Don't Fear De Remer: Another Hit from the Cellar

For the second year in a row, the Harvard women's basketball team has lost to the cellar team in the Ivies just past the halfway point of the season while in the midst of a title race. Last time it was in Providence against 0-9 Brown, this year it was at Lavietes against 1-8 Yale.

And unlike last year, when Penn and Dartmouth were falling to second-tier Ivy teams with the same frequency as Harvard (9-13, 6-3 Ivy), the first-place Quakers (17-5, 9-0) have been finding a way to win every week.

These Harvard losses to last-place teams just happen too often.

"Yale's a team that's desperate for a win, so they walk on the floor, they have no pressure, nothing to lose," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith following the loss. "We feel we're in the race for the title. That added pressure may have shown up in tonight's game."

The same thing happened to Harvard when it lost to Columbia at Lavietes towards the end of last season. Columbia's victory was such a crowning achievement to that program that a shot of the post-game scoreboard--HARVARD 56, VISITOR 62--appeared in its media guide.

These bottom-of-the-barrel teams don't have to worry about winning all their games. They can take a night off, lose badly, then play their hearts out the next day.

For the record, Yale was destroyed 82-63 by Dartmouth on Friday night.

Helene Schutrumpf, who burned Harvard for 20 points on Saturday to lead the Elis, played just 16 minutes of the Dartmouth game. Against Harvard she was rested enough to play 30.

"They played really well. We knew it going in, [Yale Coach Amy Backus] changes her starting lineup," Delaney-Smith said. "She changes at game-time There's no one player, there's not a go-to on that team. They make the extra pass and go to the open player, and they did that very well against us last night."

Harvard lost to Yale by repeatedly giving up easy offensive rebounds and leaving players wide open down low--especially in the overtime. In the opening minutes of the second half in which Yale took control, Eli center Meg Simpson, a mere six feet tall, scored four easy points off offensive rebounds.

"We looked tired," Delaney-Smith said. " They were making the extra pass. And we were rotating and standing instead of rotating and playing the extra pass. I don't think we did a good job on the boards. I think offensive rebounds killed us."

Against Brown, Harvard played its best all-around game of the season. The Crimson shot 45.5 percent--very high for the team--and held the Bears to 30.6 percent from the floor. Center Rachel MacDonald, who torched Harvard for 18 points in its Jan. 13 loss to Brown, was limited to four on Friday night.

But the Crimson had nothing left for Saturday night. All those achievements against Brown are of little consolation, knowing that the team stands three games behind Penn in the Ivy race with five games left to play.

Penn did start 6-0 last season before struggling to a 9-5 finish. However, the Quakers have given zero indication of a repeat collapse.

To get a share of the Ivy title, Harvard would have to win out and hope the Quakers lose twice in their remaining Ivy games against Princeton, Brown, Yale, and Dartmouth. That's asking a lot.

The fact is, given that the Ivy League is one of the few conferences with no tournament, Penn is just about the surest bet to win its conference's automatic berth to the NCAA tournament outside of Louisiana Tech, who has won 45 straight in the Sun Belt.

And just when things couldn't get any worse for Harvard, Penn will be coming to Lavietes on Saturday with every expectation of clinching the Ivy title.

And not only that, Quaker senior center Diana Caramanico is now 29 points away from breaking the all-time Ivy scoring record of Allison Feaster '98. That means in all likelihood, Caramanico will break the record Saturday night at Lavietes.

So, in other words, it could be the climactic day in the history of the Penn women's basketball, full of Quaker celebrations and bouquets of flowers for Caramanico.

Harvard endured the same kind of thing at Dartmouth last year, when the Big Green culminated an Ivy championship season by pummeling the Crimson. The game was stopped every five minutes or so to give a bouquet of flowers to Courtney Banghart for some newly broken record. These games just aren't that much fun for the other team.

Harvard will get to celebrate like that again sometime soon--did you see that Hana Peljto had 46 points this weekend? But barring a miracle, it won't be this season.