Despite a late jumper from Alemany just before the break, the Eagles’ offense didn’t skip a beat entering the second half. Coach Sylvia Crawley and her team added to their 14-5 run in the first with an additional 17-4 run to open the first six minutes of final frame and reclaim a commanding lead of 55-44.

After the Crimson’s three-minute scoring drought, a basket from sophomore Miriam Rutzen with 13:49 remaining sparked Harvard’s offensive revival, helping the Crimson claim an impressive 16-3 run of its own to close the scoring deficit, 60-58.

“BC wasn’t the best defensive team, so we knew we could drive to the basket and we did a good job of finding the open players,” Alemany said.

Eventually, Boston College’s inside game and ability to dump it to Swords—who finished with 28 points—proved triumphant over the Harvard’s ability to thwart the defensive trap at the end of the game.

Both teams traded leads until Swords’ buzzer-beater gave the Eagles the only one that mattered.

“It was a positive game for us, even though we fell short by two points,” Matera said. “If we play like we did last night against…[any] Ivy League team, we can come out on top. This is looking good going into conference.”