But some calls that went against Harvard took steam out of the rally. On the possession after Kelley's clutch hook shot, Penn appeared to lose the ball out-of-bounds, but the referees claimed the ball had touched a Crimson jersey. West, who had been unstoppable all day, capitalized on the opportunity, hitting a long 3-pointer to give Penn the lead again.

Then on the Crimson's next possession, Harvard fell victim to a questionable charging call as Kate Ides took a pass on the blocks, turned around for a shot and ran into a Penn defender.

After Penn's Julie Epton hit 1-of-2 from the line to make the score 77-74, Monti took control. She drove down into traffic at the corner of the paint, and threw up a tough shot that rolled around two or three times before finally rolling in with 29 seconds left.

But Harvard made a major error on the subsequent play. Eleven seconds rolled off the clock before the Crimson fouled anyone. Monti could have used some of those 11 seconds in the final moments of the game to get a better shot off or find a teammate with a pass.

Nevertheless, Harvard was pleased about the way the game was turned around in the second half.

"I think the one great about our team is that we never lose confidence," Sturdy said. "Even though they went on a run, we knew we were going to never give up and fight back. We were really proud our team stepped up; we just kind of ran out of time in the end."

Kelley started the rally for the Crimson by hitting a jump shot and a layup to cut the deficit to 12. On the day, Kelley shot 8-of-14 and netted a career-high 17 points.

With 10:03 left, the Crimson needed someone to step up and make a huge play, and as usual, it was Monti who delivered, draining an open trey from the left corner to bring Harvard within nine.