Streaking Women Cagers Wallop Wildcats, 68-54; Crimson Rallies For First-Ever Victory Over UNH

For the Harvard women's basketball team, the 1985-'86 season has, above all, been a year of proving and reproving just how good the squad can be--and of getting a decade's worth of monkeys off its back.

Last night the women cagers did both, overcoming a nine-point first-half deficit en route to crushing the University of New Hampshire, 68-54, before 100 Monday-evening faithful at Briggs Athletic Center.

The victory was the Crimson's first ever over the Wildcats in seven meetings, and boosted the squad's mark to 14-6 on the season (7-2 Ivy). The loss drops UNH to 5-15.

"We are ending an era of losing," Crimson Coach Kathy Delaney Smith said. "Not only Harvard, but the other schools, too, are closing the gap between the Ivies and other New England Division I teams."

Harvard moved back into a first-place tie with Dartmouth in the Ivy League Sunday without ever taking the floor; Cornell lifted the hoopsters back into the top spot by shocking the Big Green, 58-57, in Ithaca, N.Y.

Barbarann Keffer--who has been carrying the team of late, averaging 18.8 points per game in her last five contests--continued her outstanding play against UNH, scoring a game-high 16 points (7-for-14 from the field, 2-for-2 from the line).

The sophomore point guard from Broomall, Penn. also handed out a game-high seven assists and grabbed five rebounds.

Trisha Brown, the junior guard and Crimson co-captain, had her best outing of the campaign, tying her previous season high with 14 points (6-for-10, 2-for-2).

"Trisha shot well, she played smart defense, she boxed out well--it was just an all-around spectacular effort," Delaney Smith said of the Norwood native, who also recorded two assists and came up with two steals.

The Crimson shot exactly its season average from the floor against the Wildcats, connecting on 27 of 64 attempts (42 percent)--including a .556 second half shooting mark.

Freshman Sarah Duncan (12 points, six rebounds, three blocks, two steals) extended her string of consecutive free throws to 26, as the entire squad continued its torrid team shooting from the charity stripe. Harvard hit 14 of 15 tries on the evening (93 percent), including 10-for-10 in the second half.

Comeback

UNH scored the game's first basket and led most of the first half, building leads of 21-12 and 25-16. But Duncan scored 10 straight Crimson points shortly before the half--nailing 8-ft. baseline jumpers as easily as if they were uncontested layups--to bring the hosts within three at the intermission, 31-28.

A fast-break basket by sophomore forward Sharon Hayes (12 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals) a minute into the second half gave Harvard its first lead since the early going, 32-31. It was a lead the cagers would not surrender for the remainder of the contest.

Midway through the second half, Hayes sandwiched consecutive long-range jumpers between a Brown 14-footer and a pretty Keffer pull-up jumper in the lane, as Harvard set out on a 22-9 run to put the game out of reach.