Women’s Basketball Held off by Harvard

Saturday, February 24

Cambridge, Mass.

2 p.m.

Brown University

14-10,5-6Ivy League

Harvard

15-9,8-3Ivy League

Brown

Harvard

Photo by: Emma C. Marion

2/24/2024 4:40:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Brown women's basketball team came up on the short end of an 80-73 loss at Harvard on Saturday afternoon. After falling behind by 17 in the first half, Brown rallied back to take the lead in a game that ended up seeing seven lead changes and five ties before the Crimson held on in the final minutes.
The Bears will enter the final two weekends of the season tied for the fourth and final spot in Ivy Madness.

Sophomore Ada Anamekwe registered her first career double-double with 16 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while coming away with two steals and shooting 6-for-11 from the floor. Sophomore Grace Arnolie tied for a game-high 24 points, one shy of her career-high to go with five assists and two steals. Senior Kyla Jones added 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists on 6-of-12 shooting.

On the glass, Harvard held a 37-36 edge and led 12-11 in second chance points.

Arnolie and Mauricio hits three-pointers in the opening minutes to help build a 10-6 lead as Harvard started the game 3-for-10 from the floor. The Crimson sank consecutive threes to take a 12-10 lead at the 4:23 media timeout. Brown retook the lead with the help of an 8-3 run to hold an 18-17 lead after one quarter.

Tied at 22, Harvard used an 11-2 run to take their largest lead of the game 33-24, forcing a Brown timeout at 4:08. The run extended to 19-2 before an Arnolie triple with just over two minutes to go ended the run and helped spark an 11-5 run for Brown to close the half, trailing 45-35. The Crimson shot 63 percent in the quarter while putting up 28 points.

Brown scored eight straight to pull within 47-45 in the opening minutes of the second half, highlighted by two straight defensive stops by the Bears which led to back-to-back three-pointers by Arnolie. After a timeout, Jones swished home a three from the left wing to give Brown its first lead of the half and push the run to 11-0. After the lead changed hands three times, Harvard would build a five-point cushion and go on to hold a 56-52 lead after three.

Arnolie tied it at 57 with a free throw just over a minute into the fourth, and Anamekwe reached double figures with a layup to make it 61-59 5:47 to go. That was as close as Brown would get as the Crimson used a 10-2 run to push their lead to 74-65 with 1:56 left. Anamekwe put in a layup and Jones added a free throw in the final minute to trim the deficit to three with 31 seconds left, but Harvard connected on its free throws and made defensive stops in the end to hold off the rally.

Brown will play all three of its final regular season games at home over the next two weekends, starting with Columbia next Friday at 4 p.m. and Cornell on Saturday at 3 p.m.

BROWN UNIVERSITY SPORTS FOUNDATION
The Brown University Sports Foundation (BUSF) is the lifeblood of the athletics program, and exists to enhance the student-athlete experience through philanthropic support from alumni, parents, fans and friends. A gift through the Sports Foundation makes an immediate impact on today's Brown Bears and helps them to be their best in the classroom, in competition and most importantly in the community. To learn more about supporting the Bears, please click here.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL
For the latest on Brown Athletics, please follow @BrownU_Bears on Twitter, @BrownU_Bears on Instagram, like BrownUBears on Facebook and subscribe to the BrownAthletics YouTube channel.