PRINCETON — Olivia Hutcherson has watched Ashley Chea make her step-back shot so many times in practice that she had no doubt it was going in when it was time to take it with the game on the line. Chea swished the winner on what has become her patented shot as time expired and the Princeton women’s basketball held serve at home with a 52-50 victory over Harvard on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gymnasium. “I knew it was going in,” Hutcherson said. “When I saw Ashley hit the little step-back, one dribble going left, I always know (because) she makes it nine times out of 10, maybe 10 times out of 10. I was confident, and of course she made it. Game winner. I’m not surprised.” Chea was the understudy to former Ivy League Player of the Year Kaitlyn Chen last season, but with Chen having moved on to UConn for her graduate season, Chea has stepped into that role as the team’s point guard. You can also say she’s got no problem being the shot maker. On the final play, Chea grabbed the inbound pass from Skye Belker, faked a handoff back to Belker, took one dribble with her left and stepped back into a long two. Nothing but net. “I knew it was going to go in,” said Chea, who finished with nine points. “I work on that shot more than all of my other shots. I was just having fun out there. I think that’s when I play at my best.” “A play actually worked,” deadpanned coach Carla Berube. This game film won’t be sent to Springfield as the two teams combined to shoot 3-for-28 from behind the arc, but it was two high-level sides getting after each other. Harvard pressed 94 feet for all 40 minutes, while the Tigers played their usually stingy defense with length and athleticism making things tough on the Crimson’s top scorer Harmoni Turner. The senior was held to 15 points on 5-for-18 shooting, which was below her 20.7 average that ranks 14th nationally. Princeton (11-4, 2-0) wrestled control of the game in the second quarter by out-scoring Harvard, 10-4, to take a seven-point lead into halftime. The Tigers maintained that advantage until the Crimson (12-2, 1-1), led by the 22 points of Elena Rodriguez, made their push. Harvard took a 50-48 lead on Rodriguez’s steal and layup with 2:14 remaining, but Belker tied it back up with a pair of free throws a few seconds later. The score stayed at 50-all as the teams traded misses, and the Crimson had the ball with 23.8 seconds and a chance to hold for the final shot. They went to Rodriguez, but she missed in close and Parker Hill corralled the rebound. Hill was tied up in the process of grabbing the board, but the possession arrow gave the ball to the Tigers, which allowed coach Carla Berube to use her final timeout to advance the ball with 3.7 seconds to go. “That was one of the most important plays of the game,” Chea said. “I trusted whoever was guarding Elena and I just knew that we would get that stop back.” “To keep Harvard to 50 points is a pretty great day,” Berube said. Harvard, coached by former Princeton assistant Carrie Moore, arrived in town with a top-40 NET and votes in the latest AP Poll. ESPNW bracketologist Charlie Creme listed Harvard as a No. 9 seed and the Ivy’s auto qualifier based on it having the highest NET ranking in his latest bracket. Speaking to the strength of the Ivy League, Princeton was among his first four out and Columbia was among the next four out. The Crimson finished at 37.3% and made just one 3-pointer. They stayed in the game with a press that forced 20 turnovers, although they only got 18 points off those turnovers. (Princeton’s biggest weakness is handling pressure so the Tigers used Fadima Tall as a point forward to bring the ball up instead of allowing Harvard to hassle its guards. Princeton also scored 15 points off 13 Harvard turnovers to stay close in that statistic). “It feels like a missed opportunity,” Moore said. “At any point in that game, I felt like we were winning that basketball game. I think for us this isn’t new news. We’ve played a lot of games where we haven’t shot the ball very well and we’re doing everything in our power to fix that.” When a shot had to be made, Chea delivered. With it was a reminder where the Ivy League runs through. “I think, everyone, deep down knows who that is,” Chea said. “Today’s game was super important for us and what we’re trying to build here.”