L’Tanya Robnett, 6’ Jr F
Brooke Porter, 5’5 Jr G
Michelle Ghodsian, 5’6 Sr G
Omelogo Udeze, 6’2 Sr C
Rolake Bamgbose, 6’1 Jr F

Acalanes started this lineup

Hilary Anderson, 5’8 Jr F
Rachel Rosemeyer, 5’10 Sr C
Lauren Murray, 5’10 Jr F
Lisa Ovadia, 5’9 Jr F
Corrie Mizusawa, 5’9 Jr G

Acalanes has good size across the board, but it appeared they would have trouble matching up with Harvard’s twin towers. The teams played it close in the first half, with Acalanes taking an 11-10 lead after the first period behind a late bucket by Robnett. The second was more of the same, as the teams knotted at 16 with 3:45 to go and 18 a couple of minutes later. Acalanes then went on a 5-0 run with Ovadia hitting both ends of a one and one and a three by Mizusawa. Udeze drove coast to coast in the closing seconds of the half to pull Harvard within 3, 23-20 at the half.

Mizusawa paced Acalanes with 8 in the first half and Ovadia added four. Robnett had 6 for Harvard and Porter and Udeze added four each.

The second half started with both teams playing sloppy and Acalanes got a 20 second timeout with 6:27 to play in an attempt to calm down. With Acalanes up 25-21, Udeze got a couple of put backs to tie and Murray came back to put Acalanes back up. Udeze put another missed shot back and the score was tied again. Mizusawa hit a couple of foul shots, and Robnett came back on the other end and was fouled with a chance to tie. She missed the first and knocked down the second. Megan Babcock came in and scored at the end of the period and Acalanes restored its three point halftime lead at 31-28.

The final period started with a slew of fouls: Robnett hit one free throw for Harvard, but Mizusawa made a nice pass to Laura Fischer inside to put Acalanes up four. Bamgbose drew a fourth foul on Rosemeyer with 5:27 left and hit one shot. She would foul out 23 seconds later, unable to keep up with the big Harvard players. Udeze converted a three point play to make it 34-33. The teams traded baskets before Udeze hit a couple of free throws on Fischer’s fifth foul with 3:32 left to give Harvard the lead at 37-36. Acalanes responded with an Anderson basket from Murray, but Udeze responded with a putback, to give her 20. Harvard got the ball back and Porter drilled a three to put Harvard up 42-38 with 2 minutes remaining. Harvard started celebrating, but their emotion came a little too early. Instead of getting down, Mizusawa responded with a three pointer from NBA range. Acalanes got the ball back and Mizusawa scored again. Ghodsian turned it over for Harvard and then committed an intentional foul on Misuzawa. She hit them both and Acalanes was up 45-42, with 1:02 left and the ball. Mizusawa would hit another pair of free throws to settle the final score.