Maybe if Hana Peljto and coach Kathy Delaney-Smith had known that Peljto was chasing history, they wouldn’t have been so willing to let her come out of the game with just under two minutes left.

“I’m furious. I didn’t know. I would have left her in,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think breaking a school record is wonderful, and I would have loved to have let her do that.”

Instead, Peljto had to be content with tying the school record for points in a game (39) and setting new Harvard records both in field goals (16) and field goals attempted (29).

Peljto’s point total matched the Crimson single-game record set by women’s hoops legend Allison Feaster ’98 in a Dec. 7 win over Loyola. In that game, Feaster also had 12 rebounds and dominated a 21-8 Harvard run with 16 points and four threes. At the time it was the fifth-highest single game scoring total in Ivy League history.

With last night’s performance, Peljto joins Feaster for seventh all-time in the league. Peljto’s previous single-game high was 36—attained in 2001 and 2003—a mark good enough for second place that Peljto also shares with Feaster.

“Let the defense create the offense”

Shaken from its first back-to-back losses since 2000, the Crimson knew how best to get back on track against Lafayette—force turnovers. The Leopards coughed up 33 and Harvard was able to convert them into 34 points.

“That was one of our goals,” Delaney-Smith said. “It almost didn’t matter who we were playing.”

In the past two contests, Crimson opponents gave up the ball less than half that amount. Quinnipiac turned the ball over 16 times, while Dartmouth lost it only 12 times.

However, last night a ferocious defense nagged mercilessly at hapless Lafayette all game, forcing forward Elecia

Kruise alone to turn the ball over nine times.

“We started to be more aggressive, taking more chances and getting more steals, and that’s what led to great offensive production,” Peljto said.

Three-for-all

At halftime, with Harvard only up a meager 28-24, the telltale statistic was the Crimson’s woeful zero-for-13 three-point shooting.

“We shoot a lot of threes—sometimes they fall and sometimes they don’t,” Peljto said.