A Long Road Back To Briggs

The Harvard women's basketball team hasn't lost a game in Briggs Athletic Center all season. Then again, the team hasn't played there too much.

The Crimson opened its season with a pair of wins at home, the latter coming in the Harvard Invitational Tournament. But the cagers haven't played at Briggs since late November.

In the meantime, the Crimson has hit the road--traveling to places as far away as Hawaii (where it finished sixth in an eight-team tournament) and as gruesome as Princeton, where it suffered one of its worst defeats of the season.

Brown and Yale will be waiting in Briggs this weekend when the Crimson (7-9 overall, 2-3 Ivy League) returns from its exhausting 14-game road trip. The series should come as welcome relief for the former Ivy League champs, whose two-month journey dampened pre-season dreams.

Leaving Cambridge, Harvard had a 2-0 record and a nine-game home winning streak. Returning home tonight for a 7:30 game against the Bruins, the Crimson team sports a more modest two-game road winning streak.

After a 0-3 league start--with losses at Penn, Princeton and Dartmouth--the Crimson rebounded to sweep Cornell and Columbia (who share the Ivy basement) last weekend.

With both of Harvard's upcoming opponents sitting in the top half of the Ivy standings, the women cagers will be hard pressed to continue their homecourt dominance.

Brown is also hot off a perfect weekend, with victories over Penn and previously undefeated Princeton.

Janice Huwe, named Ivy League Co-Player of the Week for her performance last weekend, leads the Bruins with 13.4 points per game. Rookie of the Week Marcia Brown is the team's leading rebounder averaging 7.6 per game.

The Bruins now occupy third place in the league with a 4-2 Ivy record (7-9 overall).

Yale--Saturday night's opponent--leads the league with five wins and a lone loss, which came in last Friday's contest against Princeton. Eli Randi Meberg shared Player of the Week honors with Huwe for her two 18-point efforts last weekend. Meberg, a sophomore forward, is averaging 16.6 points per game in Ivy contests this season, with a field goal percentage of 67 percent.

Scoring has been well-balanced for the Crimson, with junior Co-Captain Sharon Hayes atop the pack with 12.9 points per game. Barb Keffer (11.1) is close behind with 11.1 ppg, followed by Sarah Duncan (9.8).

Duncan, a sophomore, is also the team's leading rebounder, averaging 7.3 boards per game. Last weekend, she tossed in 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the Crimson's victories over Cornell and Columbia.

After playing sub-par basketball their early Ivy games, the women cagers appear to be back on track after last weekend's sweep and should be well-prepared for the long-awaited matchups on home turf.