Monti Can't Repeat History in Women's Hoops Split

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Forced to play two weekend road games going into finals period, the Harvard women's basketball team nearly pulled of an arduous sweep, but fell just short.

On the strength of a first-half defense that held its opposition to sub-20 percent shooting, the Crimson posted a comfortable 54-40 win at Yale on Friday.

In Saturday's game, freshman Nyema Mitchell put Brown up 59-57 with 6.4 seconds left by placidly draining a pair from the stripe, and the Bears (7-7, 2-0 Ivy) held on for the win. Harvard (4-11, 2-1) has not won at the Pizzitola Center since 1998.

"They played real well, they're [on] home court, and they're on break," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "An away game for us, and we're going to exams so the circumstances are a little different. I thought we played hard and had an opportunity to win it, but we didn't."

Brown stepped up in the absence of top scorer Barbara Maloni, who will be out at least a month with multiple stress fractures.

With the loss, Harvard falls to third in the league behind Brown and preseason favorite Penn (8-5, 2-0), who has now won six straight.

Brown 59, Harvard 57

In February of 1999, a freshman guard named Jenn Monti drove the length of the floor in 5.7 seconds and hit an off-balance three at the buzzer to propel Harvard over Brown.

Brown 59, Harvard 57

On Saturday, Brown Coach Jean Marie Burr refused to let it happen again.

Trailing 59-57 with 6.4 seconds left, the Crimson put the ball in Monti's hands, and Brown put two aggressive defenders in her face. It took the entire clock for Monti just to fight past half court, where she threw up a desperate shot that barely reached the free-throw line. The ending left Delaney-Smith regretful of her climatic decision.

"I'm going to rethink that one unfortunately," she said. "As good as [Jenn] is in those situations, I should have seen that coming. We should have put the ball in [junior guard Lisa Kowal's] hands. Teams are going to anticipate Jenn being the buzzer-beater."

The conclusion wasted a career-high-matching 15-point effort from junior forward Katie Gates and seven assists from Monti, without whom Harvard would never have been in the game to begin with.

When Harvard fell behind 23-15 with six minutes left in the first half, Gates hit a pair of three-pointers and a lay-up to pace a Harvard run that resulted in a 30-29 halftime lead. Senior forward Carrie Larkworthy hit the three-pointer from the corner that ignited the comeback.

In the second half, the Monti-to-Gates-underneath combination put five points on the board and gave Harvard its largest lead of the night at 43-36 with 14 minutes remaining. But then Gates's scoring touch turned cold, and she came up empty for the rest of the night.

Brown came back, shocking the Crimson by hitting a number of outside shots. The Bears shot 43 percent from three-point range and 46 percent overall--far above their respective averages of 30 percent and 37 percent for the season.

"Brown hadn't been that good of a shooting team," Delaney-Smith said. "[But tonight] Brown shot very well--better than they've shot up until this point."

The Bears' second-half lead peaked at 54-51. Crimson senior center Melissa Johnson hit a free throw--she was 5-of-7 from the line on the night--to cut the deficit to two.

With 2:15 left and Harvard trailing 54-52, freshman forward Hana Peljto came into the game, and summarily hit a three-pointer from a foot outside the arc in traffic to put the Crimson ahead.

It was the last lead Harvard would see, and Peljto's night took a turn for the worse. On a one-and-one for Brown with 1:18 left, Mitchell hit the front end to tie the game, but missed the back end. Peljto was fouled on the rebound, giving the Crimson a one-and-one of its own, but she missed the front end and the Bears controlled the rebound.

Brown took a 57-55 lead with 47 seconds left when junior center Rachel MacDonald--the only Bear in double figures with 18--drained a turnaround lay-in with the shot clock winding down.

Freshman Tricia Tubridy--who finished with 10 points on the night--came up with her biggest score of the game, maneuvering across the top of the key and laying the ball in over traffic to tie the game, 57-57, with 27 seconds left.

In its final possession, Harvard pressured Brown well at the perimeter, but then Mitchell found enough room to penetrate. She moved inside on Melissa Johnson and drew a foul, setting up the game's conclusion.

Harvard 54, Yale 40

In the first minute alone, Monti and Kowal each turned a steal into an easy lay-up to propel the Crimson to a 5-0 lead. The night would not get any easier for the Elis.

Harvard 54, Yale 40

Through the first eight minutes, Harvard stymied the Yale offense and built a 16-2 lead. By halftime, Harvard led 28-15, Yale was shooting 5-of-26 from the floor, and leading Bulldog scorer Maria Smear had just one point.

"That was the strong overwhelming situation--great team defense, help-the-helper--we took away the paint," Delaney-Smith said. "We held their top two scorers to single digits."

The only player who had success against the Harvard defense was freshman Bonnie Smith, who tallied five points on a 9-0 Yale run that cut Harvard's lead to 16-11 with eight minutes left in the first half. She would have a career and team-high 15 points, including the last five points of an Eli run that cut Harvard's lead to 35-30 with 10 minutes left.

But that would be the last time Yale would pull that close. The Crimson heated up from three-point range, as Monti, Peljto, and sophomore guard Bree Kelley drained three-pointers in rapid succession, while Smith added another for Yale in between, leaving the score at 44-33 with eight minutes left.

No longer the unexpected threat made strong by Harvard's keying on other players, Smith was held scoreless for the rest of the night, and the Crimson lead was never threatened again.

Monti led the Crimson with 15 points, just one short of the career high she set against Boston University on Jan. 2. Kelley had her best game in a long time, scoring 12 points, including three three-pointers to lead the team.

Once again against Yale, Harvard shot better from outside the arc (4-of-12) in the second half than inside (4-of-16). The Crimson also pulled that feat in a loss against Arkansas-Little Rock in December.

There was a remarkable variance in Harvard's scoring distribution on the weekend. Against Yale, the guards Monti and Kelley outscored the forwards Gates and Tubridy, 27-6. Against Brown, Gates and Tubridy outscored Monti and Kelley, 25-6.

Sophomore center Sarah Johnson played nine minutes in the second half against Yale. She had missed Harvard's previous two games due to heart palpitations.

"Sarah Johnson played great [against Yale]," Delaney-Smith said. "She was a monster last night. Her stats were decent, but she just did a nice job last night."

The Crimson now enters a 16-day layoff for exams. Harvard will play a warm-up game at SUNY-Albany before resuming its Ivy schedule at home against Cornell on Feb. 2.