Women's Cagers Bomb Away

If you live by the three, you die by the three.

Like John Starks and Rick Pitino's Kentucky Wildcats, the Harvard women's basketball team learned this fundamental Law of Basketball the hard way in Sunday's heart-breaking 76-75 loss to George Washington.

After a masterful shooting performance in Saturday's 100-70 blowout against Florida Atlantic--a game in which the Crimson connected on an astonishing 49.5 percent of its three-point attempts--Harvard shot only 28.1 percent from downtown yesterday.

Arguably Harvard's top-three outside shooters--Liz Gettelman, Amy Reinhard and Allison Feaster--shot a combined 3-16 for the game.

Indeed, as hot as the Crimson perimeter players were on Saturday, canning 16-of-33 from international waters, they were as cold against George Washington, making only 2-of-16 treys over the first period.

"Our first half perimeter shooting wasn't very good," Harvard coach Kathy Delaney Smith said. "I thought we picked it up a little in the second half. [But] if we had halfway normal shooting in the first half, this would have been an entirely different ballgame."

Down the stretch, however, the Harvard shooters experienced a renaissance.

Trailing 59-53 with 9:09 remaining, Feaster sank a trey, cutting the Lady Colonials' lead in half. Gettelman connected from the deep corner three minutes later.

After a Crimson timeout with 2:09 to play, junior forward Kelly Black hit from the top of the key to pull Harvard within five, 72-67

Senior co-captain Elizabeth Proudfit sandwiched a pair of clutch three-pointers around two George Washington free throws to pull Harvard within striking distance at 76-73.

Feaster had a chance to tie the game but missed her trifecta with 20 seconds remaining. However, the heady sophomore followed her miss with a putback, closing the deficit to one point.

A last-second pull-up jumper by Proudfit was rejected by Lady Colonial center Tajama Abraham, sending the Crimson to its first loss of the season.

"I was very proud of our second half," Delaney Smith said. "I am convinced of how great this team can be this year."

Despite Harvard's lack of success from outside against George Washington, the Crimson does not plan on abandoning its perimeter game.

"Our game really revolves around our three point shooting," junior point guard Jessica Gelman said. "We expect to shoot a lot of three-pointers and make a lot of them and miss a lot of them."

Rare is the team that can be successful on a consistent basis using the three-pointer--generally considered a low percentage shot--as its primary offensive weapon.

"We just have to pray to the three-point gods in the [potential] UConn game," Delaney Smith said. "But if we hit some of those threes, I think we can beat them."

Perhaps, but without a doubt, that game--like many to come this season--will most likely hinge on Harvard's ability to make a high percentage of its shots from behind the three-point arc.