Harvard wins Ivy Tournament beating Columbia 74-71 to earn first NCAA Tournament bid since 2007
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Harmoni Turner came up huge all weekend to get Harvard back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 years.
The Crimson’s senior guard scored 24 points and Harvard beat Columbia 74-71 on Saturday to win the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history. Turner earned MVP honors of the tournament.
Her effort on Saturday followed up a 44-point tournament record performance in the semifinals against Princeton. Now the Crimson, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in March Madness history with a victory over No. 1 Stanford in the 1998 NCAA Tournament, are back. It’s the team’s first trip to the NCAAs since 2007.
“Today means everything. This is everything that you know I’ve worked for,” said Harvard coach Carrie Moore, who took over the program three years ago. “I’m gonna get emotional because, you know, I think they spoke to it. But there’s a lot that goes into this, you know, a lot of sacrifice.”
Fittingly the back-and-forth game came down to the final few plays. Harvard led by five with 17.6 seconds left before Columbia scored three of the next four to get within 74-71.
The Crimson had a chance to seal it, but Elena Rodriguez missed a wide-open layup with 5.2 seconds left, giving Columbia once last opportunity. After a timeout, Riley Weiss took a 3-pointer from the wing that rimmed out just before the buzzer.
“I think it’s a great shot for a great shooter that’s trying to figure out how to be a star,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said.
Weiss finished with 21 points to lead the Lions.
Harvard (24-4) reached the finals of the Ivy Tournament for the second time in three years. The Crimson lost to Princeton in 2023.
Columbia (23-6), which won the outright regular season title for the first time in school history, lost in the title game for the third time in the past four years. Princeton beat them in 2022 and 2024.
Now the Lions will wait to see if they can get an at-large bid for the second consecutive year. Columbia made its first NCAA Tournament appearance last year as one of the last teams in the field of 68. The Lions lost to Vanderbilt in a play-in game.
It was the second time in league history that the conference got an at-large bid. This season the league could potentially get two at-large bids with Princeton also in the mix. That would be a first for the conference.
It was an entertaining first half that saw Harvard go up 34-26 behind Turner before the Lions closed to 44-42 at the break. The teams combined to hit eight of their final 10 shots, trading baskets for the final 3 minutes before the half.
Turner had 14 points in the first half, including the 2,000th of her career. She became the third Harvard player ever to reach that milestone.
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