Lippert Leads Harvard Women's Basketball To 88-65 Win Over Yale

Photo of Victoria Lippert courtesy of Gil Talbot.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Three Crimson players scored in double figures as the Harvard women’s basketball team defeated rival Yale, 88-65, Friday night at Lavietes Pavilion. Sophomore Brogan Berry just missed the unconventional double-double, scoring 15 points and handing out nine assists, tying her career high. Freshman Victoria Lippert had a game-high 21 points.

Lippert shot 10-for-13 from the field with three rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal. Berry made 5-of-her 11 attempts from the field and went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. Junior Emma Markley had 16 points on a 7-for-9 effort from the floor. Classmate Jackie Alemany had a game-high six rebounds and also handed out a career-high five assists.

Berry started the Crimson scoring off by driving to the hoop on Harvard’s first possession.
Harvard and Yale went back-and-forth for the first five minutes of the game before an 8-0 run sparked by an Emma Markley lay-up put the home team up 19-12 with 11:14 remaining in the first half. Melissa Colborne and Megan Vasquez closed the gap, pulling their team to within 21-16 two minutes later. The Crimson used an 8-2 run, which included back-to-back baskets from Victoria Lippert to extend its lead to 29-18 with just over five minutes remaining in the first stanza. Yale managed to cut the lead to six in the final minutes of the game but Harvard pulled away again to take a 39-32 lead into the locker room.

The Crimson made 58.6 percent of its shots in the first half, while the Bulldogs shot 42.3 percent. Neither team missed from the charity stripe as Harvard hit all four attempts and Yale made six. Berry led all players at the half with 12 points and five assists.

Yale scored the first basket of the second stanza before Harvard put on a scoring show. The Crimson scored 49 points on a 20-for-28 shooting which included 10 points each from Lippert and Markley. Harvard used a 12-3 run to take a 62-42 lead with 12:05 left to play in the game. The Bulldogs cut the lead to 14 on baskets from Michelle Cashen, Vasquez and Haywood Wright. But the Crimson would extend that lead to as many as 25 before the final horn sounded.

Harvard shot 64.9 percent from the field, while Yale managed to shot 40.7 percent. The Crimson had 56 points in the paint, while the bench scored 23 points. Harvard won the battle on the class, outrebounding the Bulldogs, 30-24. The Crimson handed out 19 assists, had eight steals and blocked five shots.

The Crimson host Brown, who dropped a heartbreaker, 67-63, to Dartmouth tonight, at 6 p.m. Harvard welcomes the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts for National Girls and Women’s in Sports Day and will host its WBCA Pink Zone event.