BOSTON—The BYU women’s basketball team fell 71-65 to Harvard on the road Friday night, the team’s second loss in as many days.

BYU’s record fell to 2-2, while Harvard’s increased to 2-1.

"Keilani (Unga) had a really nice game and Kim (Beeston) played really well for us as well," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "We made some mistakes at the end, missed a couple of free throws. We had a lot better effort tonight and we’re getting better."

Kim Parker Beeston tallied a season-high 19 points, shooting 5 of 7 from the field and had a team-high six rebounds. Also in double figures, Lexi Eaton had 17 points and Keilani Unga had a season-high 14. Haley Steed totaled eight assists with nine points.

BYU took the lead to start the first half, but then went cold from the field as Harvard came back to tie it up 8-8 on free throws. The Cougars continued to fall further behind as another foul gave Harvard’s Emma Golen easy shots from the charity stripe.

Down 19-14, Steed drained a 3-pointer to hack down Harvard’s lead. With just under seven minutes on the clock, Beeston fed the ball to Unga as the Cougars stormed back toward their basket and Unga dished it in to tie up the score at 23-23.

Another Steed trey earned a BYU lead at 28-25 with the clock registering 5:21 remaining. Back-to-back Eaton jumpers pushed BYU forward to a 32-27 lead. Both teams made a jump shot before heading to the locker room.

The Crimson’s Victoria Lippert bounced Harvard ahead of BYU on a 3-pointer coming out of half time, but Unga answered with a layup which Ashley Garfield followed up with her own layup to put BYU back in the lead 38-36. Harvard tied it up 38-38, launching a lead exchange until a Crimson steal resulted in a layup by Temi Fagbenle to put the score at 50-48. Fagbenle’s jumper on the next play put Harvard up 52-48 with 10:21 left to play.

Still down by four with less than three minutes on the clock, Steed dished the ball out to Beeston, who launched the ball into the hoop from beyond the 3-point line, cutting BYU’s deficit to 63-62. Unga tied it up at 63 on a free throw.

Down 66-65 with 30 seconds on the clock, Golen knocked a trey followed by a BYU turnover to give the ball back to the Crimson. Free throws gave Harvard its final points to end the game 71-65.

BYU is still on the road next week, heading to Tucson, Ariz., to take on Arizona Tuesday at 11 a.m. MST.

Postgame Notes

Team

In the first half BYU had a one rebound advantage over Harvard 14-13 and finished with 26 to the Crimson’s 29.

BYU had a 9-5 edge in assists at the break and ended with 15. Harvard dished out a total of 13 in the game.

The Cougars put up four 3-pointers in the first half and finished with eight while the Crimson recorded five trays in the game.

For the third straight time on the year, three Cougar players scored in double figures—Kim Parker Beeston (19), Lexi Eaton (17) and Keilani Unga (14).

Player

Sophomore Ashley Garfield got her first start of her career in the game at Harvard.

Eaton recorded her fourth-straight double-figure outing in points finishing the game with 17.

Beeston scored a season-high 19 points marking the third time on the year she’s tallied double digits in points. The points were also a team high.

Unga recorded her first double-figure outing in points of the season and the 12^th overall with 14.

For the fourth-straight time Haley Steed recorded a game high in assists with eight.

After the 58-57 victory over Dartmouth, the Cougar women’s basketball team (2-0) continues its road swing through the Northeast. They are at Boston College (1-1) Thursday at 7 p.m. ET and at Harvard (1-1) on Friday in a 5 p.m. ET tip off. Both games can be heard live on BYU Radio.

BYU Capsule
In the Dartmouth victory, sophomore Lexi Eaton led all scorers with 19 points. Morgan Bailey and Kim Parker Beeston also recorded double digits in points with 12 and 11 respectively. Bailey grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for her first career double double. Haley Steed led the team in total assists and steals with six and four respectively. Both were also game highs.

• Head coach: Jeff Judkins, enters his 12th season
• Team’s leading scorer: #21 Lexi Eaton, 21.5 ppg
• Team’s leading rebounder: #41 Morgan Bailey, 8.5 rpg
• Team’s assist leader: #33 Haley Steed, 7.5 apg
• Team’s steals leader: #33 Steed, 2.5 spg

BYU’S PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP
#33 Haley Steed – (5-4 guard, GS) 6.0 ppg; 1.0 rpg; 9.0 apg
#4 Kim Parker Beeston – (5-11 guard, JR) 13.0 ppg; 7.0 rpg; 2.0 apg
#21 Lexi Eaton – (5-10 guard, SO) 24.0 ppg; 3.0 rpg; 4.0 apg
#41 Morgan Bailey – (6-2 forward, SO) 11.5 ppg; 8.5 rpg
#45 Keilani Unga – (6-2 forward, SR) 9.0 ppg; 2.0 rpg; 2.0

Boston College Capsule
The Eagles opened the season with two road contests where they lost to Boston University 52-46 and then defeated Holy Cross 71-52.
Boston College (1-1) returns seven letterwinners including four starters from last year’s team that compiled a 7-23, 2-14 record, finishing 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

• Head coach: Erik Johnson is in his first year at BC
• Team’s leading scorer: #45 Katie Zenevitch, 15.0 ppg
• Team’s leading rebounder: #45 Katie Zenevitch, 11.5 rpg
• Team’s assist leader: #3 Tessah Holt, 3.5 apg
• Team’s steals leader: #21 Kristen Doherty, 2.0 spg

Series History
This will be the first meeting between the two schools.

Harvard Capsule
Harvard has compiled a 1-1 record to date losing at North Dakota State 81-72 and then beating North Dakota 65-52 on the road.
Last year the Crimson tallied an 18-12, 10-4 record including a second place finish in the Ivy League. They return 13 letterwinners including four starters.

• Head coach: Kathy Delaney-Smith is in her 30th season at Harvard
• Team’s leading scorer: #22 Christine Clark, 16.0 ppg
• 3 other players also score in double digits - #21 Victoria Lippert, 13.0, #14 Temi Fagbenle 12.5, #13 Emma Golen, 11.5
• Team’s leading rebounder: #14 Fagbenle, 9.0 rpg
• Team’s assist leader: #25 Miriam Rutzen, 4.5 apg
• Team’s steals leader: Three players are averaging 2.5 spg - #21 Lippert, #14 Fagbenle and #11 Jasmine Evans

Series History
BYU leads the series 1-0. These two schools met last during the 2006-07 season with the Cougars picking up the 66-51 road win on Nov. 29, 2006 in Boston. In that game, current assistant Melinda Johnsen Bendall was a guard/forward starter and Haley Steed came off the bench. Bendall played 27 minutes tallying two points, two rebounds and one assist. Steed played 26 minutes and scored 10 points, recorded four assists and two steals.

Co-Team Captains
Graduate student Haley Steed and senior Keilani Unga have been chosen by their teammates as co-captains for the 2012-13 season. This is Steed’s fifth straight co-captain selection.

Player Injury Report
Sophomore guard Stephanie Rovetti suffered a cartilage injury to her left knee in a team practice. She is out for the season.

What’s Next
After the three game road swing through the Northeast, the team continues play on the road at Arizona on Nov. 20 and at Washington State on Nov. 24.