At 5:50, Murphy lost the ball under the Dartmouth boards but then wreaked havoc, deflected the ball, and ultimately forced a turnover by forward Ashley Taylor—the Big Green’s third in five possessions.
During the next Harvard move, a visibly fired-up Cserny used her long body and quick footwork—“she has a great first step,” Delaney-Smith said after the game, “and everybody knows it”—to bring the Crimson within two.
Two missed Dartmouth free throws later, and feeding off of a frenzied crowd, Shana Franklin threw the most important Harvard dagger of the game—a three-pointer at 4:42 from a Cserny assist that gave the Crimson its first lead since the first half.
Cserny then poured the pressure on the Big Green, finishing with nine straight points and the unbridled confidence to drive against Dartmouth center Elise Morrison. At one point, she head-faked a pass and darted down the lane for the score.
“That first step—she can beat a lot of people, even faster people,” said Delaney-Smith of Cserny, who finished with 20 points. “So you have to play her up a little closer but she has the height for the three. She’s tough to play.”
“You can stop Reka for awhile,” she said. “But she’s gonna find a way.”
Of course, the second half wasn’t always so easy. Down by three after the intermission, the Crimson surrendered 20 points in less than six minutes, including all 11 that standout Big Green point guard Angie Soriaga scored during the game.
“She’s very well-rounded, she can shoot, she can penetrate, and she passes well,” Delaney-Smith said. “She’s a good player.”
Morrison, the Ivies’ second-leading scorer at more than 15 points per game, was harassed by Harvard’s defense throughout the game. She still finished with 13 points and 14 boards.
In the end, it was a fitting regular-season finale. Harvard lost at Dartmouth on Jan. 8 by three points, and prevailed last night at home by three.
Up next: a Saturday afternoon rematch at Brown University’s Pizzitola Center with the co-champs to decide who will represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament.
A rally bus will take Crimson fans down to Providence.
“I’d just like to say,” laughed McCaffery after the game, glancing towards the emptying bleachers, “they should all sign up.”
“It made all the difference,” she said.
—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.