W. Basketball Snaps Seven-Game Losing Streak at BU

BOSTON--The Harvard women's basketball team concluded its opening string of non-conference games with a flourish on Tuesday evening by posting a 70-57 win at Boston University.

Although the Crimson's 1-10 start this year was its worst in 17 seasons, a season-best 51 percent shooting percentage against the Terriers (5-7) and resurgent performances from junior forward Katie Gates and junior guard Jenn Monti gave Harvard (2-10) reason for optimism going into its Ivy opener at Dartmouth tomorrow.

"I knew we had it in us," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "We've had the best week of practices of any team coming off of a five-to-six day break that I've ever coached. I hope it stays, because our problem has been consistency."

The Crimson dropped a pair of games in Arkansas the week before Christmas. In the trip opener against Arkansas-Little Rock (4-5), Harvard cut a 15-point deficit to two late in the second half, but its horrid 25.7 percent shooting proved to be too much to overcome in a 75-66 loss.

The next day, Harvard took on the University of Arkansas for the first time since the 1998 NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks (7-3)--a competitive team in the SEC, the nation's strongest conference--dealt the Crimson an 87-48 defeat and almost limited Harvard to fewer points than turnovers in the first half.

Harvard 70, Boston University 57

Harvard buried the Terriers with a 10-0 run to start the game--five points each from Gates and freshman forward Tricia Tubridy--and never looked back. By the midway point of the first half, the Crimson led 26-6. B.U. never came closer than 11 points for the rest of the night.

The Crimson's improvement on its woeful 35 percent shooting for the season was a tribute to its patience on offense and sound shot selection.

"The major thing that we did was move the ball," Delaney-Smith said. "The focus was give up the first or second shot and get a better shot. Before, we were shooting on average within five or six seconds. That's just no good especially when you're not hitting."

The Harvard players, wary of their poor shooting, practiced rigorously throughout the break.

"We knew we had the lowest shooting percentage out of any Harvard team in years, so we put a lot of focus on shooting in practices over the break, and it showed," freshman forward Hana Peljto said.

Peljto shot 8-for-10 from the floor for a game-high 20 points, despite playing only 23 minutes off the bench. She made the Terriers suffer whenever she was left open, whether it was down low or outside.

Tubridy's nine rebounds led Harvard's rebounding effort. The Crimson dominated the Terriers 42-21 on the boards. Tubridy also tallied 11 points and shot from outside with confidence.

The greatest improvement over the break was not seen among the Crimson freshmen, however. Harvard needed much more from its upperclassmen, who combined to shoot a ghastly 3-for-31 against Arkansas-Little Rock.

Monti and Gates in particular had performed below expectations, both shooting around 25 percent from the floor to start the year. At B.U., the pair stepped up and put together the joint effort that had been sorely missed all season.

"This is what we've been waiting for from both of them," Delaney-Smith said. "Jenn Monti looked like her old self."

Monti tallied a career-high 16 points, 12 of which came in the second half. She was back to hitting the spectacular shots that had marked her career before this season.

With six seconds left in the first half, Monti took the ball after a pair of Terrier free throws and brought the ball upcourt. When she reached the Crimson free throw line she let the ball loose off her fingertips.

Monti--whose penchant for hitting buzzer-beaters dates back to when she hit back-to-back game-winners in the final weekend of freshman year--hit nothing but net as the clock hit double zeros.

On one sequence in the second half, Monti dribbled along the baseline, turned her back on three taller defenders and drained a short jumper over all of them. She shot 6-for-12 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the line.

The only negative on the day for Monti was eight turnovers. Harvard as a team struggled with 28 turnovers, which statistically was an improvement over the 30 turnovers against Arkansas, but hardly what the Crimson was hoping for.

B.U. struggled to capitalize on the Harvard turnovers, making poor decisions in its transition game. Part of the credit goes to the Crimson defenders which on many occasions stood tall down low and forced a difficult shot or took a charge.

The Crimson defense held B.U. to just 28 percent shooting in the first half. Harvard accomplished the difficult task of double-pressuring the ball carrier and shutting down everything inside, forcing the Terriers to take difficult outside shots.

