On Senior Night at Harvard, the seniors came through in a dominant second half Saturday to sail past the Penn women’s basketball team, 62-44.
Of course, it helps when your seniors include league-leading scorer Harmoni Turner and forward Elena Rodriguez. With two points from reserve forward Mona Zaric, the senior class came up just one point short of Penn’s total. Turner let loose for a double-double: 24 points from all over the court and 11 rebounds; Rodriguez had 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting.
Penn was upset-minded for this visit to Lavietes Pavilion: A win would have locked up the fourth spot in Ivy Madness. (Brown stayed in the running with a 38-36 victory at Cornell earlier in the day, probably the sorriest game of Ivy play this season: Each team shot just 25% from the field, and Brown scored more than a third of its points at the foul line.) And the Quakers started strong, leading by as many as six points in the first quarter while shooting 42% from the field, including a pair of threes, and beating the Crimson on the boards. Penn’s tenacious defense was effective, though Harvard kept things close by snagging six steals in the first 10 minutes.
One reason Penn led by four after the first quarter: Turner had missed all four of her shots. That was bound to change.
Harvard made up the difference in a back-and-forth second quarter, with Turner contributing nine points plus a nifty assist for a Rodriguez layup to end the half in a 26-26 tie. Turner didn’t cool off for the rest of the evening, hitting 56% of her shots after missing those first four.
Meanwhile, Penn’s usual top scorer, senior Stina Almqvist, went cold after scoring nine first-half points. She was still able to penetrate but suffered a 1-for-8 second half to finish with 13 points and seven rebounds, tied with freshman forward Katie Collins. The Quakers overall shot just 5-for-24 (21%) in the second half and zip-for-five on threes as the Crimson steadily built an insurmountable lead.
Harvard will finish its regular season at Dartmouth before heading to Brown for Ivy Madness. Penn will join the party if it upsets Princeton on Saturday – its own Senior Day at the Palestra. Otherwise, it has to depend on a Brown loss against Yale or maintaining a better NET ranking than Brown for the tiebreaker – no sure thing.