The Harvard women's basketball was well aware that it would probably need victories over Columbia and Cornell this weekend in order to stay alive in the Ivy title hunt.

The Crimson knew that the Lions had beaten Penn two weeks before, and were much improved from the teams' previous meeting.

But despite all the forewarning, and despite the fact that Columbia (7-19, 6-8 Ivy) did not score a single point for the first eight minutes of the game, Harvard could not come up with the victory, falling by a 62-56 score.

"It was just one of those nights," captain Laela Sturdy said. "Our shots weren't falling for us. We weren't getting the calls or getting to the foul line. We didn't take care of the basketball. That's a tough set of factors to pull out a victory."

Then, on Saturday night, the Crimson (16-9, 9-4) put aside all the bad memories from the night before and put together a strong 68-58 victory over Cornell (11-15, 3-11).

"It was such a great team effort," senior Courtney Egelhoff said. "Everyone really stepped it up, it was hard to come back from last night."

It was also the final home game for the two senior forwards, Egelhoff and Sturdy.

After the game, Harvard was left hoping that Columbia would triumph over first-place Dartmouth, and with the game tied at the half, the possibility was there. But the Big Green (19-7, 11-2) pulled away late in the second half, winning 67-57.