Junior co-captain Christine Matera helped the Crimson to a weekend sweep at home with a hot hand from beyond the three-point line. Matera sank all four of her treys against Columbia and added four more against Cornell to propel Harvard to its first two conference victories.

The Crimson escaped the pressure.

The pressure of four straight road games.

The pressure of seeking its first Ivy League win.

The pressure of Columbia’s full-court defense.

After playing four consecutive games away from Lavietes Pavilion—a stretch that included tough losses to Dartmouth and No. 13/14 Florida State—the Harvard women’s basketball team (10-6, 1-1 Ivy) returned to its familiar confines across the river last Friday night, notching its first conference victory of the season with a dominating 73-55 win over Columbia.

“We do love coming home to our gym, but we have to love all of the gyms we play in,” said Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “Nevertheless, I was very pleased with how we played, and I thought that we came together as a team.”

Harvard and Columbia traded scoring runs in the opening minutes of the first half. Junior forward Emma Markley’s three point play extended the Crimson’s early lead to 15-5, but Lions guard Sara Yee’s back-to-back three pointers brought Columbia within two, at 15-13.

The Lions employed full court pressure the entire game, giving Harvard difficulty at first getting the ball past half court.

“Columbia is the best in the league at full court pressure,” Delaney-Smith said. “The key is to stay poised and find the open player, and not make the quick pass. We had a lot of turnovers early on because of that.”

The Crimson never looked back, though, as junior co-captain Christina Matera’s three pointer sparked an 18-7 run to close out the first half with a 33-20 lead. By halftime, seven players had already made their mark on the score sheet.

Despite committing 30 turnovers, Harvard appeared to have no problem establishing its offensive groove and maintaining it throughout the game.

“We turned the ball over stupidly, but that didn’t seem to bother us,” Delaney-Smith said. “That’s why you can walk away with these type of games.”

The Crimson also managed to stay hot the entire game, shooting 65.9% from the field—including a season-high 70.8% in the second half. Leading the way for Harvard was Markley, who posted 19 points, eight rebounds, and a season-high seven blocks.

“Strong defense, rebounding, and a positive attitude made everything offensively click for us,” Markley said. “Everything follows through after that.”

Adding to the Lions’ woes was the Crimson’s precision from beyond the arc, as Harvard shot 7-of-9 from three point land. Matera—who scored 14 points in the game—was perfect from beyond the arc, converting all four of her three point attempts.

But what really allowed the Crimson to pull away was its stifling defense, a 2-3 zone that gave Columbia fits the entire game.

“[Columbia] didn’t like our zone, and we were anticipating their passes really well,” Delaney-Smith said. “They have some nice shooters but we were able to get out to them most of the time.”

“We run a make and miss offense,” added sophomore point guard Brogan Berry, who had seven assists and two steals in the game. “We were making our shots tonight, so we were able to focus on defense.”

With Columbia’s outside game stone cold—the Lions shot just 29.0% the entire game—it went inside to junior forward Judie Lomax looking for answers. Lomax, who led the NCAA in rebounding at 14.3 per game last year, scored a game-high 20 points, a concession that Delaney-Smith was willing to give considering that the star was held in check on the glass.

“Our main focus was finding a body and boxing out,” Delaney-Smith said. “We held [Lomax] to six rebounds; I’m pretty happy with that.”

“I wasn’t focused so much on getting my own rebounds, but I was just trying to make sure to keep her off the boards,” Markley added.

With Markley’s stellar performance in the paint and a strong supporting cast around the perimeter—guards freshmen Victoria Lippert and junior Jackie Alemany contributed 11 and seven points, respectively—Harvard jumped out to a 20-point advantage with just under six minutes to play, marking its largest lead of the night. From that point on, the Crimson cruised comfortably to its seventh victory at home this season.

Harvard’s 18-point rout of the Lions proved that the Crimson will be a major player for the Ivy title—a prize that last belonged to the squad in 2008.

“We just have to take one game at a time,” Berry said. “We have to play each game like it’s the title game.”

Delaney-Smith pointed out that Harvard had won the title before, even with early losses in conference play, clearly downplaying the heartbreaking 45-44 loss to Dartmouth just two weeks ago.

“Nobody’s going to run the table,” Delaney-Smith said. “Columbia is one of the better teams in the league, and I don’t think anybody is going to run the table, because they’ll have to go through us.”

—Staff writer Kevin T. Chen can be reached at ktchen@fas.harvard.edu.