner drove straight down the lane for the go-ahead layup. Met by three Bears, the senior guard found an open Elena Rodriguez and the senior forward banked it in to put the Crimson up 58-57.
With no timeouts left for either team, junior guard Grace Arnolie pushed the ball up the right side for Bruno. Faced with her own triple-team, she dished it off to Olivia Young at the top of the arc. The sophomore guard quickly rifled the rock to senior center Gianna Aiello, who was wide open in front of the net.
After Rodriguez missed the steal, Aiello took a stutter step and definitively shot the ball against the backboard, hoping to put Bruno back on top, but it rattled off the rim and into Turner’s hands with less than five seconds left on the clock.
The All-Ivy guard, who is third in free throw percentage in the Ancient Eight, hit both free throws to put the game away for Harvard.
With the win, the Crimson (20-3, 9-2 Ivy) are tied for second in the conference with Princeton, one game away from Columbia, and the third team to clinch a spot in the Ivy League Tournament, which will be played on the same Pizzitola Sports Center court where they played on Saturday afternoon.
A victory over one of the top teams in the Ancient Eight would have given a huge boost to Brown’s Ivy Madness chances, but the loss dropped the Bears (10-14, 4-7) into fifth place, one game away from Penn.
Things weren’t great for Harvard at the start of the day, with one of its starters, junior guard Saniyah Glenn-Bello, on the bench in street clothes. Without the team’s third-leading scorer and second-best rebounder, the Crimson struggled on the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
Despite Glenn-Bello’s absence, a Turner three-ball from the right elbow gave Harvard a 13-12 lead with just over two minutes left in the opening quarter.
The Bears responded with a slashing layup from Arnolie and three free throws to finish the frame ahead 17-13.
Anrolie hit a three from the top of the arc to put Brown up seven and Young netted her own triple from the left baseline to make it a 10-point contest.
When Arnolie spun around a defender and hit an off-balance layup, the Bears were up 12, 25-13, around the midpoint of quarter number two.
A three from the top of the key by junior forward Katie Krupa sparked Harvard’s own 10-1 run to cut the deficit to three, 26-23, with three minutes left on the clock, and the Crimson eventually ended the half down four, 31-27.
Brown started off well in the second half, using back-to-back triples from the right elbow by Young and junior forward Beth Nelson, to help open up a 39-29 advantage.
Down 10 at the five-minute mark, Turner hit her own three from the right elbow. Following a 1-for-3 effort from Young at the free throw line, first-year guard Alayna Rocco hit a three-ball from the left elbow.
After Harvard scored the next five points, sophomore guard Karlee White hit a midrange straightaway jumper to cap the 10-0 run and give the Crimson its first lead, 42-40, since it was 13-12 in the opening frame.
Junior forward Mady Calhoun hit a triple from the right baseline to put Bruno back on top, but another Rocco three and a coast-to-coast layup from Turner gave Harvard a 47-43 lead with ten minutes to go in regulation.
Known for its strong performance in the final quarter all year long, the Crimson unsurprisingly opened the final frame on a 6-2 run to create an eight-point cushion.
Where most of Harvard’s opponents get worn down by the Crimson’s full-court pressure defense late in the game, Brown found another gear.
An old fashioned three from Arnolie and layup by Aiello cut Bruno’s deficit to four, 54-50, with under six minutes left on the scoreboard.
Following a reverse layup from Rodriguez, Nelson made one of two free throws and Aiello hit a layup over the smaller defender to make it a 56-53 game.
The two teams struggled to find the hoop over the next few possessions, as the clock went under the one-minute mark.
The three-minute drought ended when Arnolie took advantage of Turner’s four fouls and hit a layup to make it a one-point game.
On the next possession, Rocco launched a deep three from the left elbow with 20 seconds remaining on the shot clock, but the ball hit the rim and ended up in Aiello’s hands.
Coming out of Brown’s last timeout, Harvard senior guard Gabby Anderson tried to steal the inbounds pass and ended up fouling Arnolie. The Vienna, Va. native sank both free throws to give the Bears the 59-58 lead, which would ultimately not stand.
Despite playing in foul trouble most of the day, Turner finished with 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Rodriguez added 15 points and six rebounds, while Rocco had three triples and nine points for the victors.
For the Bears, Arnolie had 17 points, five assists and three rebounds, and Aiello, playing in her last regular-season home game, totaled 11 points and nine boards.
Similar to the opening game between these two teams, the Bears dared Harvard to win it from the three-point line. While the Crimson made 14 triples at a 39% rate in the 83-53 victory on January 18, it could only manage six buckets at a 21% success rate on the afternoon.
Without a strong outside result, and only 41% shooting from two, the Crimson had to win this battle from its defense. Typically, that would involve forced turnovers and converted baskets, but Saturday’s success came from a +11/+27% advantage on the glass, leading to 17 more shots and 14 more second-chance points.
Harvard will hope to have a better effort next Friday, when it welcomes Princeton to Lavietes Pavilion for the first of two weekend games. Carrie Moore’s team aims to avenge its buzzer-beating loss to the Tigers on January 11. Monique LeBlanc and her Brown Bears, meanwhile, will head to New York for a Friday tilt against the league-leading Columbia Lions.