In the dying seconds of Saturday night’s game, Harvard freshman Brogan Berry’s runner bounced off the glass before seeming to touch every inch of metal. As the ball swirled around the rim, the anxious faces of the Crimson players on the bench told the whole story: the team simply needed the shot to fall.

But the nervousness soon turned to dejection. As the ball fell, not through the net but into the grip of Columbia’s Judie Lomax, Harvard lost its grip on the ability to control its own destiny.

Saturday’s 74-71 loss in Lavietes Pavilion puts a serious damper on the Crimson’s hopes for an Ivy League crown. Harvard (13-8, 5-2 Ivy) now finds itself two games behind league-leading Dartmouth.

The defeat marred an incredible weekend performance by sophomore Emma Markley. The forward followed up her 18-point, 10-rebound game against Cornell on Friday with yet another double-double. Markley led all scorers with 27, matching her career high. She added 14 rebounds and eight blocks—both career highs as well.

“She has a post player’s body but can spring faster than any guard out there,” co-captain Emily Tay said of Markley.

With the two teams trading leads down the stretch, Columbia (11-11, 4-4) put the pressure on the Crimson with some sharp shooting from behind the arc.

First, Lions’ guard Sara Yee answered a Tay layup with a three. Then, after Berry hit a tough runner in the lane to give Harvard a 63-62 advantage, Columbia’s Katrina Cragg knocked down a three of her own.

With three minutes to go, Berry drove and was able to get straight to the hoop to tie the score. But another Lions’ three—this time from Melissa Shafer—put Columbia up 68-65.

On the ensuing possession, a missed layup from Tay was rebounded by the Lions’ Lauren Dwyer. A second later, Tay and Markley combined for the steal. Markley laid the ball in, got the foul, and made the free throw to get the crowd on its feet.

After two made free throws by Lomax, the next Crimson possession saw Berry feed the ball inside to sophomore Claire Wheeler, who quickly dished it to Markley for a layup. The beautiful passing tied the score once again with a minute and a half remaining.

Columbia continued to find answers, and a layup from Lomax put her team back in front. Following a 30-second timeout, Berry was able to break the press, drawing a foul that sent her to the line.

Berry—one of the league’s best from the charity stripe—was short on her first shot.

“The free throw was so unlike her,” Tay said. “She’ll probably not miss another one for the rest of the year.”

Berry, though, was able to collect herself and hit the second to pull Harvard to within one.

Knowing that it needed a stop, the Crimson stood strong on the defensive end of the floor, forcing a bad Lions miss. However, Columbia grabbed the offensive board and was able to call timeout with five seconds left on the shot clock.

Off the inbounds, the Lions were still unable to find an opening. But right as the shot clock struck zero, a debatable foul call on Berry sent Dwyer to the line.

Dwyer made the first but missed the second, giving Harvard the ball, down two, with twenty seconds left.

The final Crimson possession saw both Berry and Tay try to create room for their own shot. The ball wound up in the hands of the freshman point guard, and Berry did everything right except get lucky. Despite the Harvard bench and fans screaming for a foul, the no-call on Berry’s runner with two seconds on the clock essentially sealed the Crimson’s fate.

The final miss seemed an unjust ending yet again for Berry, who finished with 14 points. In both of Harvard’s two losses this season, the freshman has had the ball in her hands on the final possession.

Neither time did the Crimson get the result it was hoping for, but the decisions indicate the level of trust that Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith has in her point guard.

“We like the ball in Brogan’s hands,” Delaney-Smith said.

The last five minutes were played out with incredible tension and drama, but those in attendance may have been biting their nails in the first half for entirely different reasons.

Despite expecting the Columbia press, the Crimson simply did not deal with the pressure in the opening period. Harvard turned the ball over 16 times in a sloppy first half.

“We don’t blame anybody but ourselves,” Delaney-Smith said.

The fact that the Crimson went into the break down only six was largely due to the play of Markley. When her guards did manage to break the press, Markley was there to finish, scoring 14 points before the break.

Tay joined Markley and Berry in double figures for the game, adding 10 points to the effort.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.