Re-Writing the Record Books

There is a new Ivy League scoring champion of all time, and her name is Allison Feaster.

Feaster, senior co-captain of the present two-time Ivy champion Harvard women's basketball team, broke the league's career scoring record Monday night against Lehigh at Lavietes Pavilion.

Her career total now stands at 1,949 points with 11 regular-season games remaining; the previous mark of 1,933 belonged to Dartmouth's Gail Koziara and had stood for 16 years.

Feaster entered Monday night's game needing 17 points to break the record. Considering that she leads the nation in scoring at 28.9 points-per-game, 17 would have been an off night.

So the crowd of 400 fans simply sat back and waited for the moment to arrive. Apparently, they were counting buckets, because when the record was broken, everyone in the house knew that history had been made.

Feaster scored 15 points in the first 15 minutes of the contest, and with 4:49 remaining in the first half, she sent the crowd into a frenzy. The play began on the defensive side of the ball when Feaster proved too difficult an obstacle for the Lehigh backcourt.

The team's all-time leader in steals--with 104 more than any other Harvard player--leaped high in the air to snare a Mountain Hawk pass at the top of the key on Harvard's end of the floor. She began the break and dished a pass to the right block where fellow senior Alison Seanor had one defender between her and an easy deuce.

Seanor, who leads the Crimson in assists this year, did what she does so well. She took one dribble, drew the defender and then beautifully fed the rock right back to Feaster on the left block for the most historic assist in Ivy League history.

Feaster converted the layup easily, and the crowd erupted in celebration. They saluted Feaster with a standing ovation, then offered a reprise when the game was stopped and the All-American was presented with a bouquet of flowers at midcourt.

But the show was not over.

Feaster also needed just six rebounds to record 1,000 for her career, a feat accomplished by only five other Ivy League players. She collected number 1,000 on the final sequence of the first half after an off-target Lehigh shot.

With the business of record-breaking out of the way, Feaster and her teammates took care of business in the second period, blowing Lehigh away, 87-58. Feaster's final line: 32 points, 13 rebounds, seven steals, four assists.

Just another day at the office.

The career scoring record is only the latest mark in a string of impressive accomplishments for Feaster that dates back to high school. And, believe it or not, she is not done yet.

Feaster is now a mere 51 points shy of recording 2,000 points in her career. No woman in Ivy League history has ever registered 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career.

In fact, only one person in league history has accomplished the feat. The lone person in the 2,000-1,000 club is former New York Knick, current U.S. Senator and NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Bradley `65 from Princeton.

Does that mean we can expect to see Allison Feaster in the United States Senate one day? Probably not--she is not pursuing a career in politics. What it does mean, however, is that Harvard fans have one more chance to see Feaster make history and join a club whose membership is extremely exclusive.

This weekend, Harvard will battle league rivals Brown and Yale on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively, at 6:00 p.m. Feaster should surpass the 2,000-point mark against the Elis on Saturday night.

However, I wouldn't miss Friday's game. Feaster seems to turn in a remarkable performance every time she steps onto the court, and one never knows when she might pour in 50+ points.

Besides, Harvard and Brown do not care for each other very much, and, after a Crimson victory, the best player in Ivy League history would like nothing more than to light up the Bears for 51.