Photo of Jackie Alemany courtesy of Gil Talbot.

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Harvard women's basketball team won its fourth straight with a 74-53 win over Cornell Friday night at Newman Arena. Freshman Victoria Lippert led the Crimson (15-7, 6-2 Ivy ) in scoring for the third straight game with 20 points.

Lippert posted her second career double-double adding 10 rebounds to her stat line. Junior Emma Markley, who celebrated her 22nd birthday on Thursday, also scored in double figures with 10 points. It was her 18th game of the season in double figures. Classmate Jackie Alemany pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds and handed a career-high five assists. She was two points away from a double-double as she poured in nine points.

It took a little over a minute for the Crimson to score its first basket, but Harvard was able to pull ahead 13-0 as it took seven minutes for the Big Red to score. Jackie Alemany scored six of the first eight points for the Crimson. Halfway through the first session, the Crimson led 17-7 and extended its lead to 22-7 on a lay-up from Miriam Rutzen and a three-pointer from Brogan Berry. The home team managed to close the gap at 26-17 with 7:12 on the clock. A 9-2 run for the Crimson that included six points from Lippert and a trifecta from Caitlin Rowland put the visiting team up 35-19, its largest lead in the first stanza. Cornell closed out the first half scoring nine of the final 14 points of the stanza to make it 40-28.
Lippert led the Crimson with 12 points at the half, while Berry and Rutzen had six a piece.

Harvard shot 51.4 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes of action and outrebounded the Big Red 25-17.

In the first five minutes of the second half, each team scored six points. Cornell started it off with a Allie Fedorowicz basket to cut the lead to 10 before a Christine Matera three-pointer gave the Crimson a 43-30 advantage with 18:09 to play. Alemany drained a three with 11:51 to go to give the Crimson its largest lead of the night, 55-38. The Crimson equaled that advantage twice over the next two minutes. Cornell used a 5-0 run to close the gap to 58-48 with 8:49 left on the clock. Taylor Flynn, who had 17 of Cornell's 25 first half points, made one of two attempts from the free throw line at 7:29 to cut the deficit to nine. It was the first single digit lead for the Crimson since 7:12 left in the first frame.

Harvard used a 9-0 run, which included five points from Markley to regain control of the game. During that time the Crimson defense held the Big Red scoreless for more than five minutes. Spencer Lane ended the Big Red draught with 2:43 left to play.

The Crimson shot 46.9 percent from the game and held the Big Red to just 31.0 percent shooting. Harvard won the battle on the glass, outrebounding the Big Red, 48-33.

The Crimson travels to New York City for a 7 p.m. game against Columbia.