With the momentum clearly in its favor, Harvard took control of the game. On its next four possessions, the Crimson went inside to senior center Melissa Johnson every time, and every time Harvard scored. Even on one possession when a pass to Johnson went awry, the ball found its way into the hands of junior guard Lisa Kowal, who hit the open jumper for the score.

Up until that point, Johnson had been held without a single point.

"I think they put a lot of pressure on our inside game," Monti said. "We just needed to turn it up defensively."

The Crimson, unlike earlier in the game, managed to play tough with the lead the rest of the way . The Great Danes never cut the lead to less than eight in the last seven minutes, and Harvard held on for the victory.

"That's one thing we've talked about--we're not tough enough," Delaney-Smith said. "We let teams back in. We get reticent."

Harvard came out of the gates on fire, building a 20-1 lead and holding Albany without a field goal for the first 10:40 of the game. With usual starting forward, Katie Gates, a sophomore still sitting out due to her concussion suffered last weekend, freshman Bree Kelley started in her place, and lit the court up, scoring 10 of her 16 points for the game in the opening minutes.

But then demise of the Harvard game on both ends on the court in the middle 20 minutes of the game was a complete shock to all who watched.