Cagers Buckle to Brown

"It's a heartache, nothin' but a heartache..."

When the women hoopsters took on their Ivy weak sister Brown last night, the raucous, die-hard crowd on hand for their last home game of the season saw as exciting a game as they'd witnessed all year. Unfortunately, the team that wins is not necessarily the most exciting team, and this time the bad guys won, 60-51.

The hoopsters came into the match good and psyched, warming up to a tape blasting out movie song hits from "Fame" and "Nine to Five" for inspiration. The hoopsters got off to a good start, too, and managed to leave the court at the half with a solid 8-point lead.

Towering over the heads of their Brown opponents, center Elaine Holpuch and forward Janet Judge went to work on the boards and garnered some 25 rebounds between them before the night was through. The only trouble was that the cagers just couldn't convert them into buckets.

With speedsters Kate Martin and Pat Horne out stealing from befuddled Brown right and left, Brown players shying away from the boards, and Denise Williams and Frenessa Hall handling the ball like they never have before, the cagers didn't want for scoring opportunities.

Gun-Shy Referees

When an alarmed Brown squad switched to a full-court press midway through the first half, all chaos broke loose, as the gun-shy referees ignored brawls and a shower of fouls on both teams. Not a point was scored for about eight minutes as the frantic action on the court produced nothing but steals, wild passes, turnovers, repeatedly muffed breakaway attempts, and a broken ankle for sharp-shooter Nancy Boutilier, who may be out for a while.

The second half was placid by comparison, for at least the first 15 minutes. The pace slowed down considerably when Brown lifted its full-court pressure, and both teams played even, heads-up ball with the lead trading back and forth every 20 seconds or so.

With 5 minutes left on the clock, the score stood 47-46 for Harvard, but with victory so tantalizingly close, the hoopsters got anxious and began to make errors. A rapid succession of six personal fouls on Harvard and an equally quick conversion of those fouls into 10 out of 12 points from the line for Brown soon put victory out of the Crimson's reach. A last minute flurry by Horne and "Sweetness" Hall with the fans chanting was not enough, and the hoopsters had to chalk up another heartbreaker to experience.

The hoopsters go on the road this Friday to finish up their season with five away games.