“We just kind of went for it,” she said. “At halftime we just made it a personal goal.”

In overtime, Dartmouth, led by super sophomore Elise Morrison—who unexpectedly returned from injury—and Jeannie Cullen, awoke from its shooting slumber.

Cullen hit two threes and Morrison, who scored 17 and finished with 13 rebounds overall, chipped in a three-point play to give the Big Green a commanding 71-64 advantage.

Murphy and Holsey answered with six consecutive Harvard points, and when Cserny hit an inside shot with 53 seconds left, the Crimson appeared to take a late overtime lead.

The shot was negated. Cserny was called for an offensive foul—her fifth—and left the game.

“I don’t think it really affected things,” Cserny said. “It may have affected the game, but it didn’t affect the team.”

McCaffery agreed. “Things like that happen. There wasn’t time to worry about that.”

Harvard earned one last chance at the lead after a missed Cullen three-pointer.

With six seconds remaining, Mannering—who contributed 12 points overall—rimmed out a layup.

Morrison pulled down the rebound and, after sinking two free throws, sealed the win.

At that, Harvard entered the reading period break with an Ivy loss in its first game. Cornell awaits on Jan. 28 with a 1-10 record.

“I’m just looking at this like a mental break,” McCaffery said. “We have something to prove.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.