Women Cagers to Clash With Big Green

There are too many ways to describe a championship game.

For all the marbles...The big one...The one we've been waiting for...The Game.

It's almost like talking about the Harvard-Yale football game.

But tonight, THE GAME is the Harvard-Dartmouth women's basketball showdown at Briggs Cage, which will be broadcast by WHRB beginning at 7:15 p.m., the first-ever women's basketball game broadcast by that radio station.

It's almost like a schedulemakers fantasy--the entire Ivy League schedule is finished except for this game and the title is still up in the air.

"I'll be there Tuesday night," said Brown Coach Maureen Enos, whose team lost to both Harvard and the Big Green last weekend. "I love it. It's a do-or-die situation."

The Crimson already cut down the nets and sprayed the champagne after Saturday's 71-60 victory over Brown, which clinched at least a tie for Harvard's second Ivy Legue title.

Too Hot to Touch

But the Big Green are hot, having won seven consecutive games, including a 51-49 win over Yale Saturday which put the team in contention to share the title with Harvard with a win tonight.

Maybe we shouldn't call Dartmouth the Big Green but the Scorching Red. Dartmouth hasn't just been winning, it has been burying opponents by an average of 20 points since it lost to Princeton on February 12.

Overkilled

Included in the streak are two demolitions of Pennsylvania (81-48 and 85-39) and victories over Columbia (83-65), Cornell (76-48), Brown (76-47) and Yale. The Big Green also crushed Princeton in New Jersey, 71-54, the night after Harvard suffered its only Ivy League loss of the season against the Tigers. The loss to Dartmouth was Princeton Coach Joan Kowalik's first home Ivy League loss since she began coaching the team four years ago.

"Dartmouth has an aggressive, trapping defense which destroyed us," Enos said. "They also have tremendous depth--their 12th man is as good as their 6th--and can thus afford to rotate a lot of players in and out of the game."

Dartmouth's star is 6-ft. forward Liz Walter, the 1987 Ivy League Player of the Year, who is averaging 18.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per game this year. She has racked up four double-doubles (10-plus points and rebounds in a game) in her five career games against the Crimson.

Point guard Ute Bowman, the 1987 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, is averaging 6.6 points per game and has also dished out 75 assists this year, while 5-ft., 9-in. guard Sophia Neely rounds out the top Big Green players, averaging 10.1 points per game this season.

The Crimson has the advantage of playing at Briggs Cage tonight, and its seven top players make up a more balanced and and experienced team. Harvard upset Dartmouth, 82-69, at home in the season finale for both teams last year.

Tri-Captain forward Sharon Hayes and junior forward Sarah Duncan lead the Crimson in scoring (13.7 ppg). The 6-ft. Duncan is also the team's top rebounder (8.1 rpg) with Tri-Captain Beth Chandler, who is pulling down 7.8 rebounds per game.

Tri-Captain point guard Barb Keffer is averaging 12.4 points per game and has notched 86 assists this season while senior Nancy Cibotti may be called upon off the bench to use her defensive wizardry to stop the dangerous Walter.

"Harvard has the experience to win," Enos says, "and the ability to make big plays and ride the excitement that those plays create at Briggs Cage."

Look for the Crimson to try and apply a lot of pressure on the Big Green and to run its formidable fast break.

However, the Crimson (21-4 overall, 12-1 Ivy) may have trouble employing its pressure basketball tactics against Dartmouth, which has the depth to overcome any fatigue caused by a fast-paced game.

The Big Green (18-7 overall, 11-2 Ivy) is poised and ready to claim its share of the Ivy League title, but Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney Smith and the Crimson know that more than just the Ivy crown is at stake tonight.

A Harvard win would give strong weight to the Crimson's claim for an NCAA or National Women's Invitation tournament bid next week.