Against Providence, Little Things Go Awry

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

While rebounding has been the albatross for the 2007 Harvard women’s basketball team, it turned in an admirable effort on the boards in a 78-64 loss to Providence last night at Lavietes Pavilion. But what suffered for the Crimson last night were the little things—free-throw shooting, layups, and getting hands in the faces of shooters.

“It’s hard, and today was a real battle,” junior guard Niki Finelli said. “It’s finishing our little shots that counted today. We need to take pride in those individually in finishing, and that’s what it came down to.”



LIGHTS OUT



Providence was supposed to be good—but not this good.

“We went into the zone because we knew they were a very athletic team,” senior co-captain Jessica Knox said. “We knew they had a couple good shooters, but we weren’t expecting them to hit as well as they did tonight.”

Heading into the locker room, the Friars shot nearly 45 percent from the field and made half its shots from three-point range. That was the Crimson’s first clue that its two-three zone defense wasn’t going to work on the night.

“They started getting real comfortable in our zone and hitting threes,” Delaney-Smith said. “They were in a zone offensively.”

Harvard got out of its zone after halftime and went to a man-to-man defense, hoping to close out more effectively on the Friars’ shooters. It didn’t work.

Providence scored on its first five possessions of the second frame and shot a head-turning 57 percent from the field in that half, with the Friar forwards reaching the basket at will against the Crimson’s less athletic front line.

Brittany Dorsey led the Providence shootout with 22 points on 6-10 shooting from beyond the arc.



THE BIG EASY



Harvard had an above-average jump-shooting night, receiving unexpected contributions from its reserves. Knox came off the bench to lead the team with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, including 2-of-2 from beyond the arc. Starter Finelli also made three of her five shots from long range.

It was the easy ones, the close ones, which gave the Crimson trouble and left Delaney-Smith scratching her head.

“I think we’re turning it into a head problem, and that’s ridiculous,” Delaney-Smith said. “The irony is that they’re hitting them in practice. But they need to get their butts down here and shoot some more.”

To make matters worse, Harvard turned in an embarrassing free-throw shooting performance

during the first half, making just 2 of 8 from the line. Entering last night’s game, the Crimson was shooting 67 percent from the charity stripe as a team—not an eye-popping statistic, but nothing approaching its performance against the Friars.

“There were a lot of points where we could have stepped up, took our time and put in easy baskets, made our free throws,” Knox said. “Those are demons we’re struggling against right now. That’s where we need to improve.”





FORWARD THINKING



Starting forward Katie Rollins went into the locker room at halftime with a frustrating statistics line: zero points, two rebounds, and, most importantly, two fouls.

She picked up her third foul within the first 30 seconds of the second frame and, subsequently, took a seat on Harvard’s bench that she wouldn’t leave for over 12 minutes of game time.

Against Providence’s athletic front line, the Crimson missed Rollins’ physical defense down low. Friar forwards moved through the lane unchallenged, and, unlike their Harvard counterparts, finished their shots on the block and at the line.

But the Crimson refused to single out any one aspect of the second-half collapse.

“I didn’t feel like we were in a good flow at any point, and it was a fight all the way in the second half,” Finelli said. “I think each player did great things while they were on the floor, but it was putting it together for the full 20 minutes that gave us trouble.”

“I don’t have a forward with a complete game,” Delaney-Smith said. “So I’ll have to keep subbing, try to get defense here, scoring here, rebounding here.”

Delaney-Smith’s juggling act led to some pleasant surprises on the block for Harvard. Senior Adrian Budischak, who has missed much of her collegiate career with injuries, chipped in seven rebounds, including five on the offensive glass.

“Budischak is our most consistent, but she wasn’t hitting her shots tonight,” Delaney-Smith said. “When we had to go to four guards and a forward, she did a great job.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.