Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Big Red women's basketball team gave Harvard all it could handle, but came up just short, as the Crimson escaped with the 73-68 victory this evening at Lavietes Pavilion. Cornell had its best shootin night of the year and all but erased a nine-point lead late in the game, but could not manage to come all the way back as it falls to 5-18 on the season and 2-7 in the Ivy League. With the win, Harvard improves to 14-9 overall and 6-2 in the conference.

The Big Red had three players in double-figures, with Clare Fitzpatrick and Shelby Lyman racking up 19 points apiece. Lyman connected on 6-of-10 from the floor and an impressive 5-of-7 from beyond the arc for the best scoring performance of her career. Allyson DiMagno chipped in 15 points, thanks to a perfect 3-for-3 night from 3-point range, and added a team-high eight rebounds. Stephanie Long had a solid game with seven assists, five points and five rebounds, while Maka Anyanwu came off the bench and finished with five points and six boards.

Harvard was led by Victoria Lippert with 15 points, while Emma Markley posted a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double. Brogan Berry and Christine Clark also scored in double-digits with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Cornell had its best shooting nights of the season, connecting on 44 percent from the floor and a season-high 59 percent from 3-point range (10-of-17), but the Crimson were just as good, hitting 46 percent overall.

Despite a significant height advantage, Harvard held the slim 36-31 advantage on the boards. They also forced 11 Big Red turnovers with nine steals and scored 14 points off Cornell miscues. The Crimson turned the ball over just nine times.

The Big Red stayed with Harvard through the opening moments of the game, essentially trading shots for the first 10 minutes as the Crimson built a 17-14 lead. Cornell enjoyed extremely balanced scoring over those first 10 minutes, with its 14 points coming from five different players.

Harvard took advantage of several Cornell baskets that rimmed out to score six unanswered points, going up, 23-14, at the 6:14 mark. DiMagno ended the Crimson run and Lyman hit a pair of free throws to make it a four point game less than 40 seconds later.

A jumper by Emma Golen was answered by a jumper from the elbow by Fitzpatrick and Lyman made it a one-point Harvard lead with a trey at the 3:48 mark. Elle Hagedorn answered with a 3-pointer on the Crimson's next possession but Lyman came up big again with another trey and a single made free throw by Anyanwu knotted the game at 28-28 with 1:46 to play.

Harvard closed the first and opened the second half with nine unanswered points, six of which came from Markley, to push the home team's lead to 37-28, before Fitzpatrick hit a fall away jumper as the shot clock expired to end the Cornell drought at the 18:29 mark.

A pair of free throws by Clark returned the nine point lead to the Crimson, but a layup by Fitzpatrick and a trey from Lyman, sandwiched around a layup from Lippert made it a 41-35 contest with just over 17 minutes to play.

The teams traded baskets for the next nine minutes before back-to-back buckets by Taylor Flynn and Fitzpatrick cut the Harvard lead to just four points, 50-46, with 8:09 remaining in the contest.

A pair of free throws by Berry were answered by an offensive putback from Anyanwu, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Hagedorn quickly made it a 10-point game with just over six minutes to play.

Just 30 seconds later, however, the Big Red cut Harvard's lead back to four points with consecutive treys from Lyman and DiMagno.

The Crimson eventually pushed its lead to 66-58 with 2:13 to play, but the Big Red kept battling and got back within striking distance when a trey from DiMagno made it a five-point game with 52 seconds showing on the clock.

The Big Red began to foul and capitalized on several Harvard misses to go on a 6-1 run, with all six points coming from Fitzpatrick, to make it a three point game with eight seconds to play.

That was as close as it would get, however, as Clark made a pair of free throws and a turnover on Cornell's final possession sealed Harvard's 73-68 victory.

The Big Red is back in action tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 19, when it travels to Dartmouth for a game with the Big Green at 7 p.m.