Harvard had 13 steals, with Gates nabbing a team-best four. Typically among the team's best defensive players, Gates scored 11 points, most of them in transition.

With the victory, the Crimson has the momentum it needed going into the Ivy season. Delaney-Smith believes the entire team deserves credit for the turnaround.

"It was all sixteen players, it wasn't just the kids in the game," Delaney-Smith said. "Our bench was outstanding. They were huge when we lost momentum, or when they'd get an eight point run or so. For a team that has 10 losses, for us to put together an effort like that I'm very proud of them."

Dartmouth (1-9), the defending Ivy champion, has not fared much better to start the season. Despite returning last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year Katherine Hanks, the Big Green has struggled in non-conference play, like every other Ivy team.

"The league is not doing well," Delaney-Smith said. "I expect that whoever wins will be seeing [No. 2] Tennessee or [No. 1] Connecticut. There is not a chance of anything else. But that's alright with me. We'll handle that when the time comes."

The game at Dartmouth will be tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Arkansas 87, Harvard 48

The last meeting between the Razorbacks and Crimson came at much rosier times, following the Crimson's famed upset of top seed Stanford in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. This Harvard team merely looked to avoid its seventh straight loss in front of a crowd of 2,274 against Arkansas on Dec. 21.

The Crimson fell behind 18-4 early, but managed to come back and cut the deficit to 22-18, thanks to a sequence of offensive boards by Tubridy, who led Harvard with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Arkansas called timeout to stop the bleeding. Razorback senior Lonniya Bragg--whose steals helped pace her team's first run--came back off the bench. She forced another trio of Harvard turnovers to ignite a 10-0 run that upped the score to 32-18.

The Razorbacks were led by a career-high 23 points from sophomore Dana Cherry. The Crimson defense did not expect Cherry's scoring prowess, but Arkansas's depth forced Harvard to key in on other players, permitting Cherry to have her big night.

Bragg had a career-high five steals to lead her team, which tallied 17 steals to just eight for Harvard. The Crimson had 21 turnovers in the first half--more than one per minute. Had Peljto not hit a running jumper in the final seconds, Harvard would have had more turnovers than points in the half.

"Arkansas was a great team, an SEC team, so that's the best there is," Peljto said. "We won't see a team like them for the rest of the [Ivy] season. They're very athletic and deep. We learned a lot from them."

Harvard controlled the ball slightly better in the second half, but still finished with 30 turnovers on the night.

"To force 30 turnovers from a team like this is really an accomplishment," Arkansas coach Gary Blair said.

Arkansas-Little Rock 75, Harvard 66

The Crimson beat the Trojans 28-11 on the offensive boards, but still could not find a way to win.

Harvard actually shot better from three-point range--30 percent--than from inside--just 23 percent.

The Trojans, in contrast, shot 52 percent overall. Harvard took 42 shots in the second half, exactly twice as many as UALR, but scored just two more points.

Eight minutes into the matchup, the Crimson was rolling with an 18-9 lead, but then a scoring draught began during which Harvard did not manage a field goal for 11 minutes.

The Arkansas lead peaked at 43-28 four minutes into the second half, then the Crimson comeback began.

"Our intensity picked up when we fell behind," Peljto said. "Everyone picked up their game."

Peljto led Harvard with a career-high 26 points off the bench, and a game-high 10 rebounds--eight offensive. She shot 10-for-23 from the floor and 4-for-6 behind the arc. Tubridy was right behind her with 12 points and six rebounds.

"Harvard came out ready to go, and their intensity level was way up," UALR Coach Tracy Stewart-Lange said. "We were rocking back on our heels and they were getting offensive rebounds right and left."

Freshman guard Jennifer Lee had nine points, third-best for Harvard. No Crimson veteran had more than four points, as the upperclassmen failed to shoot even 10 percent combined.

With 2:09 left, Harvard cut the deficit to 64-62, but could not get any closer. The Crimson could not hit enough shots in the final two minutes.

Harvard was forced to repeatedly foul Trojan top-scorer Muci Harris. She hit all eight of her free throws down the stretch to ice the game and leave the Crimson with its sixth straight loss.