With ten seconds left in the game and Penn trailing Harvard by two, the women’s basketball team found themselves neck and neck with the only undefeated squad in the Ivy League.
The pressure was on freshman Alyssa Baron to keep the Quakers in the game. Fouled after rebounding senior Caroline Nicholson’s missed free throw attempt, Baron sunk both shots, tying the game, 72-72. But after two overtime periods, Harvard escaped with an 88-84 victory.
Saturday’s events resembled last year’s matchup when Harvard (13-6, 5-0 Ivy) beat the Quakers (7-12, 1-4) with a three at the end of the game to clinch the win. But this time, the Crimson missed the buzzer-beater and the game went into its first overtime.
Penn showed off its top-ranked Ivy League defense as it prevented the Crimson from two possible attempts to win the game at the end of the first overtime. After a Harvard missed jumper went out of bounds off the Quakers with less than four seconds remaining, senior Erin Power stole the ensuing inbound pass, sending the game into its second overtime.
This marked the first double overtime for the Quakers since 2005 and the first time in program history that both the men and women went into double overtime — against the same school, no less — on the same night.
But in the end, just like the men, the women couldn’t notch the win. Harvard gained a three-point lead with 1:34 remaining in the second extra frame and held on.
Baron had an unbelievable night, setting the freshman school record with 38 points before she fouled out with six seconds left in the second overtime,. Her scoring output ranks as the fifth-best single-game effort in Penn’s history.
“Not only did [Baron] score 38 points, she created a lot of plays for her teammates,” McLaughlin said. “In this environment and against this level of teams in our league, it’s pretty special.”
“The feeling and the emotion at the end of the game and especially in the two overtimes is just an intensity and energy that I don’t think the team has felt all season,” Power said.
It was a heart-wrenching road trip for the Quakers as they also lost Friday night against Dartmouth.
“We fought really, really hard … and we don’t have a win to show for it, which is a shame,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “[But] that’s a lesson we learn as an athlete.”
Both were tight battles, with some of the best basketball the Quakers have played all season on display.
Against Dartmouth (5-14, 1-4), the Quakers dished out a season-high 18 assists, outrebounded Dartmouth, 38-33, and shot 46.3 percent (25-for-54) — their second-best this season.
Despite these defensive efforts, McLaughlin still expected more from Penn against the struggling Big Green.
“I thought we would be able to pressure Dartmouth a little bit, keep them on their toes,” he added. “[But] they made tough shots at the right times.”
Though the Quakers held the lead with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, a three-point play relinquished the game to Dartmouth, giving the Big Green its first Ivy win of the season, a 68-65 victory.
Power attributed fatigue and “mental breakdowns” as struggles in Penn’s Friday loss.
Saturday, the Quakers appeared to have come back, and played back and forth against Harvard the entire night, with the lead changing 16 times.
As the Red and Blue move into their next Ivy weekend against Cornell and Columbia, they will have to bounce back quickly if they want to stay competitive in the Ivy League.
But the confidence is there.
“If we can hang with Harvard and Princeton as we have, we can hang with any team in the league,” Power said.
