A Big Red Cure for the Big Green Blues

What a difference a day makes.

On Tuesday morning, the Harvard women's basketball team--winners of five straight league matchups--sat rather comfortably in first place in the Ivies, tied with Dartmouth at 6-1.

On Tuesday afternoon, the cagers departed the friendly confines of Briggs Athletic Center for the first time in nearly two months, heading north to Hanover, N.H., for a showdown with the Big Green.

On Tuesday night, the Crimson--fresh off a 6-2 homestand which included back-to-back weekend sweeps of Penn, Princeton, Brown, and Yale--fell out of first place for the first time in a month.

The Harvard hoopsters were embarrassed in the first half at Alumni Gym Tuesday night; their transition game was in shambles, they were taking bad shots, they weren't boxing out, they were being beaten to all the loose balls, and they were losing their composure.

It was the squad's worst 20 minutes of basketball since December 3, when the cagers shot a dreadful 22 percent from the field in the second half while losing to Boston College by 40 points.

What a difference a day makes.

Harvard turned things around in the second half, taking better shots, grabbing more loose balls, and regaining its composure. The cagers narrowed a 19-pt. second-half deficit down to seven before eventually succumbing, 85-74.

It was a very gutsy second half effort. Gutsy enough to earn these words of praise from a coach who watched her team get outscored 44-25, outrebounded 31-11, and outclassed immeasurably, in the first half:

"This team proved to me in the second half that Harvard deserves to be Ivy champs," said Coach Kathy Delaney Smith. "I have no doubt about that.

"The biggest fear I have is that we're going to let this game disappoint us," Delaney Smith added.

General consensus among team members is that the Dartmouth contest was a championship affair (which is supported by the fact that the Crimson and Big Green are the only Ivy schools with winning league records--see standings below).

The teams have identical Ivy schedules remaining. The Crimson's race for a first-ever Ivy crown is by no means over, but Harvard no longer controls its own destiny.

The hoopsters' first post-Dartmouth test comes tonight in Ithaca, N.Y., when they face this year's version of the Ivy doormat, Cornell, in a game the Crimson must win.

Must.

The Big Red comes into tonight's contest with a 1-5 league mark (6-11 overall), and is the only Ancient Eight team over which the Crimson owns a lifetime winning series record (9-3).

The two squads split last season's two games, with Harvard winning a 68-53 decision in Cambridge and Cornell capturing a 76-63 contest in Ithaca. Beth Chandler dominated the first meeting, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, while fellow sophomore forward Sharon Hayes scored a team-high 16 points in a losing cause in the second encounter.

The Big Red is led by two-time second team All-Ivy Karin Dwyer. The senior forward from Newberry, Vt., averaged 12.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last season but has increased her offensive production this year, placing second in the league in field goal percentage (.558), third in scoring (16.8 p.p.g) and free throw percentage (.760), and fourth inrebounding (8.0 r.p.g.).

Harvard fans will look for another big gamefrom sophomore point guard Barbarann Keffer, whohas assumed the team's scoring lead with recent22-, 24-, and 28-point performances. The Crimsonalso must get better production out of its frontline than it did in the Dartmouth game