Women Cagers Fall Again

The Harvard women's basketball team proved Saturday night that even a winless team can get a little cocky.

Coming off a strong performance, but not a win, against Ivy champs Dartmouth last Tuesday, the Crimson entered Saturday's challenge at Holy Cross with more confidence than it has had all season

And they paid for it.

Lacking a coherent offense, and even their usual scrappiness, the hoopsters stuttered haltingly to a 95-48 defeat.

"It's real hard to think of something positive about this," said senior Captain Nancy Boutilier. "We're going to put it out of our minds and move on."

On second thought, it might not be fair to say the Crimson offense was incoherent, because it spent most of the game playing defense. And though the defense was lackluster, the team showed its determination by playing the exhausting man-to-man pattern throughout the game.

But that wasn't fated to make a difference against the Crusaders, a squad that has floated in and out of the nation's top 20 largely because of a powerhouse offense.

A man-to-man defense requires depth like crazy. It takes seasoned substitutes who can slip in and out of the action without breaking momentum. Most of all it takes experience, and that's what the Crimson doesn't have.

Graduation has left the team in a bind, claiming five seniors, three starters, and three of the top four scorers.

That means lots of freshmen--including some promising ones such as 5-ft., 101/2-in forward Erin Sugrue, who held Dartmouth's 6-ft., 3-in, center to two points in the last half of Tuesday's game. It also means that this is what they call a "building season" down at the athletic department.

But it could be more than that, if the Crimson can learn from this roller-coaster week, integrate some of that sparkling new talent, and strengthen the offense.

"We're going to win on scrappiness, not greatness," said Boutilier. "We're a solid learn with no superstars, and we've got to learn that we can't just expect things to happen. We've got to work for it."

They worked for it against Dartmouth, and Holy Cross seems to have been nature's way of reminding them to keep it up.

THE NOTEBOOK This brings the Crimson's record to 0-5...The Hoopsters meet UMass tomorrow at Briggs Athletic Center at 6 p.m. in the first home match of the season.