Penn women's basketball's six-game winning streak snapped by Harvard

In Ivy women’s basketball, this weekend was all about Harvard.

The Crimson recorded two feats this weekend, breaking Princeton’s 33-game Ivy winning streak and Penn’s six-game streak.

The Quakers fell to Harvard (17-8, 8-3 Ivy) Saturday night at Lavietes Pavilion, 67-54.

Penn (15-10, 8-3 Ivy) struggled early. Falling behind 7-0, it took the Quakers almost five minutes of play before getting on the board.

Midway through the first half, the Quakers had made only one basket, falling behind 21-4 and trailing by 20 with just under four minutes left.

But the Quakers found some momentum at the end of the first half, putting a full court press on Harvard and making eight straight baskets in the final two minutes. The Quakers went into halftime behind by twelve points, 33-21.

However, Penn has struggled when coming from behind. The Red and the Blue are 3-8 when at a deficit at halftime.

At the beginning of the second half the momentum continued. The Quakers got within 10 after a layup from sophomore forward Katy Allen and at the thirteenth minute, freshman guard Keiera Ray put Penn within six, 42-36.

But that would be the closest they would get.

Penn’s offense went cold again, and a late 9-0 run by Harvard would put the Crimson up by 18 with just under four minutes left, before notching the win and breaking the Quakers’ streak.

Penn finished the night with 30 percent field goal shooting and a 5-for-25 tally from behind the arc. Though Penn’s defense has usually kept them ahead even when their offense has been lackluster, they were outrebounded by the Crimson, 32-22.

Penn has three more games to play to close out its Ivy season, facing Brown, Yale and first-place Princeton all at home. With Saturday night’s loss, Penn and Harvard are now tied for second place.

As the top two teams get an automatic berth to the postseason, tonight’s loss means that Penn will have to be near-perfect in their final three games of the season to get a bid, starting with its tilt with Brown at the Palestra on Friday at 7 p.m.

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