The Crimson could not prevent Cornell leading scorer Karen Force from accounting for all of the Big Red’s offense in the first 13:22 of Friday’s game. The problem for Cornell (9-16, 4-8) was that Harvard’s defense limited Force to just three points during that stretch.

The Crimson jumped out to a 19-3 lead in the first 10 minutes and the Big Red did not come any closer than eight points for the rest of the night as Harvard coasted to a 61-47 victory.

Though Cornell pounded Peljto inside and shut out the Ivy’s leading scorer for the game’s first 13 minutes, the Crimson nevertheless burst ahead thanks to its outside play, as Tubridy and sophomore guard Rochelle Bell each hit a pair of zone-busting threes.

The victory was Harvard’s largest over the Big Red since the 1999-2000 season. Cornell had been a thorn in the Crimson’s side of late, especially in the teams’ last two meetings. A year ago, Harvard needed double overtime to get past the Big Red by a 77-75 margin, while two weeks ago, the Crimson blew a 17-point halftime lead before pulling out a 77-71 victory.

“They play tough defense and they’re always very excited to beat us, so to beat them by this much is great,” said Peljto, who ultimately led Harvard with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Though the Crimson didn’t allow Cornell to come close, Delaney-Smith said her team showed shades of recent performances against the Big Red Friday night. Harvard’s 29.3-percent shooting was its worst in Ivy play this year. Delaney-Smith had hoped for better results now that the team has been taking Mondays off, but there were still signs of wear and tear.

“For us to lose intensity, which is what happened to us [after the first 10 minutes], we had no emotion, no energy,” Delaney-Smith said. “That shouldn’t happen at this time of the season.”

One positive Delaney-Smith noted was that Harvard stayed with Cornell even when she had four of her younger players on the court.

Regardless of who was in the game, the Crimson defense stayed in control. Force led all scorers with 19 points, but the Big Red shot just 28.6 percent from the floor.

Harvard travels to Yale and Brown next weekend to close out the regular season. Then the countdown begins to March 16, when the Crimson will learn its NCAA Tournament seed.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.