Eleven first half three pointers and a 12-1 run to start the game gave the DePaul women’s basketball team all the cushion they needed to defeat Harvard 99-75, Friday, Nov. 8.

“That was a really good Harvard team that we made look bad,” Head Coach Doug Bruno said after the game.

The game started out in a sloppy manner as Harvard took the tip and went towards the wrong basket to start, and then a DePaul turnover led the Blue Demons to their respective wrong basket, where senior forward Jasmine Penny scored on a layup. The refs came together in a conference, gave Harvard the basket and the teams played the correct direction from then on.

The Demons came out firing after the miscue and wracked up a quick 10-1 run. The call that gave Harvard the basket off of the Penny layup was then overturned and the Demons led 12-1 at the 18-minute mark.

DePaul kept their lead but the Crimson maintained pace as the half started to wear down. Suddenly the Demons went on a 10-0 run starting at the seven-minute mark and ending with a deep three-pointer from junior guard Megan Rogowski, her second of the run and her third of the game. DePaul would lead 46-25 at the five-minute mark.

Harvard worked on getting back into the game in the last five minutes but were outscored 15-10 by the Demons, DePaul carried a 61-36 advantage into the locker room at the half.

Jasmine Penny led the scoring with 15 points but eight total Demons had points. They were also hot from beyond the arc, knocking down 11 out of 23 shots in the first half.

DePaul and Harvard kept pace with each other to start the second half, trading series of baskets to keep the second half score level until the 13-minute mark. The Demons went on a quick 7-0 run and extended their lead to 82-51 at the next media timeout. At this point five Demons were in double figures.

Coach Bruno started to take out the starters around the halfway point of the second half but the bench players made impressive plays as well. A turnover by Harvard in the backcourt was taken by the Demons around the 10-minute mark, passed to freshman ShaKeya Graves at the top of the key. Graves then turned and made a smooth, quick bounce pass in between two Harvard players to freshman Brooke Schulte, who finished the give and go for the bucket.

The Demons fell short of the 100-point milestone by just one point after a half-court attempt by Graves at the buzzer fell short, making the final score 99-75 in favor of DePaul.

With the win the Blue Demons advanced to play Duquesne in the second day of the Maggie Dixon Classic, who defeated Cal Poly earlier in the day.  

Penny, who finished with 17 points on the night, said that she had been working in practice on being more focused on her shots.

“I was working on finishing in practice which carries over to the game which I did tonight,” Penny said.

With 17 points and going 6-7 from the field against Harvard, it looks like the practice is paying off.

Ô_