Harmoni Turner

Harvard women’s basketball wins round two at Columbia, 60-54

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Rebounding from a home loss to Columbia on national television 17 days ago, Harvard women’s basketball used its pressure defense and a big fourth-quarter run to take round two at Levien Gymnasium, 60-54, in front of a raucous sellout crowd and ESPNU audience.

“I’m just really proud of our team … We were obviously disappointed with what we were able to do in that last game. You saw more of who we are in this game,” Harvard coach Carrie Moore said. “This team being able to take a punch, and then give a punch, and take another punch and punch back. We just really showed our growth and maturity.”

Harvard (19-3, 8-2 Ivy), which beat Cornell by 37 points on Friday night and exorcised the demons of its lackluster performance against the Big Red 16 days earlier, remains in third place but now sits only one game out of first place.

While Columbia (18-5, 9-1) clinched a spot in the Ivy League Tournament with its 89-37 victory over Dartmouth on Friday night, Sunday’s defeat moved the team into a tie with Princeton and ended several impressive streaks for the program: 11 straight games, 19 consecutive conference games and 20 regular season home contests.

“I thought they (Harvard) were just the better team today,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said. 

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Taking stock of the big three at the midway point of the Ivy League women’s basketball season

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With seven conference games in the books for every Ivy League women’s basketball team, the race for the regular season conference title has reached the halfway mark. 

The three teams picked in the preseason to contend for an Ivy League title – Princeton, Columbia and Harvard – have lived up to their billing, racking up big wins in the nonconference season and largely dominating the other five Ivy teams in league play.

Here’s where each of the big three stands as we head into the final five weeks of the Ivy League regular season:

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Harvard women’s basketball crushes Brown, 83-53, to get back into win column

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The Harvard women rebounded from last weekend’s last-second loss to Princeton in a big way, dominating Brown in all facets of the game in route to an easy 83-53 victory Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion.

While Carrie Moore’s squad, presently ranked the No. 2 team in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25, is now 13-2 overall and 2-1 in the Ivy League, Monique LeBlanc’s Bears are 7-9 for the season and 1-2 in the Ancient Eight.

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Ashley Chea’s buzzer-beater lifts Princeton women’s basketball past Harvard, 52-50, in instant classic

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Someone had to be a hero.  It turned out to be Ashley Chea.

With Harvard and Princeton knotted at 50 and only 3.7 seconds left on the clock Saturday at Jadwin Gym, Princeton’s sharpshooter guard took an inbounds pass from Skye Belker just beyond the three-point line and was immediately smothered by Harvard’s star guard, Harmoni Turner.

Chea faked a handoff and then spun like a twister to her left to separate from Turner. With one tick remaining, Chea rose up and let loose a long jump shot as the horn sounded. The release was clean as Princeton coach Carla Berube leaned in from the sideline, willing the shot forward.

The ball swished through the net as Chea was mobbed by her jubilant teammates.

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The stakes are high for Harvard and Princeton women’s basketball in Saturday’s marquee matchup

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We’re only one week into the Ivy League hoops season and already one of the most significant matchups of the campaign is upon us.   

On Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET, the high-flying Harvard Crimson will invade Jadwin Gymnasium to take on the six-time defending Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers. 

Here are three insights into the importance of the game and some of the key factors that may play a role in determining the outcome:

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Rivalry games are tough, but Harvard women’s basketball bests Yale, 61-43

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“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.

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Harvard women’s basketball win streak at seven after defeating Stony Brook and St. John’s

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With two back-to-back road games in a six-day span, Harvard women’s basketball’s schedule didn’t do the team any favors.

It turned out not to matter, as the Crimson fought off a tenacious Stony Brook team on Wednesday afternoon and followed it up with a buzzer-beating victory at previously undefeated St. John’s less than 24 hours later.

As they headed back to Massachusetts, Carrie Moore’s squad, which entered the games at No. 11 in CollegeInsider.com’s Mid-Major Top 25, is 9-1 on the season and has a seven-game winning streak.

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Harvard women’s basketball cruises to 75-50 victory over Northwestern

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If there’s any more conference realignment on the horizon, the Harvard women may want to consider heading over to the Big Ten. For the second time this year, the Crimson traveled to the Midwest and came away with a victory.

While Harvard (6-1) needed overtime to defeat then-No. 25 Indiana, 72-68, on Nov. 7, it easily handled Northwestern (1-3), 70-65, on Saturday afternoon.

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Harmoni Turner sets Harvard women’s basketball single-game scoring record in win over Boston College

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Harmoni Turner had a game for the ages on Wednesday night as the Harvard women’s basketball team defeated Boston College, 78-70, at Lavietes Pavilion.  

Turner scored 41 points, an all-time program record for points in a game. The senior guard also grabbed 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.  

The Mansfield, Texas native was scorching hot from the field all night long, shooting 14-for-23, including 7-for-11 from beyond the arc. But it wasn’t until the final second of the game that she broke the program’s single-game scoring record of 39 points, a mark previously set by two players – Allison Feaster in 1997 and Hana Peljto in 2004.

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