HANOVER, N.H.--For all the losses the Harvard women's basketball team has suffered this year, it is amazing how tough the Crimson can be to beat when it doesn't beat itself.

After averaging 22.5 turnovers on the season and 29 in its last two games, the Crimson (3-10, 1-0 Ivy) held itself to just ten giveaways against Dartmouth (1-10, 0-1) at Leede Arena on Saturday night. By not rushing itself and limiting its mistakes, the Crimson healed its one lingering sore spot and--thanks also to solid 45.8 percent shooting--was able to upend the Big Green 72-58 in the first game of the Ivy League season.

"We put a lot of emphasis on keeping our turnovers low," freshman forward Hana Peljto said. "At practice we work on it a lot and we get punished when we turn balls over a lot. It was definitely one of our goals."

Harvard, who has now won back-to-back games for the first time all season, got off to a 7-0 lead at the start of the first half and led 42-30 at halftime. The Crimson never trailed in the contest.

Peljto came off the bench to play 31 minutes and led all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. She also grabbed eight rebounds.

Not to be outdone, freshman forward Tricia Tubridy added 15 points and eight boards. Junior forward Katie Gates rounded out the Crimson's list of double-digit scorers with 11 points, including a pair of three-point buckets.

Dartmouth rallied for a short time early in the second half and managed to cut the deficit to as low as seven points four different times. But the Crimson would eventually get the lead back up to as much as 16 in the final seconds, as Harvard managed the clock and grabbed plenty of offensive rebounds. The Big Green, meanwhile, could not buy a three-point basket in its effort to trim Harvard's lead, connecting on just 2-of-18 from three-point range in the game.

"[Dartmouth] never gave up, they were scrappy, they made some big baskets," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "They just couldn't [keep] the lead below ten. I think slowing it down, using [all] 30 seconds on the [shot] clock, bothered them."