Women's Basketball Sees Comeback Fall Short Against Chattanooga

Just 2.2 seconds separated the Harvard women’s basketball team from a tough two-point loss and a chance to complete its second-half comeback in overtime, but the clock ran out on its chance at victory.

After junior forward AnnMarie Healy blocked a drive by Chattanooga sophomore Chelsey Shumpert to send the ball out of bounds, Lady Mocs freshman Keiana Gilbert sunk a buzzer-beating layup off of an inbounds pass to seal the win.

A strong second half comeback wasn’t enough for the Crimson (6-7), as it fell to Chattanooga (12-3) by a score of 54-52 on Monday afternoon in front of its home crowd. Though Harvard never held the lead in the contest, it was able to overcome a 12-point deficit in order to tie the game up, 52-52, with just 29 seconds remaining following a 13-2 run.

After holding the Lady Mocs to just five points in the last 10 minutes of the game, it came down to the last possession to seal the victory for Chattanooga.

When comparing the two halves, fans would think they had watched two completely different games days or weeks apart, never mind just the length of the halftime break. At the end of the first half, the Crimson was behind by a score of 26-17.

The team got off to a slow start, failing to put the ball in the net for nearly seven minutes. Meanwhile, Chattanooga went on an eight-point run from the start.

After the Crimson pulled within one on two occasions with under five minutes in the first frame, the Mocs went on another run to bring the lead up to nine to end the half.

“In the first half we were taking our normal shots, but they just weren’t falling,” Healy said. “We went scoreless for way too long.”

Turnovers and fouls plagued Harvard and gave Chattanooga extra opportunities on the offensive end. The Crimson gave up eight turnovers and had six fouls in the first half, compared to the Mocs’ two and one, respectively. Chattanooga capitalized on the turnovers it was given throughout the game, scoring 21 points off of turnovers compared to Harvard’s seven.

But the Crimson came alive in the second half, particularly due to the play of Healy, who had a career-high 20 points in the contest, 18 of them coming in the second half. Harvard’s shooting improved as a whole, outshooting the Mocs 35-28 in the second half, shooting 60 percent compared to 29.9 percent in the first.

Senior forward Temi Fagbenle also had a strong game, earning her sixth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds. The combination of Fagbenle and Healy allowed the Crimson to get back in the game, as the pair contributed 29 of Harvard’s 35 second-half points. The duo alone outscored the entire Mocs team in the second frame.

“We definitely knew that we had an advantage in size and so we wanted to kind of utilize that as much as possible so we tried to get the ball to AnnMarie and Temi inside the paint,” co-captain Kaitlyn Dinkins said. “We could pretty much score at will in there, so we tried to make that adjustment.”

Despite its loss, Harvard has a lot to take away from this game as it heads into the Ivy League portion of the season. Having faced nationally competitive teams and holding its own in many of the contests thus far this season, the Crimson is confident going into Ivy play.

“This game, even though we lost, gives us confidence that we can be competitive with top-25 teams and that if we play to our potential we really can beat anyone that we step on the court with,” Healy said. “I know that we came out with a loss but it was very close and I think when our shots do fall and the pieces come together, I see very good things for us in the Ivies.”

The Crimson heads on the road in its next contest against Dartmouth on January 10th before it returns home for its next four Ivy League matchups at Lavietes Pavilion.

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.