With big games against Columbia and Ivy League frontrunner Cornell, the Crimson will need to play that way.

Harvard 63, Brown 51

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—It was a Jekyl and Hyde weekend for the Harvard women’s basketball team, who needed to reach halftime before picking up its play.

On Friday night the Crimson traveled down to the Pizzitola Sports Center to face Brown. Harvard, missing its second leading scorer in Cserny, started off the game missing 20 of 27 shots.

Harvard’s Peltjo arrived at Brown missing something more; her sneakers had not made the trip to Providence.

The Crimson came in hitting almost 45 percent of its shots from the floor before struggling in the first half against Brown (4-14, 1-4).

Harvard struggled even more mightily from beyond the arc, connecting on only one of its fourteen three-pointers before the break.

To make matters worse, Peljto, Harvard’s leading scorer sat out most of the first half with two fouls.

Defense kept the Crimson in the game, with Harvard players recording five steals in the half and keeping Brown scoreless from beyond the arc. At halftime Brown only led 24-19.

“We’ve had too many turnovers on offense,”said sophomore Tricia Tubridy. “We have just gotten careless with the ball. We’re making mental mistakes that we shouldn’t be making.”

But coming out of the locker room in the second half emerged the Harvard squad everyone expected to see.

Taking advantage of timely three-pointers and sloppy play by Brown, the Crimson stormed back to tie the score at 29 with 15:22 left.

No longer in foul trouble, Peljto began to assert herself in the paint, scoring eight of her 10 points in the second half of the game.

The real game breaker, though, was Monti. Her game and career-high 18 points jumpstarted the Harvard offense, and proved to be the difference late in the game as she sank a series of runners in the lane.

Thanks to an improved second-half shooting percentage, and a 50 percent clip beyond the arc, the Crimson was able to pull away.

In a physical game where many of the players lost their footing, and Harvard seemed to have lost its touch, timely baskets and stiff defense propelled the Crimson to a 63-51 win.

“In the first half of the Brown game we were not being very aggressive in going towards the basket,” Dunham said, “but I feel it was the best team defense we played all year.”