Coming off the bench, Tummala and junior guard Kit Metoyer, who had been starting with the recent absence of Curtis, added 15 and 10 points, respectively.

On the Lions' side, two rookie players stood out and carried their team to hold the lead for almost 28 minutes of play. Freshmen guard Alexa Giuliano lit up Lavietes during the first half, hitting five consecutive three-pointers. Giuliano holds the Columbia record for most threes in a season, and after hitting eight total on Saturday night, also claimed the record for most threes in a game. She had 24 points on the night. Classmate Camille Zimmerman added 25 points of her own.

“They set a lot of player screens for [Giuliano] and I think we were late for those switches so we made an adjustment for the guard to just get around it and be expecting that,” McDonnell said.

A distinct height advantage helped the Crimson dominate the paint through most of the night. Harvard outscored the Lions 36-26 in the paint with 21 second chance points on the night compared to Columbia’s 12. Fagbenle and junior AnnMarie Healy controlled the pace down low, with a combined 19 rebounds.

Healy also added a huge block during the Lion’s possession following McDonnell’s lead clinching three with just about thirty seconds to go to put the game in the Crimson’s hands, rather than it becoming a must-score situation that Harvard has found itself in on many occasions this season.

Though the team has had ups and downs, this game was an important one for the seniors that stepped on the floor at Lavietes Pavilion, and Delany-Smith wanted her players to channel that emotion in the game.

“[I told them to] have emotion,” Delany-Smith said. “Take some of the emotion and turn it into energy, and I think that’s what we saw and that’s what they did. I felt good that this team was going to find a way to win.”

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.