Show 'Em Who's the Tiger

It is the end of an era for Harvard basketball, and there may never be another like it.

Tonight and tomorrow, the Harvard women's basketball team will play its final home games of the 1997-98 season against Princeton (12-9, 6-3 Ivy) and Penn (11-10, 6-3), respectively. Amidst the hoopla of parents' weekend, Lavietes Pavilion will be the site as the Crimson (18-3, 8-1) bids farewell to its five seniors, including the woman who is arguably the greatest female basketball player in Ivy League history.

Co-captain Allison Feaster, the Ivy League's all-time leading scorer and currently the nation's leading scorer, heads a class that has known tremendous success over its four years at Harvard.

Co-captain Megan Basil, Alison Seanor, Sarah Brandt and Karun Grossman round out the largest senior class the program has ever graduated. They likely will also end their careers as the winningest class in Harvard women's basketball history.

"I'm really excited about this weekend," Feaster said. "It will be nice having our parents here."

In the four years these seniors have spent at Harvard, the Crimson has an overall record of 77-24 and an Ivy League record of 46-5. Still more impressive is Harvard's resume at home over the same stretch.

The Crimson is currently in the midst of a 20-game home winning streak--the seventh longest in the country--and a 19-game home Ivy win streak that stretches back to March 1995. Harvard is also 46-7 overall at Lavietes Pavilion in the last four years and 27-1 in league contests during that time.

While Senior Weekend will undoubtedly bring added emotion to the Harvard hardwood, the Crimson will have other motivating factors as well. Two weeks ago Princeton used a stifling perimeter defense to snap Harvard's record-long 32-game Ivy winning streak with a 56-53 upset at Jadwin Gym.

"Revenge and seniors--that's what this weekend is all about," said junior Suzie Miller. "Last time, [Princeton] might have wanted it more than we did. There's no more of that."

Princeton's leading scorer, Kate Thirolf, added some fuel to the Crimson's fire following the Tigers victory. Referring to the waning moments of that game, when Feaster was stripped of the ball by Princeton's Erica Bowman, Thirolf was quoted by The Daily Pennsylvanian as saying, "I don't think Allison Feaster is ever going to forget the name Erica Bowman."

In the same article, Penn Coach Julie Soriero commented that her Penn squad did such a good job defensively against Feaster one night prior to Harvard's game at Princeton, that Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith kept the All-American in the game longer than necessary in order to keep her scoring average up.

Soriero went on to say that Feaster's extended playing time against Penn probably caused her to be fatigued the following evening against Princeton. That fatigue, said Soriero, likely factored into the outcome of the contest.

"That's ridiculous," Feaster said, in reference to Soriero's comments. "[Penn] played a zone the entire game, and [Miller] scored 22 points in about 10 minutes against them."

"We don't pass words with other teams," Feaster continues. "That's just not our style. We leave it on the court; the game is never taken off the court for us. However it is that [our opponents] get pumped, so be it. Stopping me won't win the game for them."

Regardless of the effect Soriero's statement may have, it appears somewhat erroneous. Feaster, who averages better than 30 minutes per game, played only 26 minutes against the Quakers at The Palestra.

In addition, Feaster scored 25 points and handed out five assists against Penn's supposedly effective defensive pressure. The next evening against Princeton Feaster showed no signs of fatigue, leading all scorers with 34 points and hauling in 10 rebounds.

The stage is set for the rematch, and Harvard will not be lacking incentive in the seniors' final home weekend. Thirolf will lead the Tigers into battle tonight at 6 p.m., and Soriero will attempt to guide the Quakers to victory tomorrow at the same time.

Ultimately, however, the Crimson is most interested in making this a memorable weekend for its five seniors. The players know if they accomplish that task, they most probably will be celebrating a pair of victories tomorrow night as well.

"We'll have a lot of emotion," Grossman said, "but we're a team that plays well with emotion. These are the absolute last games of [the seniors'] careers on our home court, and we want to go out in style."