CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard women's basketball was welcomed back to Lavietes Pavilion with a sold-out crowd as they faced University of Michigan this afternoon.  The Crimson once again battled tight with a Power 5 opponent but ultimately fell, 66-80.  Lola Mullaney had another strong day, posting a season high of 25 points on 8-of-18 from the field. 

How it Happened

Feeding off of the energy from its home crowd, the Crimson came out of the gate strong, scoring the first seven points of the contest.  Elena Rodrgiuez laid in the first bucket for the Crimson before Katie Krupa picked up right where she left off, draining a triple from the corner.  Momentum was completely with Harvard after a Mullaney layup to go up 7-0, and a charge from Krupa on the other end brought the crowd and the team to their feet.  The rest of the quarter was back and forth as the Wolverines began to find the bucket but a buzzer beater three from Harmoni Turner put the Crimson up 20-16 going into the second quarter. 
 
The second quarter was fairly even and when the Wolverines connected, the Crimson seemingly always had an answer.  Despite being defended tightly around the three-point line, Mullaney continued to find ways to score and led the Crimson with 11 points going into halftime.  Even with a small Wolverines run in the late minutes of the quarter, the Crimson went into the locker room with a two-point advantage over Michigan. 
 
The Wolverines used the third quarter to pull ahead of the Crimson, but Harvard continued to battle on their home court until the final buzzer.  Made buckets, strong defense, and forced turnovers in the final minutes of the contest brought Harvard within 14 of Michigan. 

Harvard Highlights

• Lola Mullaney took over for the Crimson and posted a season-high 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting.  Through eight games, Mullaney has surpassed 100 points for the season and is averaging 15.1 points per game. 
• Outside of Mullaney's 25-point performance the Crimson received strong scoring contributions from seven other players.  Rodriguez and Mary Hollensteiner each had eight points and Turner notched nine. 
• Rodriguez led the Crimson in both rebounds with six and assists with four.  The junior also contributed a block and two steals on the day. 
• As a team, a third of the Crimson points came off turnovers as the team accumulated 22 points off of the Wolverines 23 total turnovers. 
• The Crimson who ranked 46^th in the country in three-point percentage defense, held the Wolverines to 28.6% from the beyond the arc as they connected on just four threes as a team.  Michigan had averaged over 50% from three in their last two contests.
• Going into the contest, the Wolverines were averaging a little over 14 turnovers a game.  With the Crimson pressuring defense, Michigan had their most turnovers all season with 23. 

Next Up

The Crimson will return to the road on Wednesday, December 6 to take on University of Maine in Orono, Maine.  Tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center and on ESPN+.