Matera Hits Game-Winner To Lift Women's Basketball to 55-52 Win Over Penn
Photo of Christine Matera courtesy of Gil Talbot.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Junior co-captain
Christine Matera drained a three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left on
the clock to give the Harvard women’s basketball team a 55-52
win over Penn Friday at Lavietes Pavilion. The Crimson is 11-0 at
home this season, 19-7 overall and 10-2 in Ivy League play.
Freshman Victoria Lippert led the Crimson with 15 points, while
junior Jackie Alemany grabbed nine rebounds to pace the Crimson on
the boards. Sophomore Caitlin Rowland tied a career-high with 11
points. Classmate Brogan Berry handed out six assists to move into
seventh on the single season list with 149.
Lippert scored eight of Harvard’s 10 points by the first
media timeout as the Crimson held on to an 8-6 advantage. The teams
traded leads over the next 12 minutes before Penn used a 11-2 run
to turn a 21-20 deficit into a 31-23 lead with 1:21 remaining in
the first frame. A three-pointer from Emma Golen cut the lead to
31-26 10 seconds later. But Penn’s Sarah Bucar put up a
basket with just two ticks on the clock to put the visiting team up
33-26 at the break.
A traditional three-point play by Berry three minutes into the
second session cut Penn’s lead to three at 37-34. Jess Knapp
scored four straight to take the lead back out to seven with 16:09
remaining in the game. Rowland adds two free throws and a trey to
pull the Crimson to within 43-39. After a called timeout by the
Penn coach and a media timeout Lippert nailed a jumper and after a
Quaker turnover drained a shot from beyond the line to give the
Crimson its first lead of the second half, 44-43 with 10 minutes to
play in the game.
Berry stole the ball off a Penn turnover and ran in for the
fast-break lay-up to pull the home team to within 51-50 with 5:09
left on the clock. Markley sunk two free throws from the line with
1:19 left to give the Crimson a 52-51 lead. Knapp made 1-of-2 shot
from the charity stripe to tie the game with 27 seconds on the
clock. After a Harvard timeout, Maters drained the game-winning
three with 1.3 seconds left. Penn called timeout and got a shot off
but it was off the mark.
Harvard shot 41.2 percent from the field, while Penn hit 45.5
percent of its shots. The Crimson dominated the boards,
outrebounding the Quakers, 32-24.
The Crimson hosts Princeton Saturday evening at 6 p.m. The Tigers
clinched a share of the Ivy League title with 64-43 win over
Dartmouth tonight.
