The fans at the Ryan Center returned to their seats after halftime expecting to see a tightly contested second half and maybe even a Rams victory.

They would be denied and completely overwhelmed by the women in crimson.

The Harvard women’s basketball team erupted for 54 second half points—more than the University of Rhode Island would score for the entire game—to take what had been a close game at halftime and turn it into a 77-48 blowout at the Ryan Center in Kingston, R.I. last night.

For the Crimson (2-1), it was the second straight time it had defeated the Rams (0-2). Last year, it won in Cambridge 83-77.

To grab the victory, Harvard was able to shake off a sluggish first half, which found it up by only three points, 23-20, at the break.

“We were a little tight in the first half,” co-captain forward Maureen McCaffery said. “We let URI have some runs and we weren’t hitting shots.”

“In the second half, we had really focused on playing defense, getting shots,” she added. “We really had strong focus and our shots started to fall.”

Senior co-captain guard Jessica Holsey led the Crimson with 17 points, while McCaffery added 14.

Sophomore forward Adrian Budischak turned in a solid game on the boards.

“We didn’t let the halftime score affect how we were playing,” Holsey said. “We just continued to play our game, and started playing well together.”

Harvard came out strong in the first half, grabbing an early 11-point lead. That lead, however, would slip away at the end of the first half, as URI would rally to get back into the game.

After this burst, the Crimson would take only its one possession lead into the intermission.

After the break, Harvard started the second half the way it began the first. The only difference this time was that the Crimson would not let up the pressure and finished strong down the stretch for the victory.

“Everyone contributed in their own way,” Holsey said. “It was a team effort.”

“Everyone did what they had to do,” McCaffery added.

The Crimson entered last night’s game fresh off a weekend in Chicago for the DePaul Invitational, which saw them lose to DePaul, but beat Alabama State.

The loss to DePaul was a blowout, but since then Harvard has bounced back to start a two-game win streak after defeating the Rams.

“This is a good win to get under our belt,” Holsey said. “We are one step closer to our goal. Our goal is to be competitive in every game, to play our best in every game. Coming and getting this win was part of that.”

Harvard next takes the court after Thanksgiving with a game this Sunday at home against Fairfield.

“We are trying to take each day as it comes,” McCaffery said. “We want to focus on the present. We have a big game this weekend against Fairfield.”