Friday night had a better ending for Harvard at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa. After being down at the half, the Crimson squad regrouped in the locker room and came out strong to grab the victory.

“It was a classic matchup with a team trying to stay in the race and a team not in the race,” Delaney-Smith said.

The young Penn squad surprised Harvard with a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the game. The Quakers maintained their lead throughout the half—up by 11 at one point—until a three-pointer from Lippert cut the deficit to 30-22.

“We came out really flat, and Penn came out really hard,” Berry said. “They got up on us early, and it took halftime for us to recollect.”

Besides the bad defensive start, the Crimson shot only 29.2 percent at the half, while the Quakers sank 50 percent of their shots.

After halftime, Harvard started to lock down on defense and improved its passing and transitions, capitalizing on Penn’s turnovers. The Crimson also scored five points in 45 seconds to bring its deficit to just three points.

“We gutted it out,” Matera said. “We started to D-up, and we were able to take the lead.”

Matera hit a couple of three-pointers to tie the game at 39, and with three and a half minutes to play, sophomore Jasmine Evans made a lay-up that brought Harvard on top for the first time of the night. The Crimson remained ahead until time ran out, extending its lead to eight points.

“I want to credit our players for being poised and patient.” Delaney-Smith said. “We staged a great comeback and did what we needed to do on both ends.”