W. Hoops Nails Lehigh; Feaster Sets Record

Monday night was a big night for the Harvard women's basketball team. Not only did co-captain Allison Feaster gobble up another record in this most filling of seasons, but the Crimson shot the lights out against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks--literally.

Feaster broke the Ivy League's all-time scoring mark on her way to a game-high 32 points as Harvard (13-2) drubbed Lehigh (6-12), 87-58.

Feaster--who entered the game leading the nation in scoring at 28.7 points--broke Dartmouth's Gail Koziara's 16-year old record when her 1,934th career point fell through the net with 4:49 to go in the first half.

Minutes later Feaster tore down her sixth rebound of the game, giving her 1,000 boards in her Harvard career.

"She's worked so hard on her game," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. "She's gone off in the summer and just done everything she needs to do."

Feaster's heroics aside, the Crimson turned in one of its better buzzer-to-buzzer performances of the season to win its 18th straight at Lavietes Pavilion, a feat that looks even more impressive given the team's two-and-a-half week hiatus due to the exam period.

Lehigh kept it relatively close in the first half, but junior guard Suzie Miller's second consecutive three-pointer with just over eight minutes remaining in the game capped a 27-6 Crimson run and put Harvard up by 30, 79-49.

And right on cue, the lights over Lehigh's basket flickered, then faded away entirely. The game was stopped for several minutes before the two coaches caucused and decided to resume the blowout in darkness.

"Our whole team was shooting the lights out," Miller said. "If we just keep applying pressure and keep playing hard, they stop making all their shots, we start making ours and we blow teams away, which we did."

Despite winning only a third of their games this season, the Mountain Hawks are not entirely a walkover opponent. Lehigh handed Harvard one of the Crimson's six regular-season losses last season, and the Cantabs have a habit of sluggish starts following exam period. HARVARD  87 LEHIGH  58

"There's no way that two and a half weeks off before a game can not affect you," Miller said. "We had three of the best practices all year this week, and we still had to shake the cobwebs off."

The Mountain Hawks took a 16-13 lead midway through the first half before the Crimson began its initial run. Lehigh's players shot over their heads from the floor, and Harvard's inside players were consistently absent from the boards, as Lehigh won the rebounding battle, 50-45.

"We were outrebounded because we played a zone," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. "Since they couldn't score against the zone, their answer was to rebound. Plus, they did a lot of slashing through the zone, which makes it really hard to rebound."

But when Miller--who notched a career-high 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting--nailed a three at 8:25 of the first half to knot the game at 16, Lehigh's last lead of the game was abruptly terminated. Harvard stepped up its defensive intensity and kept hitting its shots throughout the half, taking a 42-33 lead into the locker room.

"Last year we played the entire game as we played the first three or four minutes of this one, and we weren't going to let that happen again," Miller said.

But in the first half, the "Feaster-watch" was what provided the game's entertainment. The Chester, S.C. native entered the contest needing 17 points to reach the milestone.

And by the time she had scored 10 of the team's first 18 points, the buzz was back in Lavietes. The magical bucket came when a steal by Feaster--one of seven she had in the game--ignited a mini-break by Feaster and senior guard Alison Seanor. The two namesakes tore through the lane on a two-on-one, and Seanor passed up a lay-up to give Feaster her moment.

"Alison Seanor puts it right in my hands under the basket," Feaster said. "It's easy to score from there."

The crowd erupted in a standing ovation, and the referees halted the game at the next dead ball as Feaster was presented a bouquet of flowers and a shower of hugs by her teammates.

"I'm so proud to be her teammate," Miller said. "I've played with some great players--some are playing at the University of Connecticut, Division I, all over the place--and she's still the best player I've ever played with and probably ever will. I've never seen someone stronger, faster, quicker, with better skills--never."

Feaster's score gave Harvard a nine-point lead, 34-25. Part of the Crimson's dominance against the Mountain Hawks resulted from a lack of turnovers. Even though starting point guard Megan Basil played just seven minutes due to the flu, Harvard turned the ball over just 11 times all game, and thrice in the first half.

No Harvard player had more than two turnovers, a pleasant surprise coming from a team fresh off a two-week-plus break that entered the game averaging over 20 turnovers per game.

"[Basil] is sick, but that just shows how deep we are," Feaster said. "I think we're on a mission. We know what we can do and we know we can make it to the tournament and possibly win the first game. I don't want to overlook anyone, but that's our goal."

The performance against Lehigh should be a confidence booster entering this weekend's Ivy games against Brown and Yale. Harvard's 4-0 record leads the league, but Brown boasts two of the league's top players in senior Liz Turner and junior Vita Redding.

But if there was any question before, there can be no more doubt as to who is the cream of the crop in the Ivies. Harvard has won 29 consecutive Ancient Eight contests, and Feaster is now the league's all-time scoring leader.

And the milestone parade does not end here for Feaster. She is just 51 points shy of 2,000 for her career, which would put her in an Ivy basketball club whose only current member is NBA Hall of Famer and Princeton alum Bill Bradley.

"I don't know if I'm in the category of someone like Bill Bradley, but it's a definite honor," Feaster said.

By now honors are just another day at the office for Feaster and her teammates.

HARVARD, 87-58 at Lavietes Pavilion Lehigh  33  25  --  58 Harvard  42  45  --  87

LEHIGH: Baldwin 2-11 0-0 5; Halpem 1-3 0-0 3; Trigo 7-14 1-2 16; Hendrix 3-8 0-1 6; Henry 3-10 2-2 8; Sims 0-4 0-0 0; Bevington 2-6 2-2 6; Zang 1-4 3-4 5; Donohue 1-3 0-0 2; Hessel 1-3 2-3 4. TOTALS 22-70 11-16 58.

HARVARD: Basil 0-2 0-0 0; Seanor 3-6 2-2 9; Miller 6-8 0-2 17; Feaster 12-24 7-11 32; Janowski 4-9 2-2 10; Kowal 1-2 0-0 2; Brandt 3-7 0-0 8; Russell 1-4 0-0 2; Egelhoff 0-2 0-0 0; Sturdy 1-3 0-0 2; Boike 0-0 0-0 0; Grossman 0-2 0-0 0; Zitnik 1-1 0-0 3; Kinneen 1-2 0-0 2. TOTALS: 33-72 11-17 87.