W. Hoops Falls to Second in Ivy After Weekend

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--On a routine road trip down I-95, the Harvard women's basketball team, which had been tied for first in the Ivy League, came back with a barely salvageable split and a fortunate tie for second place.

A 70-68 overtime win against Yale (9-14, 5-5) in the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Saturday was a struggle for Harvard, especially after previously league-winless Brown (6-18, 1-9) clobbered the Crimson, 75-56, the night before.

"I'm not alive," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who is being treated for breast cancer. "It's a tough weekend after chemo. Next time, time your chemo better than I did."

The Crimson (15-6, 7-2 Ivy), which had been tied for the Ivy League lead with Dartmouth (16-6, 8-1) and Penn (16-7, 7-2), had company in second place after the weekend as Columbia (5-17, 4-6) shocked Penn 70-67 on Saturday.

"Isn't that fabulous?" Delaney-Smith asked.

Dartmouth, on an 8-0 roll since losing to Harvard in early January, swept Yale and Brown on the weekend to gain sole possession of first place.

Harvard 70, Yale 68, OT

Yale freshman guard Maria Smear and junior center Lily Glick did their best to upend Harvard in the second half, but the more experienced and deeper Crimson ultimately prevailed in overtime, despite missing two starters.

With junior center Melissa Johnson out for the weekend with a torn miniscus and slightly-torn anterior cruciate ligament, freshmen Kate Ides and Sarah Johnson stepped up in her stead to help the Crimson to the win.

In a game where both teams opened up large leads, it ultimately came down to an overtime period to determine the winner.

Entering the deciding frame at 60-60, Smear got the Bulldogs a quick lead with a three-pointer from the right wing at 4:31. But Crimson sophomore point guard Jenn Monti took over the game from there, stepping into the lane for a jumper at 4:14. She followed that up 20 seconds later with a trey from the left wing to give Harvard a 65-62 lead.

After a Yale foul and subsequent Monti free throw, Ides put in a rebound basket with 3:00 to go, and Kelley added another putback a minute later.

It would be the last time the Crimson scored, but the Harvard defense stopped the Bulldog attack when it needed to. Down 70-68 with 0:26.8 remaining, a jump ball gave Yale possession. But the stingy Crimson defense, playing on adrenaline and nerves, forced Yale sophomore forward Meg Simpson to take a rushed baseline jumper at the shot clock buzzer, only to have it rim out. Ides grabbed the rebound and was quickly fouled.

After missing the free throw, Yale got the rebound and drove down the floor, trying for a final shot. Yale senior guard Kelly Denit got off a successful shot right after the final buzzer sounded, disallowing the field goal.

The game opened with Harvard senior guard Courtney Egelhoff on fire. With 17:40 to go, she spotted up for a three-pointer at the top of the key. She followed that up with four more treys by 11:53 to go in the half, giving the Crimson a 21-14 lead. Her 5-of-5 performance gave her 15 points by the half, although she would not score again in the game.

"Courtney and [captain] Laela [Sturdy] both played like seniors," Delaney-Smith said.

Yale chipped away at the Harvard lead, pulling to within one before settling for a 34-32 deficit at the intermission.

In the second half, Yale came out strong. With the Crimson up 43-38 with 14:11 to go after an Ides three-pointer, Smear found her spot.

In a span of a minute, the 5'11 guard pulled up three straight times for 12-foot jumpers from the left wing, all of which rainbowed sky-high and swished through the net. She followed those up in the next two minutes with two more unanswered jumpshots, this time from the right side, opening up a quick 48-43 Bulldog lead and giving her 10 points in three minutes.

Harvard closed in after that on Sarah Johnson's clutch play down low, but never took a lead before the end of regulation.

With Melissa Johnson out, Yale outrebounded Harvard, 50-37. But the Bulldogs shot a paltry 35.9 percent for the game when compared to Harvard's 49.2.

Egelhoff's 15 points led the Crimson, and Monti and Sarah Johnson added 14 and 13 points, respectively. Ides had nine points and eight rebounds in her first game as a starter.

Glick led Yale with 18 points, most coming off of spinning post moves, and 13 rebounds. Smear finished with 17 points and Alyson Miller had 12 points and 11 rebounds in a spark-plug role for Yale.

"I thought Yale's frontcourt was really nice, but they initiated a lot of calls and we didn't get a lot of those calls," Delaney-Smith said.

Brown 75, Harvard 56

Brown, which had had close losses to several Ivy opponents but could never quite get over the hump, finally pulled off an upset, beating Harvard on Friday at the Pizzitola Center in Providence, R.I.

From the beginning, the Bears showed that they were worth worrying about. Although with six minutes gone by and the score at just 7-7, the Brown full-court press was already starting to shake Harvard's confidence.

By 5:47, Brown had an 18-14 lead and the Crimson was wondering what had happened. But Harvard soon found an answer as Sturdy and Egelhoff both hit three-pointers from the left side to give Harvard a 20-18 edge. Harvard would go into halftime with a 26-24 margin.

But in the second half, it didn't take long for the Bears to get going. After Harvard extended its lead to 33-28, Brown went on an 18-3 run, sparked by Bear sophomore guard Rada Pavichevich, who hit two three-pointers and blocked one by Harvard sophomore forward Katie Gates. The Crimson would never recover fully from the 46-36 Brown lead.

Pavichevich, who was in street clothes in the two teams' first meeting, finished with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc.

Freshman guard Bree Kelley cut the margin to 50-43 on a hook with 8:52 to go, but it would be the closest Harvard would come.

The Bears ran with the ball more as Barbara Maloni went on a tear. The freshman guard made a layup with 0:57 to go, giving Brown a 72-52 lead, its largest of the game. Maloni would lead all scorers with 30 points, tying her career-high.

"This is the league," Delaney-Smith said. "I'm not one bit surprised. It was Harvard beating Harvard. Brown played a nice game, but we basically assisted [them]."

The difference in the game seemed to be the turnovers. Harvard had a season-high 28, which Brown turned into 26 points. The Crimson took advantage of the Bears' 12 turnovers for just three points.

Both teams had poor games from the floor, with Brown shooting a slightly-better 37.3 percent and Harvard at 34.5.

Sturdy finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Crimson. Ides had 14 points off the bench and Kelley added 10.

Gates, who played in her first game in over a month against Brown with repercussions from a concussion, scored two points and grabbed two rebounds in eight minutes. She sat out the next day against Yale because she did not feel like she had fully recovered.

Monti, normally sure-handed and confident, played the weekend with the flu, giving up six turnovers against Brown but coming back to have a fine game against Yale.

"This is just a reminder that the league is wide open," Delaney-Smith. "It is a very competitive league. We say those words to the team all the time, but I'm sure that they were thinking, 'undefeated, undefeated,' and that's the wrong thing to think in this league, year in and year out. Only one team has ever done it. There are too many proud heads and hearts in this league. The student athlete in the Ivy League is a very special athlete."

The Crimson players do not have time to rest their weary bodies. An important road trip to Penn and Princeton awaits Harvard this weekend.