W. Basketball Splits, Loses Chance at Title

The Harvard women's basketball was well aware that it would probably need victories over Columbia and Cornell this weekend in order to stay alive in the Ivy title hunt.

The Crimson knew that the Lions had beaten Penn two weeks before, and were much improved from the teams' previous meeting.

But despite all the forewarning, and despite the fact that Columbia (7-19, 6-8 Ivy) did not score a single point for the first eight minutes of the game, Harvard could not come up with the victory, falling by a 62-56 score.

"It was just one of those nights," captain Laela Sturdy said. "Our shots weren't falling for us. We weren't getting the calls or getting to the foul line. We didn't take care of the basketball. That's a tough set of factors to pull out a victory."

Then, on Saturday night, the Crimson (16-9, 9-4) put aside all the bad memories from the night before and put together a strong 68-58 victory over Cornell (11-15, 3-11).

"It was such a great team effort," senior Courtney Egelhoff said. "Everyone really stepped it up, it was hard to come back from last night."

It was also the final home game for the two senior forwards, Egelhoff and Sturdy.

After the game, Harvard was left hoping that Columbia would triumph over first-place Dartmouth, and with the game tied at the half, the possibility was there. But the Big Green (19-7, 11-2) pulled away late in the second half, winning 67-57.

With Penn (17-10, 8-5) and Harvard both losing this weekend, the victory clinched the league title and an NCAA tournament berth for Dartmouth, meaning that Tuesday night's showdown between the Crimson and Big Green won't have any championship implications.

But although Harvard can finish no worse or better than second-place, Dartmouth has yet to beat the Crimson this season, so pride is on the line. Tomorrow's game will determine who really is the best team in the Ivy League.

Harvard 68, Cornell 58

Going into the weekend, sophomore guard Laura Barnard's career-high point total had been seven in one game.

But on Saturday, she came off the bench to lead all scorers with 17 points, including four three-pointers. Whenever Harvard needed a big basket in this game, she was there.

"Laura has really stepped it up," Sturdy said. "She's been playing great in practice lately. It's wonderful to see her come out with such intensity and confidence."

With the Big Red leading 10-6 early, and with the Crimson on a four-minute scoring drought, this game could have easily been a repeat of Friday night's disaster.

But then Barnard changed everything. Her three-pointer broke the Crimson scoring slump and ignited a 9-0 Harvard run, with five of those points belonging to her.

With 7:13 left in the first half, she hit her second trey of the day to give Harvard a 28-19 lead, and already she had her new career-high game.

"The team chemistry was there tonight," Barnard said. "It was good to have the ball movement. I felt more open tonight. I was not rushing my shots."

Then, in the second half, Harvard came out a little slow, and Cornell was able to cut the lead to 38-36. But over the next four minutes Barnard drained two more three-pointers.

With 9:09 remaining, Sarah Johnson picked up a rebound and found Barnard streaking down the court. She missed the layup, but Sturdy was there on the follow-up. That gave the Crimson a 57-45 lead, and all the momentum that it needed.

Barnard's hustle seemed to ignite Harvard, and carry over to all aspects of the Crimson's play. The team's passing was a lot quicker, more fluid, with more movement throughout the game. Harvard was much more relaxed and confident than it was Friday night.

The freshmen centers Kate Ides and Sarah Johnson were both vastly improved from Friday. Both players have had to grow up fast, as the team lost junior Melissa Johnson to a knee injury.

Ides, who struggled with foul trouble the night before, picked up 11 points and seven rebounds for the Crimson while playing most of the game.

Sarah Johnson played just 11 minutes, but picked up nine points and four rebounds and only missed one shot on the day.

Sophomore guard Jenn Monti, still a bit hobbled by her ankle, added to her Ivy-leading total with five assists. She scored six points.

The Crimson youth helped ensure that the seniors' last game would be one worth remembering.

"What I wanted from them tonight, was to see what they were made of," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "Could they do it for Laela and Courtney, who have given so much to the program?"

Since hitting the game-winning shot against Princeton on Feb. 25, Egelhoff had struggled a bit shooting the ball. But she broke out of her slump, hitting three treys on the day, to finish with nine points.

Sturdy scored 15 points, including a three-pointer on the 9-0 Harvard run in the first half. Sturdy has been the most consistent Crimson player this year.

With 48 seconds left, Delaney-Smith pulled Sturdy and Egelhoff from the game, and the seniors got the applause from the crowd that they deserved.

"I thought they both played like seniors," Delaney-Smith said. "Laela had a great weekend. Courtney once again hit some big threes. She was a real important part of this win."

Columbia 62, Harvard 56

It was not the first time this year that the Crimson had collapsed against a team that was unable to score a field goal for the first eight minutes.

Against Albany back in January, Harvard led 20-1 ten minutes into the game, then found itself down 41-34 midway through the second half, before coming back to win.

Apparently the Crimson didn't learn much from that game.

"When we go up and annihilate someone early, we relax," Delaney-Smith said.

Shawnee Pickney was the first player to catch fire for the Lions, scoring nine points on a 21-8 run that wiped out a 9-0 Crimson lead.

Then in the second half, while Pickney struggled, shooting 0-of-5 from the floor, Patricia Kern and Catherine Tubridy picked up the slack.

With the Lions holding a 31-30 lead, Tubridy drained two treys from the top of the key, and then Kern hit a wide open three-pointer from the left corner. With 11:10 left, Columbia led 40-30.

And unlike the Albany game, this time there would be no successful comeback. The Harvard offense had been too anemic all day to have much of a chance.

In the opening minutes, the Crimson could easily have been up more than nine, but Harvard shot just 27 percent from the floor and frequently suffered from bad passing and turnovers.

The Crimson did come close to a near-impossible rally in the final 34 seconds. Down 58-50, Monti, who had hit just 1-of-8 shots on the day at that point, went down the floor in eight seconds and sunk a three-pointer over the head of her nearby defender to cut the lead to five.

After Kern made only one of her free throws, Monti tried to pull the exact same shot, but this time she was way off. But freshman guard Bree Kelley picked up the rebound, moved to the left corner, and hit a leaning, off-balance trey to cut the Columbia lead to 59-56 with 11 seconds remaining.

When Megan O'Neill hit one of two free throws to put the Lions up four, Monti drove the length the court, and tried a lay-in, but she was off. After getting her own rebound, she was leveled by Pickney down low, but there was no call. Columbia got the ball, and the Harvard last-ditch effort was finished.

Johnson and Ides both had off nights.

When Ides was on the court, she played well, scoring nine points and grabbing five rebounds. But she fouled out in only 12 minutes of playing time.

Had Johnson been the clutch offensive player she had been against Penn on Saturday night, Harvard likely would have rolled over Columbia.

But the freshman hit just 1-of-11 to open the game, with most of those 11 shots coming right under the basket. She did manage to show some flashes of brilliance in the end, sinking 3-of-4 shots in the final minutes to finish with eight points.

Despite her offensive struggles, Johnson had one of her best defensive games of the season. She was credited with two blocks and two steals, and racked up a career-high 12 rebounds.

For the second game in a row, Egelhoff and Monti showed none of their usual shooting ability, combining to hit just 3-of-17 on the day.

Sturdy, on the other hand, did everything she could to save the season for the Crimson. She led the team with 18 points, hitting all five of her shots in the second half, including two three-pointers. But Harvard simply could not get the ball to her enough all day, and now her senior year will end without an Ivy title.