Women Cagers Cruise, Roll Over Smith, 76-59

On an evening where someone named Fink poured in 24 points and came up with five steals for the opposition, the Harvard women's basketball team needed to counter with something extra.

Fifty percent second-half field goal shooting and a strong, balanced attack throughout enabled the Crimson to capture a 76-59 victory over smith College in its home opener at Briggs Athletic Center last night.

That's the same team that shot just 28 percent from the floor in its season opener Saturday at Hartford.

The win boosted Harvard's season record to 2-0, and marked the first time the Crimson has strung together consecutive victories since early December of last year.

Senior forward Anna Collins led the way for the cagers--scoring 18 points and pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds--while sophomore Barbarann Keffer (16 points, 6 assists, 4 steals), junior Trisha Brown (14 points) and sophomore Nancy Cibotti (8 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals) were all instrumental in the win.

Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney Smith made frequent substitutions throughout the game, resulting in 10 different players contributing to the 76-point total--the cagers' biggest offensive performance since defeating Tufts, 85-66, last February.

The Crimson, fresh off its first road win in two years, outplayed Smith for most of the game. The squad led by 12 points at the half and, aside from a brief breakdown on defense midway thrugh the second period, easily coasted to triumph.

Harvard dominated the boards, out-rebounding the visitors 45-26 (25-8 on offensive rebounds) for the game. Cibotti pulled down several key offensive rebounds (10 in all) to set up numerous second and third scoring opportunities.

While free throw shooting had kept Smith in the game for almost the entire second half, the Crimson put the game out of reach down the stretch.

Hilary Fink, a junior guard from Northampton, led Smith's parade to the foul line, cashing in on 14 of 18 tries. In all, Smith visited the charity stripe on 32 different occasions, compared to Harvard's 18.

"We're trying to incorporate a new defensive system this year and that is causing us to commit a lot of fouls," said Delaney Smith. "We are trying to do too much too fast, and it is costing us in the foul department."

Even though the final margin of victory was 17 points, it took a strong Harvard finish to secure the game. The Crimson extended its 37-25 halftime lead to a 15-point edge early in the second half--but a 19-6 Smith rampage cut the lead to 51-49.

Smith never drew any closer than that, though, as consecutive 12-foot jumpers by Keffer with six minutes left spearheaded a 12-2 Crimson run that iced the win.

"We didn't expect it [the game] to be as close as it was, and it probably shouldn't have been," Delaney Smith said. "Once we got sloppy, we started thinking about our mistakes, and that caused us to get even messier--we're really not that kind of a team."

The Crimson can prove what kind of a team it really is when it faces Brown and Yale this weekend to open the Ivy schedule.

THE NOTEBOOK: Collins was 8 for 14 from the field...Harvard committed 21 turnovers, five less than Saturday's total...Harvard took 25 more shots than Smith...The Crimson's next home action will be December 6-7 in the Harvard Invitational Tournament.