“The basic consensus at halftime—quit being intimidated, quit playing scared and fight back,” Ides said. “It’s unfortunate that it took a whole half for us to realize that we could handle their defensive pressure and that we could run with these guys.”

Though the Crimson was missing its leading scorer, junior Hana Peljto, due to a sprained MCL, her absence was not the primary reason for Harvard’s offensive woes.

“We took the first shot available, rather than working the ball around for the easy shot,” Ides said. “We did not work to crash the boards on offense as well. I would say the first half was reminiscent of Vanderbilt.”

The Crimson lost to the Commodores, 84-44, on Dec. 1.

Too often, Harvard settled for an outside shot and the Scarlet Knights capitalized on the imbalance in Harvard’s game. The Crimson shot 9.5 percent from the field and 9.1 percent from behind the arc in the first half.

“Usually, we shoot really well from the outside,” Cserny said. “But this time, they didn’t fall and we didn’t get the rebounds that we usually get because they were physical and aggressive.”

Cserny led Harvard with 16 points and seven rebounds while Ides tallied nine points.

“We played as hard as we could in the second half of the Rutgers game, and as the cliche goes, we left it on the court,” Ides said.

—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.