“Our defensive plan throughout the game was to stop their drives,” Curtis said. “We knew they were an athletic team that wanted to drive, so we really packed it in and tried to take away their strengths.”
While the strategy was able to force plenty of these less efficient shots, the Crimson couldn’t capitalize on Rutgers’ poor shooting.
Harvard fell behind to open the contest, and never led by more than one the entire game.
The loss marks the third straight year that the Crimson have fallen in the second round of the WNIT, while the 22 wins for Harvard on the year are the most for the team since the 2002-03 season.
“All in all, I thought we played pretty well,” Delaney-Smith said. “I was amazed at how well we handled the game they threw at us, but the ball didn’t fall for us. I thought we were able to get the shots we wanted against their athleticism, [but] they just didn’t fall.”
—Staff writer Ty Aderhold can be reached at michael.aderhold@thecrimson.com.