Goin' Bohlen: Fire it Up

When the going gets tough, the Harvard women's basketball team should get going.

The Crimson has both depth and size, and that combination is lethal when implemented correctly--run, gun, rotate, repeat--as it was for half of last night's 54-45 home win over New Hampshire.

After losing its first three games of the season--the first time that has happened since 1989-90--the Crimson came out determined to avoid a second-rate start to a season that promised to be first-rate. Freshman forward Hana Peltjo, who will be consistently first-rate once she learns Harvard's triangle offense and settles into Division I basketball, led the way with 17 points and a for-now career-high 15 rebounds.

The key to Harvard's victory was definitely not the offense, which turned the ball over 25 times in the game, including 17 giveaways in the second half, and shot 35.3 percent from the floor.

Despite what Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said after the game, the defense was not the key either, even though the Harvard held UNH to 24.5 percent for the game.

Rather, it was the team's energy, which fed both the offense and defense for roughly 20 minutes in the middle of the game. When a team is energetic and playing without thinking about playing, the opponent often becomes lost, confused, frustrated and tired. The more you have fun, the less the other team does.

Quite simply, when all cylinders were running last night, Harvard stymied UNH on defense and blew past the Wildcats on offense. But when the game slowed down, so too did the Crimson.

"If we run, I think we are unstoppable," Peltjo said.

Down 17-16 with 4:04 to go in the first half, the Crimson's Wheaties kicked in, and the team went on a 10-0 run. After giving up a silly foul and two free throws as time expired, the Crimson had a 26-19 lead going into the half.

The Harvard locker room must have been wired at half. The team jumped out to an immediate 13-point lead on two lay-ups and two free throws from Peltjo. Senior point guard Lisa Kowal dished both of Peltjo's baskets.

But after UNH began to slow the game down with a 7-0 run spread over six minutes, Harvard seemed lost on its own floor. Bad passes, traveling violations and fouls--loads and loads of fouls--all turned the tide for the Wildcats. UNH was in the bonus with 11:55 to go, down just 34-28.

At 5:30, Harvard's lead was down to just 40-38, and the Wildcats looked dangerously close to taking over the game. A free throw by junior forward Katie Gates, a Peltjo three-pointer and a lay-up from sophomore forward Kate Ides gave the Crimson a 46-40 lead and all the points it would ultimately need on the night. By that point, Harvard was in the bonus and a slow game was just what it needed to keep the ball out of the Wildcats' hands.

Slow doesn't even begin to describe the beginning of the game, which ground to a halt faster than Robert Downey Jr.'s career. The two teams shouldn't have even bothered with the first five minutes of the game; the score was tied 3-3 with 14:51 minutes to play in the first half.

If the Crimson is to win the Ivy League this year, it will need to shake off any pre-game jitters and enter each contest like it has already been playing for five minutes. That is precisely why there are warm-ups before a game, to steady the nerves, find the shooting touch and try to intimidate the other players, who are undoubtedly sizing up the competition out of the corners of their eyes.

The best advice I ever got playing basketball was to listen to some good music before the game in order to get the juices flowing. I used James Brown, and the hardest working man in show business helped me a harder working man under the boards.

Ladies, there's a new song out there that'd work equally well.

When you take the court Saturday, make sure you Fire it Up.