Dominant third quarter propels Harvard women’s basketball past Holy Cross

Down two at the half, the Harvard women used a 17-0 third quarter to put away Holy Cross 61-46 on Wednesday evening at Lavietes Pavilion.

The Crimson’s victory was even more impressive given the fact that the team was missing two starters and three of its top six rotation players due to injuries, as well as having its travel scheduled delayed by 10 to 12 hours due to connecting flight problems after the win at Arkansas on Sunday.

The win brought Carrie Moore’s squad back to the .500 level at 5-5 on the year, while the Crusaders fell to 3-5.

A few thoughts as Harvard starts December with its first two-game winning streak of the season:

Read more

Harvard women’s basketball wins at Arkansas for first-ever SEC victory

Harvard women’s basketball, continuing to use a depleted roster, bounced back from two defeats at the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship before Thanksgiving to take down Arkansas 69-51 on Nolan Richardson Court in Fayetteville Sunday.

With the victory, the Crimson improved to 4-5 on the season, while the Razorbacks dropped its first home game in six attempts and dropped to 7-2. 

Sunday afternoon’s contest was put on the schedule as a homecoming for Gabby Anderson, who was born in the Natural State and whose mother played for Arkansas in the late 1990s. But the celebration of the program’s first-ever win over an SEC opponent was tempered by the loss of the senior guard due to a left knee injury early in the second quarter. 

Read more

Career night from Abigail Wright leads Harvard women’s basketball at Boston College in overtime

Harvard women’s basketball rode the hot hands of junior forward Abigail Wright, who notched a career-best 23 points and 13 rebounds in her first-ever double-double, to a 72-65 overtime victory over Boston College at the Conte Center on Wednesday night.

While the Crimson got back into the win column and evened its record at 3-3 on the season, the triumph was tempered by the loss of Karlee White, who had been the team’s leading scorer, midway through the third quarter. The junior guard, who is arguably the on and off court leader for Carrie Moore’s team, went down with a non-contact left knee injury and did not return for the rest of the evening.

Harvard Athletics did not respond to a request for comment on White’s status.

Read more

Weak second half dooms Harvard women’s basketball at UMass

Playing its third game in five days, including a second straight road trip, Harvard women’s basketball ran out of gas in the second half and fell 68-55 to UMass at the Mullins Center on Tuesday night.

In a fast-paced physical game, the Crimson (1-2) used an 8-0 run to close out the first frame to take a 17-13 lead, then scored 12 of the last 14 points of the second quarter to head into the locker room up 29-22.

Read more

Harvard women’s basketball takes down St. John’s on Banner Reveal Night

If you’ve followed Harvard women’s basketball throughout the Carrie Moore era, you know the team is a reflection of the coach and her Detroit grit. That style was on full display on Friday evening, as the Crimson battled through injuries and rough shooting from the field to come away with a 61-56 win over visiting St. John’s at Lavietes Pavilion.

The season-opening victory, which put an exclamation point on a night that started with Harvard (1-0) raising its 2025 Ivy League Tournament championship banner, was the second straight over the Johnnies (1-1) and fifth in a row against a Big East opponent.

Read more

2025-26 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll

The 2025-26 Ivy women’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:

Read more

Harvard women’s basketball downs Dartmouth, 74-40

Harvard and Dartmouth women’s basketball tip off at Leede Arena Saturday for what became a 74-40 win for the Crimson over the Big Green. (Ray Curren / Ivy Hoops Online)

HANOVER, N.H. – The Harvard women’s basketball team knew its Ivy League Tournament place was secure heading into Saturday’s regular season finale Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth.

But as much as they probably didn’t want to look too closely at it, the Crimson also knew their hopes of an NCAA Tournament at-large berth was in a very precarious spot, listed as one of the Last Four In or dreaded Last Four Out on most bracketologies in the last two weeks.

So, even though Dartmouth was banged up and coming in on an 11-game losing streak, Harvard left nothing to chance on Dartmouth’s Senior Day, using their pressure to dominate from the opening tip, eventually posting a 74-40 victory at Leede Arena.

“We just really wanted to finish the regular season on a high note,” Harvard coach Carrie Moore said. “We didn’t feel great about how we played last weekend, so we wanted to get back to how we know we can play, and I felt we did that, especially the upperclassmen who set the tone early.”

Read more

Harvard women’s basketball escapes Brown’s upset bid, 60-57

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.

Read more

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

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:

Read more

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

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.

Read more