According to their coach, Harvard's two-leading scorers on the day are capable of much more.

"Ides' offense will come eventually and Hana's a better scorer than we're seeing right now," Delaney-Smith said. "Hana and Kate have to work on becoming better passers. They're tight right now."

The Crimson shot a much-improved 43 percent from the floor in the second half, making up for its anemic offense early on.

"We knew we shouldn't get down on ourselves, because it's happened to us before where we started off slow," Peljto said. "We just got it together, and I'm glad we didn't break down when we started off slow in the beginning."

Over the course of the 16-2 run before and after the intermission, the Wildcats failed to get anything accomplished against the Harvard defense. Their only two points during the stretch came after Gates was called for a foul as time expired in the first half.

Otherwise Gates played superb defense. She provided the tight coverage and the blocked shots from the forward position that Harvard sorely missed when she was out of action in the second half of last season.

Plencner led all Wildcat scorers with 15 points. Harvard was careful not to let her get too many open looks like she saw when she single-handedly ignited a New Hampshire comeback against Harvard last season.

Plencner hit two threes early on to give New Hampshire an early 11-3 lead, but the Crimson limited her to 1-of-7 shooting from behind the arc for the rest of the game.