W. Hoops Makes Devils Blue

The Eastern European connection proved sweet once again for the Harvard women’s basketball team last night. Led by Bosnian forward Hana Peljto’s 22 game-high points and Hungarian center Reka Cserny’s third straight double-double, the Crimson pulled off a decisive 66-53 victory at Central Connecticut State.

The 13-point victory was sweet revenge. for the Crimson (4-3). In last year’s contest, the Harvard team fell 70-67 in a game where they trailed by just one point late in the second half. The three-point loss continued the Crimson’s rough start to last season, which they would just as soon forget. Harvard began the year 1-10 before pulling together after the winter break.

“Last year’s loss was one of the worst of the season because we had so many breakdowns. We felt like we should have beaten them,” said Peljto. “It was definitely something we talked about as motivation in practice this week.”

Last night’s game was close through the first half and the Crimson actually trailed at the break after Blue Devil Elina Kalnina drained a three pointer with one second left to give Central Connecticut (0-6) a 32-29 lead going into the locker room.

“We came out in the first half without a lot of intensity,” Peljto said. “We knew we needed to pick it up.”

After the intermission, Harvard came out strong and tied the game at 34 on a Peljto lay-up. Then, on the strength of two Cserny baskets, Harvard went on an 11-0 run to push its lead to 51-37. The Crimson would never look back and went on to notch the 13-point victory.

“We gave hope to a team we should have put away early,” Peljto said. “We need to play a full 40 minutes.”

Harvard shot a torrid 49.1 percent from the floor, hitting on 26 of 53 attempts. Central Connecticut, on the other hand, managed only 38.5 percent on 52 shots. The Crimson also dominated the Blue Devils on the boards, outrebounding them 40-23.

Harvard, the preseason favorite to win the Ivy League title, has started the year strong with big victories over Wagner, Fairfield and Idaho State. The Crimson avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time this season with last night’s win. Harvard was coming off a loss to Kansas State at the Wildcat Classic last weekend.

The Crimson have received a huge boost this season from the play of Cserny, who was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Monday. Also earning honors was sophomore forward Tricia Tubridy, who received an honor roll mention.

Tubridy posted her first double-double of the season versus Idaho St., pulling in 19 rebounds—a tourney record—along with 16 points on her way to All-Tournament honors.

Central Connecticut has struggled this season to say the least. In its last game previous to last night’s showdown with the Crimson, the Blue Devils fell to UNLV by a score of 83-28.

Through their first five games, Central Connecticut had posted a 42.6 scoring average while giving up 77.6 points per game.

The Blue Devils were led by Kalnina, who had 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting from behind the arc. At the same time, Shara Teter put up a career-high seven assisits.

The Crimson are back in action next Tuesday at Lavietes Pavillion for a 7 p.m. showdown with the Rhode Island Rams. Then the Crimson take to the road for a cross town match-up with Northeastern on Dec. 15th before a clash with the Big East’s Syracuse Orangewomen in the Carrier Dome.