Receiving the ball along the right side of the arc, Sarah Brown fired a three-pointer off the glass and in to pull the Crimson within two.

“Instead of focusing on finishing the two minutes, we focused on not losing,” Bell said. “We were hesitant on defense. It was just really a mental game towards the end.”

Needing to stop the clock with just 10 seconds left in regulation, the Big Red fouled Bell, sending her to the charity stripe for two.

But the basket was anything but kind to Bell, who missed as well. Katie Romey hauled down the board and quickly passed to force, who took it the rest of the way.

“We play tight and we don’t hit our shots,” Delaney-Smith said. “We got all the shots that we wanted including our foul shots.”

Harvard quickly grabbed the lead in overtime off an easy lay-in, but Force knocked down a three to give Cornell the lead.

“We went into a little bit of shock,” Bell said. “We were busy thinking we can’t lose, we can’t lose.

Just minutes later she would stick a pair of free throws to give the Big Red the lead for good.

“It was very even and then we ended up fouling,” Delaney-Smith said. “Then they hit a three. They played very well and I think once an Ivy League team becomes a believer than you’ve got a ball game on your hands.”

Aiding in that faith was the absence of junior center Reka Cserny, whose foul woes kept her from much of the second half and all of overtime.

“It was not a well-called game in my opinion, unfortunately” Delaney-Smith said. “Two of her fouls were not fouls. And that’s really sad for a player of her caliber.”

Cserny netted 13 points on 5-for-12 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in 28 minutes. But her production was limited by the unwanted physical attention the Big Red gave her down low.

“Cornell is traditionally a very physical team and obviously that was part of the game plan,” Delaney-Smith said. “That will throw a finesse player like her out of her rhythm.”

Similarly off, though still producing solid numbers was co-captain Hana Peljto, who, though she scored 20 points and grabbed 14 boards, was 7-of-19 from the field—and 1-of-5 from downtown—with six turnovers.

But Peljto was not the only Crimson sharpshooter to be putting up blanks from long range. Harvard combined to go 2-for-17 from three-point land, while Cornell was 2-of-9.