Harvard wins Ivy Tournament beating Columbia 74-71 to earn first NCAA Tournament bid since 2007

By Canadian Press on March 15, 2025.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Harmoni Turner scored 24 points and Harvard beat Columbia 74-71 on Saturday to win the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history.

It’s the Crimson’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2007.

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.

She finished with 21 points to lead the Lions.

Turner, who scored 44 points in the semifinal win over Princeton, earned the tournament MVP honors. She was the league’s Player of the Year in the regular season.

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 Virginia Tech 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.

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Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press