Late Rally Not Enough for W. Hoops

Breakout performances by two freshmen and a failed rally were not enough to save the Harvard women's basketball team last night as it lost 70-67 to a scrappy Central Connecticut State.

Inopportune turnovers, poor shooting and atrocious defense doomed the Crimson (1-5) despite the play of freshman forward Tricia Tubridy, who finished with 15 points, and freshman guard Jennifer Lee, who had 10 points and six assists. All totals were highs in their young careers.

"[There was] nothing good about this game," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith after the game. "I don't want to talk about comebacks or good freshmen."

"This is one of the most disappointing losses I've ever coached," she said.

Tied at 20-20 with 5:02 to go in the first half, the Blue Devils (2-2) used a 19-4 run over seven minutes to break open the game.

Thoroughly disappointed with the play of her starting five, Delaney-Smith benched the entire line and put in five new players.

"They were horrible," Delaney-Smith said. "They weren't ready to play in the first half or in the second half."

Only in the last five minutes did the Crimson begin to make a run, and that was without freshman forward Hana Peltjo, the team's leading scorer, on the floor. Peltjo finished with five points and nine rebounds over 19 minutes, largely played in the first half.

Forward Eileen Battagliese led Central Connecticut State with 19 points and seven assists. Qualisha Zyhier and Kimberly Kopecko added 14 points apiece. The smaller Blue Devils outrebounded the Crimson, 33-29, for the game.

The first half began auspiciously enough with sophomore center Kate Ides getting the Crimson's first two baskets on lay-ups. She would finish with 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting on the night.

The teams battled back and forth, even at 12-12 and 20-20 before the Blue Devils' run. Trailing 33-24 at half, the Crimson came out of the locker room flat, and Delaney-Smith made the decision to let five pairs of fresh legs take over.

While the starters sat for eight minutes, the subs, facing a 15-point deficit, cut the lead to 10 four times before being taken out with the Blue Devils back up 15 at 9:16 to go in the game.

Still down 15 with 5:42 to go, the Crimson began to make a run that nearly erased the futility displayed in the middle of the game.

Sparked by six points and an assist from Lee, the Crimson outscored the Blue Devils 14-1 to the 2:00 mark, behind just 65-63.

The Blue Devils took a timeout to regroup at 1:13, and Delaney-Smith sent Tubridy in for sophomore center Sarah Johnson.

Junior point guard Jenn Monti produced a steal with a minute to go, but she put up an awkward shot with 40 seconds left. Tubridy committed the Crimson's 10th team foul at 0:39. Kopecko made both free throws, and Harvard took a timeout with 34.3 seconds remaining.

When play resumed, Lee found Tubridy under the bucket for a lay-up to make it 67-65. After the subsequent Harvard foul, the Blue Devils' Nikki Flocco hit one free throw for a three-point lead.

Each team adding a free throw, the Crimson found itself down 70-67 with nine seconds to play. Monti's game-tying three-point shot hit the far side of the rim and fell away, along with the Crimson's hopes of stealing the game.

The Crimson shot 45.5 percent from the floor, compared with the Blue Devils' 47.3 percent. But many Central Connecticut State shots were wide-open as Harvard players failed to fight through screens, sometimes losing their assigned opponent in the middle of the play.

Most of the Crimson's shots came under the basket, where Harvard could not buy a bucket. While Ides, Lee and Tubridy combined to shoot 17-for-21, or 81 percent, the rest of the Crimson team shot 8-for-34, or 23.5 percent.

"You cannot get easier shots than we get," Delaney-Smith said, adding that if the Crimson cannot begin converting these shots, then "we are in for a very long season."

Preparation for Saturday's road game against Bucknell was already underway last night as Delaney-Smith sought a way to show how disappointed she was in her team.

"We start by staying tonight and watching the film," Delaney-Smith said.