PHILADELPHIA – Saint Joseph's (4-8) fell Tuesday afternoon in Hagan Arena at the hands of a Harvard (6-6) comeback, 73-70. Rookie Julia Nyström led the Hawks with a career high in points, while graduate student Katie Jekot recorded an 8:1 turnover margin.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• St. Joe's scored the first six points of the game with back-to-back triples. The Hawks bumped their lead to 10-5 before Harvard called a timeout with 5:56 remaining in the initial period. SJU took the next 10 points over a 2:03 span to build its lead to 18-5. The Crimson tallied a 14-7 scoring differential to pull within six at the end of the first, 25-19.
• The first 5:35 of the second was nearly even with the Hawks holding a 10-9 scoring advantage to push the lead to 35-28. Harvard went on a 10-3 run over the remainder of the half to knot the game at 38 apiece.
• The Hawks tallied seven unanswered points over the initial 2:54 of the third period to jump ahead 45-38. The visitors chipped away at the deficit with a 12-10 margin for a 55-50 Hawks' lead after three.
• Harvard opened the final period with an 8-1 spurt over the first 2:21, which forced an SJU timeout with the Crimson up, 58-56. St. Joe's knotted the game with a 6-4 advantage into the media timeout with 4:32. The Crimson & Gray would pull ahead by four on two separate occasions, including 70-66 with 1:32 left after they claimed eight of the next 12 points. A big triple by the Crimson with 1:16 made it a one-point game before Harvard took a 71-70 lead with 23 ticks left. Saint Joseph's had a possession to tie or go ahead with the score 71-70 and again 73-70, but couldn't find the bottom of the basket.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE:

• St. Joe's finished the game shooting 43.1% (25-of-58) from the field, 45.5% (10-of-22) from deep, and 71.4% (10-of-14) from the line.
• Harvard tallied a 45.2% (28-of-62) overall, 50.0% (11-of-22) from three-point range, and 85.7% (6-of-7) from the stripe.
• The Hawks won the turnover battle with a +2 margin (11-13), while Harvard took the rebounding efforts at +5 (37-32).
• Nyström tallied 18 points to lead the Hawks on a 6-of-11 outing, including 4-of-7 from deep.
• Jekot dropped 13 points, dished out a career mark eight assists to just one turnover, and corralled a team high six rebounds.
• Rookie Talya Brugler finished the game at 13 points on a 5-of-9 night, with seven coming in the third quarter alone.
• Junior Kaliah Henderson rounded out a quartet of double figure scorers with 11 points and added five boards.

UP NEXT:
St. Joe's will begin Atlantic 10 play on Saturday with a New Year's Day game at St. Bonaventure.