Harvard rallied over the rest of the half, trading off leads with its opponents. The teams headed back to the locker room with BYU up, 34-29.

Eaton and fellow Cougars’ guard Kim Beeston led their team’s offense in the first period, scoring a combined 22 points. Eaton was six-for-eight from the foul line.

“I like where we are, and I thought there were a lot of really good things at the end of the BYU game, but of course, it was disappointing to start the way we started,” Delaney-Smith said. “I didn’t expect this team to start slow, so I think that’s the work in progress we have going right now. Hopefully we start strong and finish strong and put the whole game together because we’re capable.”

Both the Crusaders and the Crimson seem ready for the obstacles that face the respective teams when they square off.

“They’re definitely the best team that we’re playing thus far,” said Holy Cross coach Bill Gibbons. “In my opinion, they have a very talented team, a very well coached team. This will be a big test for our girls, an early season test.”

According to Golen, Harvard will look to approach the game with the same competitive mindset that it brings to each matchup.

“We are definitely going in hungry, especially the seniors,” Golen said. “We lost to [the Crusaders] two years in a row...and we definitely don’t want to lose to them a third time.”