Sacred Heart Hands Crimson First Loss of the Season, 92-77

Sophomore Brogan Berry scored a team- and season-high 20 points for the Crimson. Photo courtesy of Gil Talbot.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Sophomore Brogan Berry the Crimson with a season-high 20 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the long range shooting of Sacred Heart, who handed the Harvard women’s basketball team its first loss of the season, 92-77, Saturday at the Pitt Center.

Junior co-captain Christine Matera scored a season-high 12, all in the first half, while junior Emma Markley added 10 and sophomore Caitlin Rowland scored a career-high 11.

Harvard (2-1) opened up on a 5-0 run and extended its lead to 10-3 on a trey from Berry. The Crimson made it a double-digit lead four minutes into the game, but coming out of the first media timeout, the Pioneers (1-2) drained three-straight shots from behind the three-point line to pull within 15-14 with 14:08 left in the first. Sacred Heart took its first lead of the game on a trey from Callan Taylor less than two minutes later.

The Pioneers drained eight more trifectas over the next 12 minutes to go back and forth with the Crimson. After 20 minutes of action, the teams went to the locker room tied at 43. It was the sixth tie of the first session after 10 lead changes. The Pioneers shot 69.2 percent from three and 57 percent from the field during the first season.

Sacred Heart started off the second stanza on a 10-0 forcing the Crimson to call a timeout after 1:19 of play. The Pioneers continued to make its long range shots to pull away to a 60-47 lead with 15:39 remaining in the second. Harvard closed the gap with six points from Berry and five from Caitlin Rowland, but the home team continued to hit from downtown and pulled away to another 17-point leads with just over six minutes left in the game.

Harvard went to the charity stripe 27 times in the game and scored 21 points for a 77.8 percent shooting effort. The Crimson managed 42.4 percent from the field. After dominating the glass in the first 20 minutes, Harvard was outrebounded, 36-35 for the game. Sacred Heart 47 percent from the field, but was 62.5 percent from beyond the arc with 15 three-pointers.

The Crimson continues its road stretch Tuesday, Nov. 24 at New Hampshire. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.