“Our coach makes sure to tell us to finish a play till we get the rebound or score,” Nunley said. “That’s what we work on in practice all the time. We’re crashing the boards till the play is dead.”

The Crimson collected 48 rebounds, with 15 off the offensive glass. Most teams would be happy with that production, but for Harvard it was merely a product of poor shooting.

“We adjusted to the fact that we weren’t hitting the shots that we normally do,” Nunley said. “In response we crashed really hard, and I don’t think they were expecting that. As a result, that sent us to the line a lot.”

The Crimson took 18 shots from the charity stripe and sunk 12 of them. Good free throw shooting in the midst of poor three-point shooting would prove essential for the Harvard triumph.

A notable performance came from off the bench as sophomore guard Sydney Skinner scored 14 points, matching her career high, in the contest. The Plano, TX native gave the Crimson the boost it needed, along with junior forward Taylor Rooks, who recorded six points, four blocks, and 10 rebounds

“Taylor Rooks [being] able to come in and drop a few points for us and give our team confidence is a beautiful thing,” Nunley said. “We haven’t had that [depth] in year’s past since I’ve been here, but this year we do and that’s really exciting.”

—Staff writer Stuart Johnson can be reached at stuartjohnson@college.harvard.edu.