Tigers Roll, Quakers Struggle Early

At the outset of the season, the Harvard women’s basketball team expected tomorrow’s game against Penn to be one of its toughest of the year. But tonight’s game against Princeton at 7 p.m. may pose the greater challenge.

Thus far the defending Ivy champion Quakers, who earned just as many first-place votes as Harvard in the Ivy preseason media poll, have looked like a better pick for the Ivy cellar than the Ivy throne.

The Quakers (3-8, 0-1) have lost eight of their last nine, including a 66-56 loss to Princeton—a team that went 2-25 last season—at the Palestra on Friday.

Harvard (9-4, 1-0) has won six of its last seven, highlighted by an 88-77 victory over top rival Dartmouth on Saturday. The games this weekend do not look nearly as daunting.

“We’re just hoping to get two wins because it’s right before a big, long break. It will help our momentum if we can play well in these two games,” said sophomore forward Hana Peljto, who stands at first in the Ivies and ninth in the nation in scoring at 21.9 points per game.

The Tigers (7-6, 1-0) may be much improved from last season, but they have been inconsistent. After beating Penn last Friday, they were blown out 88-64 by 3-10 Rider on Tuesday.

The Crimson has beaten Princeton on four straight occasions since the Tigers ended Harvard’s run of three straight Ivy titles in 1999.

Harvard will look to overwhelm Princeton with its height. The Tigers have no one who can measure up to the 6’2 Peljto or 6’3 freshman center Reka Cserny, both of whom have notched 30-point games this month.

They will also have to box out 6’0 forward Tricia Tubridy, who is second in the Ivies in rebounding. Team-wise, Harvard is second in the Ivies in rebounding margin, while Princeton is last.

If Harvard has a weakness, it has been its ability to defend against the three-point shot. The Crimson is allowing opponents to score from behind the arc at a league-worst 36.1 percentage, a number that has been inflated a bit by the team’s reliance on the zone this year. Harvard nearly allowed Dartmouth to get back into the second half of Saturday’s game when the Big Green’s Keri Downs lit up the Crimson for 15 points from outside.

“You won’t beat certain teams if one kid has five threes in the second half,” said senior guard Jenn Monti.

Princeton has four of the league’s top 10 three-point shooters in shots made, and two of the top four in percentage. The Tigers rely primarily on their guards for scoring, led by junior Allison Cahill, who is fourth in the Ivies in scoring at 16.4 ppg.

Penn, in contrast, brings the league’s worst three-point offense to match up with Harvard’s league-worst three-point defense. The Quakers have shot just 24.7 percent from behind the arc.

Against Princeton, Penn shot poorly everywhere, making just 29.0 percent from the floor. Sophomore Jewel Clark, the league’s leading rebounder and sixth-leading scorer, shot just 1-of-9 and fouled out after 17 minutes of playing time.

The Quakers have already eclipsed their total of league and overall losses from last year’s 22-5, 14-0 Ivy season. Given that Penn lost last season’s two leading scorers, including the league’s all-time leading scorer, Diana Caramanico, the Quakers weren’t expected to be as good as last year’s team, but they weren’t expected to be this bad either.

Nevertheless, Penn has barely scratched the surface of its Ivy schedule. There is still plenty of time for the season to turn around, and games against Dartmouth and the Crimson this weekend provide a welcome opportunity.

The Quakers cannot be taken lightly, especially since they have beaten Harvard in their last five meetings.

“Penn has the pride of winning it last year, so they’ll be hungry,” said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith earlier this season. “Although their talent level isn’t the same, they have enough talent there that if someone could step up, they’ll be the team to beat.”

A live broadcast of tomorrow night’s Harvard-Penn game at 7 p.m. will be available online through www.pennathletics.com. The Harvard-Princeton game was broadcast over the Internet last year, but there has been no information as of yet regarding tonight’s game.