Women's Basketball Looks to Upstage Ivy Rivals on Road

The Harvard women’s basketball team has been road-tested this year, winning seven of its 11 games away from Lavietes Pavilion on the season.

But the squad will hit the road for possibly the most crucial weekend of the season with a chip on its shoulder, trying to accomplish a goal it hasn’t been able to reach in four years.

The Crimson (12-4, 2-0 Ivy) will look to end a four-game losing streak at Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium on Friday in game one of the Killer P road trip.

This annual road swing to Princeton  (10-5, 1-0) and Philadelphia has been particularly difficult for Harvard as of late.

The Crimson came out of last year’s Mid-Atlantic trip with two losses, and squeaked out a four-point win against the Quakers (10-5, 0-1) the year before to salvage a weekend split.

“[Winning on the Tigers’ home court] would be a big milestone for my senior year,” co-captain guard Christine Clark said. “We haven’t been able to win since I’ve been here.”

Harvard hopes to have more success this year at Princeton, as it does not have to face up against graduated guard Niveen Rasheed.

The 6’0” star was unanimously voted the Ivy League Player of the Year in her junior and senior season with the Tigers.

She proved a tough matchup for the Crimson last year, recording a double-double in both contests, including 17 points and 10 rebounds in a 67-51 win at Princeton.

“Niveen was a great player,” Delaney-Smith said. “I thought she was a star who made her teammates better. She was a great leader.”

Even with the loss of Rasheed to graduation, the Tigers still pose a threat to win the Ivy League for the fifth straight year. Junior guard and Boston-area native Blake Dietrick leads the Princeton offense with 15.4 points per contest.

Senior Kristen Helmstetter, who contributed nine points and eight rebounds in last year’s win at home against Harvard, leads the Tigers in assists with 3.6 per game.

“Princeton has worked really hard to fill her shoes and fill in the gaps,” Delaney-Smith said. “I’d be interested to see who’s going to fill those shoes when we play them.”

The Crimson has its own offensive firepower, which it will hope to use to emerge victorious at Princeton for the first time since Jan. 31, 2009.

Clark has averaged 16.4 points per contest on the year, including a team-high 17 in the squad’s last game against Dartmouth. Junior forward Temi Fagbenle also adds an inside presence to the attack, averaging 13.6 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per matchup.

Harvard’s tough weekend will continue when the team makes the hour-long drive to Philadelphia.

Although the Crimson had dominated the matchup with Penn in recent years, the tide began to turn last season.

After nine winless years against Harvard, Penn was able to pull off a 77-72 win at The Palestra en route to a third-place finish in the Ivy League last season.

“Penn is a blue collar, well-coached, hardworking team,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think Penn was instrumental in causing us to not win the title [last year].”

The Crimson will have to keep an eye on Quaker guard Keiera Ray in order to prevail. After stepping into the starting point guard role as a freshman, Ray dropped a career-high 31 points in the team’s matchup in Philadelphia last year.

Her success came largely at the free-throw line, hitting 14-of-20 attempts in addition to her seven field goals.

Ray had to miss a significant portion of this season due to an injury, but she is now healthy and poses a threat to Harvard.

The Quakers also boast a strong scorer in their backcourt. Senior guard Alyssa Baron averages 13.1 points per game, and is an integral component of the Penn offense.

With two wins, the Crimson would stay atop of the Ivy League standings in the early-season jostling for the Ancient Eight crown.

With Princeton looming as a perennial threat for the title, this weekend could prove crucial in determining who sits atop the Ivy League throne come the end of the season.

“We have to have, at the very worst, a split,” Delaney-Smith said. “We couldn’t walk away from this weekend losing both and feel good…. With a split we can survive, but I think we’re capable of winning both.”

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.