W. Hoops Begins March to Another Ivy League Championship

After 11 non-conference games, the Ivy League season officially begins for the Harvard women’s basketball team tomorrow against Dartmouth at Lavietes Pavilion. Recently, the Crimson (6-5) has hit paydirt in league competition—Harvard has won back-to-back Ivy League championships.

But the squad will face a new challenge tomorrow against a Big Green team filled with new-—and talented—star players.

In fact, Dartmouth’s frontcourt freshmen have recently built a monopoly on Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors.

Of the last five awards dispensed, Big Green forward Ashley Taylor has nabbed one and 6’3 center Elise Morrison has taken home the other four. You could say Taylor is Park Place and Morrison is Boardwalk.

Morrison has been able to make a major impact for Dartmouth (5-6) in her first year because her versatility allows her to be an offensive threat from anywhere on the court.

“[Morrison] has a nice balance,” Dartmouth coach Chris Wielgus said. “She has a strong inside game, but also the good touch from the outside. It’s a balanced attack.”

Wielgus’s praise of Morrison as a lethal threat is merited; her numbers over the season—17.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and a league-leading 3.5 blocks per game—lead the team and are among the league’s best.

After graduating center Katherine Hanks last year, who Wielgus called one of the team’s all-time greats, the Big Green heavily recruited Morrison, arguably the best freshman in the Ivy League this season.

But Wielgus denied that losing twice to Harvard last year meant that Dartmouth had to recruit an immediate-impact player to start at forward and center.

“We needed a center,” Wielgus said. “And they had to fit the bill here. Now our freshmen and sophomore classes are our impact players.”

In one of the biggest games to date, Morrison and her fellow classmates proved their value to the team when the Big Green defeated the Big 12’s Kansas 86-78 in overtime during the Blue Sky Restaurant Classic on Dec. 29.

Morrison carried the team that night with 22 points, seven blocks and eight rebounds in the upset victory. She followed up with 26 points and seven boards against UNC-Wilmington in the championship game.

Harvard, on the other hand, has come to its 6-5 record much as it did last year—on the play of its veteran frontcourt. With superstar veterans such as co-captain Hana Peljto and junior Reka Cserny, no freshman or sophomore has posted statistics comparable to Morrison so far. While Peljto has earned two Ivy League Player of the Week honors, the freshmen and sophomore classes have been almost entirely role players for the Crimson.

But in this specific responsibility, the new recruits have blended in smoothly with last year’s 22-win team.

“It is great for our chemistry to have most of the team back knowing the system and already being used to each other’s playing style,” Peljto said. “Our freshmen have fit into the system very well and have been great additions to the team.”

Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith is not concerned with the limited contributions from her underclassmen, chalking up their lack of playing time to a stacked Crimson roster.

“Where are you going to put people?” Delaney-Smith said. “Honestly, if there is a player at Yale or a player at Dartmouth that is putting up big numbers, it’s because they don’t have anybody else. We are very, very happy, and over the course of four years, I would put [freshmen] Kyle Dalton and Christiana Lackner up against anybody’s numbers. We are very happy with our recruiting this year.”

Harvard will be looking for its 27th straight Ivy League victory as it opens conference play and is the odds-on favorite to win a third straight league title. But it is the next four years that loom as larger question marks.

Will Harvard’s recruits prove able to stand up to the competition?

Only time will tell. For now, Delaney-Smith is willing to bet on the potential she has seen in practice and exhibitions.

But the future can wait. Harvard still has a championship to win this year, and the battle begins tomorrow. The game will be shown live on CSTV at 6:05 p.m.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.