“We were scoring against Princeton, we were getting stops, so they decided to go to the boards,” Delaney-Smith said. “That’s what veteran teams do; if you’re sets aren’t working or your sets aren’t falling, you go to the boards.”

The teams went back and forth from there, with the Tigers stretching their lead to 11 at one point in the second quarter before a pair of Metoyer triples brought the Crimson back within three, 47-44, midway through the third.

Ultimately, Harvard was undone by another demoralizing Princeton run, with the Tigers opening the fourth quarter with 14 unanswered points to stretch their lead to 20, 71-51. During that time, the Crimson missed seven field goals and committed four turnovers.

“As a young team, we got stuck in our own heads,” Tummala said. “We didn’t score for a long time and they were scoring… you need to put the ball in the basket to win games. We couldn’t convert, and they’re a veteran team and they took advantage of that drought. That’s what killed us.”

Seniors Annie Tarakchian and Michelle Miller paced the Tigers with 24 and 20 points respectively, shooting a combined 16-of-27 from the field.

—Staff writer Manav Khandelwal can be reached at manavkhandelwal@college.harvard.edu.