CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard women's basketball (11-7, 4-1 Ivy) will look to continue their winning streak heading into the first back-to-back Ivy weekend of the season.  The Crimson will begin its weekend against fellow 4-1 foe, Columbia on Friday, February 2 at 6:00 p.m. followed by a trip to Ithaca, N.Y. to take on Cornell the next night at 5:00 p.m.  Either contest will air on ESPN+.    

What to Know

• Harvard began their 2023-24 season and the second year under head coach Carrie Moore with 13 non-conference match ups, standing at 7-6 heading into league play.  Through the out of conference slate the Crimson tallied six strong victories over Boston College, Quinnipiac, UMass, North Dakota State, SMU, UMass Lowell, and Delaware and falling only to Maine, BU, URI and a trio of Power 5 opponents.
• Through the first month of Ivy League play, the Crimson now stand at 11-7 after going 4-1 while facing Yale twice along with Princeton, Brown, and Penn. 
• Facing the Bulldogs for the second time in five games last weekend, the Crimson completed the season sweep over Yale for the first time since 2015-16 by downing its rival, 61-52.  With the win the Crimson moved to 4-1 in league action for the first time since 2017-18. 
• Harmoni Turner led all scorers for the ninth time this season by dropping 24 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field.  Turner added four rebounds, three assists, and a steal to cap off her day. 
• The juniors 24-point performance marked the eighth time in 2023-24 that she has scored 20+ points in a contest. 
• Lola Mullaney and Elena Rodriguez joined Turner in double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. 
• Rodriguez pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds to accompany her 11 points and notch her fourth double-double of the season.  The junior guard also added a team-best five assists and two steals. 
• Gabby Anderson made her first start of 2023-24 against the Bulldog and made valuable contributions while playing 39 total minutes.  The sophomore contributed eight points on 4-of-6 shooting along with four rebounds and two steals. 
• Mona Zaric logged valuable minutes against Yale including providing the exclamation point for the Crimson as she stepped in for a charge to stop the Bulldogs final attempt to push into the Crimson lead.
• In the final frame Harvard shot 62.5% and held the Bulldogs to 7.69% shooting from the field to close out the contest with a victory. 
• Harvard won the rebound battle for the third straight game, grabbing 37 boards to Yale's 32.  The Crimson are 9-1 this season when outrebounding its opponents. 
• Rodriguez, who had a breakout season last year, continues to be dominant presence all-around for the Crimson.  The junior is averaging 12.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 1.3 steals per game through the first 18 contests.  In 2023-24, Rodriguez has scored in double figures 12 times and has led the team in rebounding and assists in 12 and 10 games, respectively.  While shooting 54.4% from the field, Rodriguez ranks first in the Ivy League, a title which she held at the end of last season. 
• Mullaney is performing at a high level in her senior season by currently averaging 13.6 points and career bests in rebounds (3.6), assists (1.9), and steals (1.2) through the first 18 games.  In the month of December, Mullaney averaged 17.5 points per game on 43.0% shooting.  The senior is currently sitting with 258 career three-pointers and sits at No. 3 all-time in Harvard history for career three-pointers made. 
• With five field goals against the UMass Lowell, Mullaney cracked the Harvard women's basketball top-10 with 470 career field goals. The senior now has 498 made field goals throughout her four years and will continue to climb the top-10 list throughout 2023-24.
• The Crimson first-years, Mary Hollensteiner, Karlee White, and Abigail Wright, all have made an immediate impact this season.  Hollensteiner has proven her shooting abilities early and led the team in scoring in their win over Quinnipiac.  White has started 13 games for the Crimson and has begun to blossom on both the offensive and defensive ends.  Lastly, Wright averages a little under 18 minutes a game and is contributing 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per appearance. 
• In the Ivy League the Crimson rank second in points per game (79.9), assists (14.3), blocks (3.9), and three-point field goals (6.8), and third in field goal percentage (43.0%) and three-point percentage (30.9%).
• Not allowing its opponents to have the same success from behind the three-point arc, the Crimson rank first in the league in three-point percentage defense, holding its opponents to 27.1% from three.
• Friday's battle will be the 77^th all time between the Crimson and the Lions with Harvard holding a sizable, 65-11, advantage. 
• Harvard and Columbia met four times last season with the Lions coming out on top in the final one during the 2023 WNIT Great 8.  The Crimson were narrowly bested in the post season, 71-77.  Prior to that Harvard had knocked the Lions out of Ivy Madness by completing the first ever upset in the tournament's history. 
• The second game of the weekend will 86^th meeting between Cornell and Harvard.  The Crimson will look to expand on its three-game winning streak over the Big Red and its 72-13 lead in the all-time series. 

Next Up

The Crimson will close out its four-game road stretch next weekend as it heads north to face Dartmouth on Saturday, February 10.  Tip-off in Hanover, NH is set for 2:00 p.m. at Leede Arena and on ESPN+.