Women Cagers Crush Cornell at Briggs

Saturday night the Harvard women's basketball team administered a beating that would've made the LAPD blush.

The Crimson crushed Cornell, 81-59, at Briggs Cage and easily rolled to its third win in a row.

The game wasn't nearly as close as the score indicates.

Harvard (8-11 overall, 5-2 Ivy) never trailed in the contest. The team came out strong, opened an insurmountable 47-20 halftime lead on 55 percent shooting, and never looked back.

Why did Harvard trounce a team that was expected to be a tough rival?

There were several factors.

Cornell (7-13, 3-5) was just ice-cold. It couldn't nail its open shots.

Harvard's defense, moreover, allowed precious few opportunities.

The box score does not account for tipped passes, hurried shots and harried opponents, yet these things cemented the Crimson's victory.

Harvard's defense, which varied from a 2-3 zone to man-to man coverage, blanketed the Cornell offense.

"I thought our defense was great," Delaney Smith said. "We saw the floor well and stopped their outside shooting and their inside penetration."

On offense, the Crimson was unstoppable.

"Harvard shot the ball exceptionally well," Cornell Coach Kim Jordan conceded.

"We tried to take away their inside game, but then they went outside. They don't have any weaknesses. They have a tremendous arsenal," Jordan said.

Every player on the Crimson's active roster scored, and four registered double figures.

Both Cronk and sophomore forward Catherine Crisera recorded their best games off the bench this season--a good omen as the Crimson enters the final Ivy stretch.

"We'll get stronger and stronger toward the end of the season," Delaney Smith said.

Cornell, sustained by fierce man-to-man defense, did manage to keep the game respectable for the first nine minutes. But at 10:40, the death knell sounded for the Big Red.

Harvard freshman guard Nikole Cronk buried a short baseline jumper to give the Crimson a 20-14 lead. That's as close as Cornell got.

After Cronk's basket, the dam burst. Junior guard Erin Maher followed with the first of her six three pointers. (She was 6-6 from beyond the arc).

Forward Tammy Butler then hit a shot from a little left of the foul line. Center Debbie Flandermeyer canned her patented turn-around. On and on it went.

The Crimson outscored Cornell 27-6 and reeled off 14 unanswered points in a five-minute span. Cornell's freshman forward finally broke the spell with 18 seconds left in the half. By then, it was too late.