W. Hoops Succumbs To Pressure By BC

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—The Harvard women’s basketball team suffered its third drubbing from a ranked opponent this season with a 88-49 loss to crosstown rival Boston College yesterday afternoon.

The Crimson (5-3) was beaten up on both ends of the court, as No. 21 BC (6-1) forced 29 turnovers and had four of its starting five finish in double figures. The fifth, Brianna Stepherson, finished with eight.

“We couldn’t have played worse, which is a shame because it’s a crosstown rival,” said Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith.. “We needed to play well, and we didn’t.”

The Crimson did keep the game close early in the match, tying the contest 7-7 with 17:13 remaining in the first half. But then the Eagles went on a 9-0 run and built up a lead Harvard could never overcome.

“I thought BC played great, but what happened to us we did to ourselves,” Delaney-Smith said.

The only bright spot for the Crimson was again junior forward Hana Peljto, who had nine rebounds and 21 points.

But even Peljto, who played all but the final four minutes of the game, was not immune to mistakes, committing four turnovers.

“Our post did a great job of defending her [Peljto], and the guards also helped out really well,” said BC guard Amber Jacobs. “She’s a great player, and we had a good team effort of shutting her down."

Despite switching between man-to-man and different zone defenses, Harvard was unable to produce similar defensive success, allowing Jacobs (19 points) and several other BC players to light up the scoreboard throughout the afternoon. Other leading Eagle scorers were forward Jessalyn Deveny (22 points) and center Becky Gottstein (17 points).

“We tried concentrating on their shooters at first, but then they started to dish,” said sophomore center Reka Cserny. “We tried to disturb them in the second half by switching defenses often.”

Cserny was one of several Harvard players who was frustrated by the BC defense yesterday. She scored just six points, as her slow start to the season continued.

After averaging 16 points per game as a freshman, she has been hobbled by an ankle injury this season. She entered yesterday averaging 10.9 ppg.

Cserny matched sophomore guard Rochelle Bell as the second leading Crimson scorer on the day. The low output from the pair only added to the Crimson’s reliance on Peljto, a problem for a team that normally has multiple threats.

“I think we have some balance [on offense], we just didn’t show it today.” Delaney-Smith said. “I think that’s our strength actually, that we are balanced, and we need to get back to that.”

The coach also attributed Harvard’s poor play to the team’s relative youth.

“We didn’t play like veterans, we played like a young team,” Delaney-Smith said. “We just weren’t coming together as a team.”

Harvard’s problems in yesterday’s contest were similar to those it had suffered in earlier season blowouts to ranked opponents.

The Crimson has already lost to No. 9 Vanderbilt 84-44 and No. 12 Minnesota 92-68. In each of those matches, the Crimson gave up many turnovers (24 avg.) and had low field-goal percentages (36.5 % avg.).

But though the result was lopsided in each of those two losses, Delaney-Smith said she thought Harvard had improved against Minnesota and she looked forward to the BC game as another chance for the team to prove itself.

But the Crimson was unable to gain any respect, playing what Delaney-Smith called its worst game of the season, and left Conte Forum with a bitter taste in its mouth.

Still, Harvard has time to prove itself before it heads home for the holidays.

There are two more games before winter break. The Crimson will first play Wagner (3-3), who fell to Harvard 77-54 last year, Thursday at 7 p.m.

Following the contest against the Seahawks, the Crimson will face Rutgers (5-3) on Dec. 21 in the first-ever meeting between the two opponents.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.

BOSTON COLLEGE 88, W. HOOPS 49

at Chestnut Hill, Mass.

HARVARD (4-3)

Tubridy 2-3 0-0 5, Peljto 7-14 7-7 21, Cserny 2-11 2-2 6, Bell 2-4 0-0 6, Dunham 0-1 2-2 2, Moore 1-3 0-0 2, Robinson 0-3 2-4 2, Ides 1-1 0-2 2, Holsey 1-3 1-2 3, Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Franklin 0-1 0-0 0, McCaffery 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-45 14-19 49.

BOSTON COLLEGE (6-1)

Deveny 10-14 2-2 22, Mackie 3-5 4-4 10, Gottstein 6-9 5-6 17, Stepherson 4-9 0-1 8, Jacobs 7-14 2-2 19, Queenan 0-2 0-0 0, Smith 1-1 0-0 2, Droesch 1-4 0-0 2, Parham 0-0 2-2 2, Warren 1-2 0-0 2, Macchia 1-3 2-3 4. Totals 34-63 17-20 88.

Halftime—Boston College 42, Harvard 28. Three-point goals—Harvard 3-12 (Bell 2-3, Tubridy 1-2, Peljto 0-1, Dunham 0-1, Holsey 0-1, Franklin 0-1, Cserny 0-3), Boston College 3-11 (Jacobs 3-7, Deveny 0-2, Droesch 0-2). Fouled out—None. Rebounds—Harvard 27 (Peljto 9), Boston College 37 (Gottstein 6). Assists—Harvard 7 (Peljto, Moore 2), Boston College 19 (Stepherson 10). Total fouls—Harvard 22, Boston College 16. A—2,108.