Duke-ing it Out With the Big Guys

The men's and women's basketball notebooks combine forces this week to offer a hoop extravaganza as packed with stats and facts as Briggs Athletic Center was packed with people Tuesday night.

You know, by now, that Harvard came up a dozen points short against Duke in its final non-league contest of the year, and the cagers were never in a position to seriously challenge the 15th ranked team in the nation.

Nevertheless, Harvard impressed as many of the 300 fans on hand (which, by the way, provided the first sellout in the five-year history of Briggs) with its hard play and determination as the Blue Devils did with its talent.

Consider that Duke owns a 35-2 record against non-Atlantic Coast Conference opponents over the past two seasons and a 20-4 overall mark this season.

Consider that in the previous two years, Harvard fell to the Devils by counts of 82-53, and 89-52 and That earlier that season Coach Mike Krzyzewski's crew ripped current Ivy League leader Cornell, 85-59.

Finally, consider that Harvard played the final 15 minutes of the game without its two most dominant inside players of that contest, juniors Kyle Dodson and Bill Mohler. Each picked up his fifth personal foul before fans had a chance to settle back into their seats after the intermission.

Scoot'n N Shoot'n: Harvard's high-powered offense, which has scored more than 85 points in a contest 11 times this season and tallied more than 100 twice, has already scored more total points this year than it did all of last.

In 1985-'86, the Crimson netted 1577 total points for the year. Thus far in 1986-87, the cagers have pumped in 1626 points, with seven games still remaining on the schedule.

If Coach Pete Roby's club continues to score points at its present pace, it stands a good chance of breaking the all-time Harvard record for points in a single season. The current mark is 2221 points set in 1971-'72, When Harvard went 15-11 and finished third in the Ivies.

Caught Up in the Web: Harvard co-Captain Keith Webster's eight points against Duke left the senior point guard just 42 points she of the 100-point plateau for his career and 11th place on the all-time Harvard scoring list.

Interestingly, going into Tuesday night's game with the Devils. Webster and fellow Co-Captain Arne Duncan stood dead-even with 281 points each in their senior campaigns.

But while Webster was held to single digits for just the third time in 19 outings this season, Duncan lead all Harvard scores with 20 points, putting his ahead in the race.

Same Time, Last Month: The Crimson travels to Princeton and Penn this Weekend to try to repeat last month's sweep of the Ivy League's southern powers.

In the first meeting, Harvard beat the Quarkes in a thrilling overtime game, as the Crimson came back from a 19-point, second-half deficit to tie the game in the final seconds and won on a 19-ft. Webster jumper at the overtime buzzer.

The victory over the Tigers the following night was even more convincing, as the cagers cake-walked to a 78-54 triumph. Duncan was the high-score in each contest, with 24 against Penn and 21 against Princeton.

Harvard was swept down South last year, falling 84-71 in Philadelphia and 77-44 in Princeton. Only once, in 1984-85, has the Crimson swept the Quakers and Tigers on the road.

The Women

While it may be little surprise that the mean cagers now sport a 3-4 Ivy League mark, it is a surprise that the Harvard women's basketball team--last year's Ivy co-champion--now holds exactly the same Ivy record.

With an 0-3 league start, it looked like there was no hope of the women cagers repeating last year's championship performance.

Three straight Ivy wins--over Cornell, Columbia and Brown--resuscitated the ailing Crimson, but a close defeat by Yale last Saturday leaves the team with a very slim chance of returning to the top of the league.

If Dartmouth sweeps Penn and Princeton this weekend as expected. Harvard will have to duplicate the Big Green's performance to remain, little contention--and even then the Crimson can't loses another league game and need a couple of teams to upset Dartmouth.

Sound tough? It will be.

Even if the Crimson can revenge its Ivy-opening, one point loss to Penn, the third-place Tigers will provide a big challenge for the women cagers.

But while Princeton is capable of crushing Harvard's tittle hopes, the Tigers are also in a key position to keep those hopes alive.

Princeton is the only team to have beaten Dartmouth this season, when the Tigers scored a 60-52 victory over the Big Green in the league' opening weekend. After facing Harvard Friday night in Cambridge, the Tigers will travel to Hanover, N.H. in hopes of completing a sweep of its season series with Dartmouth.

But don't count the Crimson out of the Ball game yet.

Despite splitting its Ivy league contests last weekend, Harvard has shown dramatic improvement in almost all areas of play.

Coming into last week at the bottom of the Ivy League ratings for Field goal and free throw percentage the Crimson has now moved, into third--a notch above Princeton and three above Penn--in shooting from the floor, and fifth from the charity stripe.

The team's shift can in large be credited to the hot shooting of sophomore Sarah Duncan, who shot 75 percent from the floor in both games last weekend. Duncan, who was previously not ranked in the individual shooting stats, now leads the league with a field goal percentage of 63.4. The 6-ft. forward also continues to lead the league in blocks, with 23 in Ivy play, and 37 for the season overall.

Harvard's inside game also improved markedly over the past few games--Duncan's stats reflect the Crimson's growing confidence in its high and mid-post players.

And after being dominated on the boards in almost every game this season. Harvard matched the Bruins and the Ellis in rebounding last Weekend.

Add to that the team's depth and perimeter shooting ability and the Tigers just might be surprised by the Crimson team it comes up against this weekend--especially with the cagers playing on home turf.

Harvard holds a 3-1 record for games played at Briggs Athletic Center, with a 5-9 mark for road contests.