W. Basketball Seeks Third Straight Ivy Title

As philanthropic as the Harvard women's basketball team may be, there is one thing they do not want to share--an Ivy League Championship.

Harvard (20-3, 10-1 Ivy) will face off against Yale (13-11, 7-5) and Brown (11-13, 7-5) this weekend with a chance to capture its third consecutive league title. The Crimson will battle the Elis tonight at 7 p.m. in New Haven before travelling to Providence to take on the Bears tomorrow at the same time.

Two wins would assure Harvard of its best record ever; one victory guarantees a conference crown and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. It would be the first time that an Ivy team has captured three straight, outright league titles since the conference went to double round-robin play at the start of the 1982-83 season.

"[Harvard Coach] Kathy [DelaneySmith] talked about making sure we don't come down a notch in intensity," said senior Sarah Brandt, "so I'm not concerned about that happening. We're ready to dominate this weekend."

Acquiring the championship, however, will be no easy task. Harvard must finish its season with three consecutive road games--this weekend's contests and another at Dartmouth on Tuesday--as opposed to last season, when the Crimson wrapped up matters in the friendly confines of Lavietes Pavilion.

"These three games will be the toughest of the year," said co-captain Allison Feaster, "but I think we're playing our best basketball right now. We need tough contests to prepare us for the [NCAA] Tournament."

In addition to finishing its season away from home, Harvard faces stiff opposition in all three games. Yale, although not at the top of the Ivy standings, has the potential to play the role of the spoiler, as it showed earlier this season with a 74-72 overtime upset of Dartmouth.

Brown is similarly dangerous and much more talented than Yale. The Bears boast two of the top players in the league in senior forward Liz Turner and junior guard Vita Redding.

Earlier in the season, Brown came to Cambridge and took Harvard into overtime before Feaster imposed her will on the court and led the Crimson to an 86-81 victory. The Bears will certainly be looking for revenge, and they will have the home court advantage for round two.

"It's nicer to finish up at home," said senior Alison Seanor, "but regardless of where we play, we're the same team. As long as we come out ready, it doesn't matter where we play."

Harvard has proven itself difficult to defeat both at home and on the road. And the Crimson will feature some weapons of its own this weekend.

At the top of that list is Feaster, who seems to add another honor to her already-overflowing resume in each game. This week she even earned a distinction without playing--yesterday Feaster was named a Second-Team All-American by the Women's Basketball News Service.

Complementing Feaster in the key are junior forwards Rose Janowski and Sarah Russell. Both players have considerably stepped up their play in the second half of the season and helped Harvard control the inside game.

But Harvard's biggest threat is, as usual, perimeter shooting. Brandt, Seanor, co-captain Megan Basil and junior Suzie Miller have been raining treys throughout the season, and they have been getting hotter as the season has progressed.

Feaster, Brandt and Miller rank first, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Ivies in three-point field goal percentage. Brandt is also coming off of a career-high 18-point performance against Penn on Saturday, and she is shooting a stellar 50 percent from beyond the arc in Harvard's 11 Ivy games.

"Our ability to light it up from outside helps us because other teams can't collapse on [Feaster]," Brandt said. "We'll open up a lot of options when that happens."

While the Crimson needs only one win to secure the Ivy Title, a weekend split could be disastrous. Another loss for Harvard would probably hurt its seeding in the NCAA Tournament and could mean the difference between whether or not it faces a top-10 team.

"We just received a vote for the [AP] Top 25," Feaster said, "and that motivates us even more. It's a good time to win a championship."

Harvard's players do not see themselves with two separate tasks to accomplish. Their objective is simply to win every game they play, and that should take care of an Ivy Championship and a good seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"[Both goals] certainly motivate us to play well in our last three games," Brandt said. "We want to get the best seed possible. It's a test of our abilities as a championship team to pull through. We're gonna rock."