The question entering Saturday’s Ivy League Tournament championship game between No. 3 Harvard and No. 1 Columbia was, “What can Harmoni Turner do for an encore?”
The answer: Win a championship.
The senior guard who exploded for a record-setting 44 points against Princeton in Friday night’s semifinal delivered a game-high 24 points, two rebounds, four assists and three steals to lead Harvard past Columbia, 74-71, for the Crimson’s first Ivy League Tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It’s Harvard’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2007.
While Turner didn’t break any records on Saturday night as she did the night before in scoring the most points in a single game in Ivy League Tournament history, she did break the hearts of the partisan Columbia crowd on hand at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Brown’s campus.
For much of the game, Turner drew the toughest defender in the Ivy League, Columbia’s Kitty Henderson, who was earlier in the week voted the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. The two battled throughout a closely contested game, but in the end, Turner had too many moves, too much moxie and too much heart to be denied a championship.
The game began on a positive note for Columbia when junior forward Perri Page scored a layup on the Lions’ first possession. But Turner immediately responded with a floater and a layup on Harvard’s first two possessions to put the Crimson up 4-2.
Henderson hit a three on an assist by Cecelia Collins and returned the favor by dishing the ball to Collins for a layup. Back-to-back turnovers by Harvard led to a three-ball by Columbia sophomore Riley Weiss, causing Harvard coach Carrie Moore to call an early timeout with Columbia up 13-6 at the 5:55 mark of the first quarter.
After the timeout, Turner tallied again to spark a 13-5 run, highlighted by a corner three by Elena Rodriguez on Harvard’s final possession of the quarter to give Harvard a 19-18 lead after 10 minutes. The senior forward from Spain was held to two points in Friday’s semifinal but responded on Saturday with 13 points, four rebounds and a game-high nine assists.
In the second quarter, the game turned into a track meet. Turner and Henderson traded threes before Collins attempted an audacious, two-handed, no-look behind-her-head pass to Henderson, who collected the ball and promptly air-mailed it past the hoop. Somehow, Collins tracked the miss and saved the ball before it went out bounds to Weiss, who drilled a second-chance three. Weiss continued to find space behind the arc and hit two more treys, including one with 5 seconds left in the first half to send the teams into the locker room with Harvard ahead by a deuce, 44-42.
The track meet continued in the third quarter, but after a furious back-and-forth battle, the teams ended the third frame where they started, with Harvard clinging to a two-point lead, 59-57.
In the final stanza, the two teams competed frantically on every possession. Gabby Anderson stole the ball from Collins and took it to the cup to put Harvard up by four, 63-59, with 8:08 to play. A putback by Collins of her own miss, one of 19 offensive rebounds for the Lions, made it two-point game again. Back and forth it went until Collins tied the game at 65 with two free throws with 3:19 to go.
But two free throws by Abigail Wright restored Harvard’s two-point lead, and then Karlee White stripped Collins and took it coast to coast for a layup to give the Crimson a four-point cushion, 69-65, with 2:40 remaining in the game. Over the next two minutes, both teams, fueled by adrenaline, engaged in what seemed like hand-to-hand combat until Saniyah Glenn-Bello fouled Weiss while attempting a corner three. The First-Team All-Ivy guard calmly sank all three free throws to make it a one-point game, 69-68 with 28 seconds to go.
Forced to foul, Columbia sent Turner to the line. The 2025 Ivy League Player of the Year sank both to pad the Crimson’s lead to three. A missed three by Collins was rebounded by Wright, who was immediately fouled. The sophomore forward made by free throws to put Harvard up by five and the game appeared to be over.
But Columbia wasn’t done. A layup by Henderson cut the lead to three with eight seconds on the clock before Rodriguez found herself with the ball all alone under the Lions’ basket. Rather than run out the clock, the senior from Spain attempted a bunny and missed. Weiss collected the rebound and called timeout with five ticks remaining.
After advancing the ball on the timeout, Columbia got the ball inbounded to Weiss who launched a potential game-tying three. The shot looked true and fell halfway through the cylinder before rimming out. The game was over. Harvard had won.
A mad celebration ensued as Harvard players, coaches and staff danced at center court as Ivy League Tournament champions.
“Just really overjoyed right now,” said a jubilant Moore in the postgame news conference. “Joy is a core value of our team, and I think you see it really in its purest form for this group.”
“I think both teams showed up to play even better than we did yesterday,” Moore explained. “And you saw that in different moments of the game, it was physical, it was tough. Both teams flying around defensively, saw a lot of shots, saw some really good high-IQ basketball on both ends of the floor. So just want to give them a lot of credit, great team, very well-coached, and I’m sure we’ll see them in the NCAA Tournament. But just couldn’t be more proud of our group … this was this was earned by every minute, every possession and every day that we were here, and we’ve been knocking on the door every year that I’ve been here. And it’s just, I mean, just such an incredible feeling to finally, finally, get to the top of the hill and be champions.”
As for Turner, the obvious choice for tournament Most Outstanding Player, the championship was sweet redemption for years of hard work.
“And honestly, I told myself I [wasn’t] gonna cry, but I mean, I ended up crying like a baby. But yeah, like when you put in so much work, and you work for something for so many years, and it finally, finally happens the least you can do is cry, you know, because you’re so grateful for for that opportunity, and you gave it your all, and when you gave it your all, it finally ended the way that it should have ended.”
Columbia coach Megan Griffith saluted Harvard in her postgame comments.
“Credit to Harvard. You know, I really thought their seniors led them today, and they played great, you know, like it was a back-and-forth game. It was a shootout in moments, a little bit too much for my liking. But, you know, this is what you want in March. I mean, talk about two great teams battling for a championship. We’ve never seen Ivy League women’s basketball look like this before.”
In addition to Turner, the all-tournament team included Skye Belker of Princeton, Stina Almqvist of Penn, Riley Weiss of Columbia and Elena Rodriguez of Harvard.
Although the box score will show that Harvard won the 2025 Ivy League Tournament championship game, the real winner was the Ivy League itself, with two showcase games in prime time on back-to-back nights. If anyone doubted the quality of women’s basketball in the Ancient Eight coming into March Madness, that skepticism was dispelled by the magnificent display of talent on the court and the top-notch coaching on the sidelines.
It truly was a weekend to remember for Ivy League women’s basketball in Providence.
Spectacular game: Both teams showed off their talent and their discipline — great ball movement, shooting and defense produced a game to make both programs, and the entire league, proud.