SHOWTIME

Pity not the scheduling gods. Tonight, they get just what they always wanted.

Four months, 110 total days, and 26 games into the season, the Harvard (19-7, 11-2 Ivy) and Dartmouth (16-9, 12-1) women’s basketball teams battle inside Lavietes Pavilion tonight for Ivy League championship rights. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.

“This,” Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said, “is the way it should be.”

Facing the prospect of an all-the-marbles showcase, the traditional rivals neatly wrapped up their final season series.

Both systematically dispatched Princeton and defending Ivy champions Penn by double figures this weekend. Both entered the day in the midst of dominant late season runs. Both are led by eight-time championship-winning coaches—Delaney-Smith for Harvard and Chris Wielgus for Dartmouth—who boast supremely successful résumés.

And both follow the same mantra.

“They believe, like us, that they can and should win,” Delaney-Smith said.

As with any dream-perfect scenario, there’s a catch. In an act that raised many Crimson eyebrows, the Big Green cut down their own nets on Saturday night to celebrate a share of the Ivy title. They must beat Harvard to wrest control of that label outright.

The Crimson faces a do-or-die scenario, entering the day one game behind their rival and needing a win to share the title.

Should that happen, a play-in game would take place on a neutral site to determine who represents the Ivy League in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

For some, Dartmouth’s net-cutting was premature.

“They’ve already declared,” Harvard junior point guard Laura Robinson said. “That right there is motivation for us.”

And as always, the underdog label—which the Crimson gracefully carries, having fallen to the Big Green in overtime on January 8—brings with it special significance in March.

“Dartmouth has all the pressure on them,” Robinson said. “We have nothing to lose.”

The outlook for the season’s predetermined endgame wasn’t always so rosy.

After that early January loss to the Big Green, Harvard reached a critical mid-season crossroads.

The Crimson floundered into the reading period break in the midst of a 3-4 cold spell. Star center Reka Cserny had just emerged from a spate of inconsistency, but an improving offense still wasn’t enough to down opponents.

“We were connecting really well and stuff like that,” said Kate Mannering, the team’s third leading scorer at 8.8 points per game. “But if we didn’t do well on defense we’d lose the games and we didn’t know why.”

In 23 seasons, Delaney-Smith has made a career of unraveling inconsistencies. And so when she articulated a final solution, the team listened.

“All we did during exams was play full court games and scrimmage guys and stuff like that,” Mannering said. “But we made defense the focus during that three weeks of time.”

She continued, “Kathy was saying, ‘Defense is our focus, defense is our focus.’ We had to embrace that instead of trying to secretly in our head [think] ‘No, we love offense.’”

Since that game, Harvard has made a swift, aggressive defensive attack the centerpiece of a new team philosophy.

The results show. The Crimson followed the exams by steamrolling Ivy competition behind a hounding defense, winning 11 of 12 games through last weekend.

With Cserny using her lengthy wingspan to swat passes in the lane and guards Katie Murphy and Jessica Holsey swarming to errant passes and loose balls, Harvard shot to the top of the Ivies in steals per game (11.08) and turnover margin (+4.5).

“Going for steals,” said senior guard Katie Murphy, whose 2.31 steals per game is third best in the Ivies, “is a big difference. Reading passing lanes. I think we’re starting to reach our potential now.”

Delaney-Smith said she was pleased with the team’s effort.

“We’re better when we’re active and take chances and make steals,” she said. “And even if we miss it, I don’t care. It’s better than standing still.”

The team can’t afford revert to old ways against a balanced Dartmouth offense, which features three legitimate three-point threats—Jeannie Cullen, Ashley Taylor and Angie Soriaga—a “strong junior class,” according to Delaney-Smith, and a burgeoning star in sophomore center Elise Morrison.

Harvard counters with an offense that leads the Ivy League in scoring. In the absence of Hana Peljto ’04, Cserny has grabbed legitimate claim to the title of the Ivy League’s best player, lapping the field with 21.54 points per game.

Scoring isn’t the only irreplaceable contribution Cserny and fellow senior Murphy bring to the team, Delaney-Smith said.

“Even when we’re up,” she said, “or even when they’re down and shots aren’t falling, they’re not going to let us lose. They’re going to do whatever it takes to get the win. If our shots aren’t falling, so be it.”

The team game thrives on confidence and senior leadership. Not to mention the entrancing expectation of nights like tonight.

“Most of the team can’t even concentrate on schoolwork right now,” Robinson said. “We just want to play.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.