Senior Erin McDonnell's triple with just under a minute left gave Harvard the win over Columbia on Senior Night for the Crimson.

Junior Shilpa Tummala drove with the ball into traffic. A swarm of Columbia players attacked. Co-captain Erin McDonnell was wide open.

She caught the ball about two feet behind the arc, squared to the hoop, and released.

It was nothing but net.

“I realized I was open and I was like, ‘Oh wow, I’m open,'” McDonnell said. “Shilpa drove because she always draws a lot of defenders…I started screaming and she heard me, and I was just lucky enough that it went in.”

The trey would put the Crimson (12-14, 5-7 Ivy) ahead, with the score at 82-81 with just under a minute to go, a lead the team would never relinquish. As the clock expired following a missed jumper by Lions’ sophomore Tori Oliver, the Harvard bench cleared with each member of the Crimson cheering in excitement.

With the level of intensity and heart shown by Harvard and Columbia (8-18, 2-10) in this game, one would expect there was a title or a playoff spot on the line, but that wasn’t the case. Though the game saw two sub-.500 Ivy teams facing off, the Crimson women didn’t take this game lightly.

“Our seniors have made a giant commitment and worked so hard for four years that this was a special night for them,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “It doesn’t matter who our opponent was I think they were just going to play hard.”

The Crimson was celebrating senior night—honoring the play of the team’s four members of the class of 2015. McDonnell, fellow co-captain Kaitlyn Dinkins, forward Temi Fagbenle, and guard Ali Curtis were playing their final game at Lavietes Pavilion, but they certainly made it count.

McDonnell finished the game with 15 points, her 23rd game this season she reached double figures. She shot 5-for-8 from the field, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc, but no shot was more important than that final three.

Fagbenle added 16 on the night to move to 15th on the all-time Crimson scoring list with 1,121 points. The senior got a standing ovation from the crowd when she fouled out of the game with just under two minutes to go in the contest.

In a scrappy game that was played with high intensity from the first whistle to the last, Dinkins was part of a strong defensive core, covering some of the Lions' hot shooters in the backcourt. She added two steals for Harvard in 20 minutes on the court.

Curtis saw limited action in her first game since returning from injury. The guard contributed three points and two assists in 11 minutes.

The last time the Crimson faced Columbia, Harvard fell by a score of 59-43. This time out, however, was a much different scenario, as the Crimson matched their total score from the first meeting in the first half alone.

“I am so proud of this team for how tough they played,” Delaney-Smith said. “I thought Columbia played far better than I thought they would. I think [there was a] 'Lets beat Harvard twice’ kind of mentality.”

Much of the difference came from the performance of the Harvard role players who stepped up on Saturday.