“We couldn’t really stop her today,” Peljto said. “She’s very calm. She knows what she’s doing at all times.”

“We allowed her to do heroic things today,” Delaney-Smith said.

Whalen spent quite a bit of her time on the floor literally on the floor, as she was repeatedly fouled and knocked down, even stepped on by a teammate. One such incident occurred with 1:46 left in the first half, as Whalen scored and then somersaulted out of bounds as she was fouled. She made the free throw, and finished the day 5-for-5 from behind the charity stripe.

Harvard’s strategy for dealing with the prolific point guard did not work out as anticipated.

“We would try to contain her and then we wanted a double [team],” Delaney-Smith said. “She’d sometimes drive and I thought you could take the charge. Katie Murphy did it, Reka tried. I think you can take the charge and rotate to where she’s going to push the ball. That was what we were supposed to be doing. We were late in our rotation, we were late to taking the charge and I don’t know why because that was our game plan.”

Double Trouble

In Harvard’s two games against ranked opposition, only Peljto and sophomore Reka Cserny have managed to crack double-digits in scoring. Against Vanderbilt, Peljto put up 15 points and Cserny added 12, though Cserny did not score until four minutes into the second frame.

Against Northeastern last Wednesday, Cserny and Peljto notched 24 points apiece, but only Peljto has been able to maintain her high production against better teams.

“Hana will not accept that someone is stopping her,” Delaney-Smith said. “She’s not allowed to be part of our offense without an immediate double. So, she works really hard in other ways to score, mostly rebounding, mostly running the floor. She’s developed a great outside shot.”

The fact that no other Crimson player besides Peljto could sustain offensive momentum stood out even further compared to the five Gophers that reached double figures.

Minnesota’s Janel McCarville used her 6’2 stature well, scoring 10 points off the bench and grabbing seven rebounds. The Gophers also benefitted from their 6’1 center Kim Prince, who knocked in 16 points. Two of her baskets were shot over the 6’3 Cserny.

“[Minnesota] had some pretty athletic forwards who would jump-shoot us,” Delaney-Smith said. “There were times where our defense was fine and they were just shooting over us. You have to live with that. Maybe work harder, don’t let them get the ball, hit them with a double team—we tried to do that.”

Moore than a Feeling

Moore didn’t bat an eye when Harvard’s rotation left her guarding Minnesota’s Kadidja Anderson. A few of the fans, however, may have, as the 5’2 Moore made somewhat of an odd couple when matched with the 5’11 Anderson.

“[Moore] was rotating down and everyone’s like, ‘Rotate inside.’ It doesn’t really matter where Bev rotates—nothing is going to work there,” Delaney-Smith said.