The Harvard women’s basketball team became the second Ivy victim of surprising Princeton at the Tigers’ Jadwin Gymnasium on Friday night in a 59-55 defeat.

The loss knocked Harvard out of the driver’s seat in the Ivy race, but the Crimson (10-5, 2-1 Ivy) turned its weekend around on Saturday with a 76-56 blowout of defending Ivy champion Penn (4-9, 1-2) at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

“The game against Penn was a completely different story,” said sophomore forward Hana Peljto. “We came out with a lot of intensity, everyone contributed, we shot well, rebounded and played great defense. We almost did everything right that we didn’t do against Princeton.”

Princeton (8-7, 2-1), who was picked to finish last in the Ivies, beat defending Ivy champion Penn and Ivy preseason favorite Harvard before falling to Dartmouth (5-8, 1-2) on Saturday.

That loss to the Big Green left Cornell (8-7, 2-0) as the only undefeated team left in the Ivies. The Big Red will be hard-pressed to continue that pace, however, once it faces tougher competition than its first two Ivy opponents, Yale (7-7, 1-1) and Brown (3-12, 0-2).

Princeton’s loss on Saturday in addition to the Crimson’s victory over Penn left Harvard with a much better outlook going into a lengthy break for exams.

“[Our] loss to Princeton was disappointing, but we’ll learn from it,” Peljto said. “The fact that Princeton lost to Dartmouth definitely helps. We’re still in control of our own destiny.”

Harvard 76, Penn 56

The Crimson’s game against Penn wasn’t crucial just because Harvard needed to avoid a two game-slide, but also because the game was a grudge match.

Harvard and Penn’s last meeting came at Lavietes last winter when the Quakers clinched the Ivy title and celebrated raucously on Harvard’s home court. This memory did not sit well with the Crimson.

Also, entering the night, the Harvard senior class had nothing but three straight double-digit losses to show from its three previous trips to Palestra.

That would all change on Saturday.

With Harvard ahead 9-4 just over five minutes into the game, freshman center Reka Cserny, the Crimson’s second-leading scorer, picked up her second foul. In recent games against Northeastern and Manhattan, Cserny’s foul trouble spelled doom for Harvard’s first half.

But not so on Saturday, as Harvard’s bench made an impact. All 11 players who saw game action cracked the scoreboard.

Co-captain Laura Barnard was the first trooper to strike off the bench, hitting a three early in the first half to put Harvard up 18-9. She added another basket minutes later to extend Harvard’s lead to 25-16.