With the Ivy League’s second-leading scorer, Penn’s Jewel Clark, set to bang bodies with Hana Peljto and Reka Cserny under the boards, the Quakers’ bench wasn’t exactly the first thing on the minds of Crimson defenders.

But it was Penn’s second string—and not Clark—that dumped 41 points on Harvard in propelling the Quakers to victory.

“No, I didn’t [expect Penn’s bench to be that deep],” Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We stopped Jewel and I think we did a good job, but they had balanced scoring.”

Clark and center Jennifer Fleischer alternately covered Peljto and Cserny, but the strategy proved futile as neither was able to consistently halt the Crimson’s big two.

Peljto dominated Clark during their early encounters, using her four-inch height advantage to post up on the right block before spinning outside for a layup-jump-hook hybrid shot just out of Clark’s reach. The move twice drew a foul on Clark in the opening 15:03, sending her into halftime with three.

Though she played tentatively during her time on the floor, a quick foul in the second sent her to the bench with four. With 6:48 remaining and less than a minute after re-entering, she shoved off Peljto in an attempt to grab a loose ball for her fifth and final infraction after playing only 19 minutes, tallying just nine points.

Harvard went on a 13-0 run to retake the lead just moments later, spurred by nine points from Cserny and Peljto.

But the Quaker subs were quick to recover from Clark’s absence. Of the 41 points scored by the subs, 27 came in the second half, compared to the Crimson’s game total of four.

The Penn bench took control of the squad’s offense for good with 13:42 remaining in the second half, when starting guard Karen Habrukowich sank the second of two free throws. It was the starting rotation’s final point, as the second team would account for the final 25.

Cat Makarewich burned Harvard for 11 of her 13 during the stretch, nailing three wide open treys, the last of which ended Penn’s 4:23 scoring drought and snapped the Crimson’s 13-point run.

“[Makarewich] was the one; I thought we should have stopped her threes,” Delaney-Smith said. “The three-for-four [on three-point tries]—I felt like it was a mental breakdown defensively, because its the same offense that Cornell runs and we stopped that shot a number of times. And that shouldn’t happen.”

Bench Pressed

Delaney-Smith got what she asked for. After her second string was kept virtually scoreless against the Quakers, Delaney-Smith said, “I am trying to get this team to be more balanced. I don’t want Reka and Hana scoring all the points and no one else scoring. That’s not what I want from this team.”

Saturday night, Harvard turned the tables on Princeton, with Crimson reserves racking up 40 points to the Tigers’ 15.

“That should have been last night,” Delaney-Smith said following the game. “That’s how it should be every night.”