A Fresh Look For Women's Basketball Backcourt

When Harvard women’s basketball takes the court at Lavietes Pavilion on Nov. 15, it will be the first time in four years that the team will be without No. 22. Christine Clark ’14, who ended her senior season in fourth place on Harvard’s all-time scoring list, hung up her crimson and white jersey for the final time last spring, and now dons the blue and yellow of Lavezzini Parma in Italy’s Serie A1.

Losing Clark, a three-time All-Ivy League first team selection who averaged 16.5 points and 5.4 rebounds in conference play last year, leaves an obvious hole in the Crimson backcourt. With the loss of defensive specialist and fellow guard Jasmine Evans ’14 to graduation as well, the current guards on the Harvard roster will need to step into bigger roles this year.

“I think this is a very different team than last year,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We graduated a very strong senior class, starting with Christine Clark. Jasmine Evans and Missy Mullins were also dominant in their defensive ability, so for us, we had to figure out how to fill those shoes.”

Leading this charge will be senior point guard Ali Curtis, who started alongside Clark last season, averaging 5.3 points and 2.4 assists per game over 24 minutes of action.

Curtis, who played the role of a game-managing point guard this past year, will likely be first in line to see an increased role in the backcourt as the only returning starting guard.

“Obviously, losing Christine Clark and Jasmine Evans, they were a major part of the backcourt both offensively and defensively [last year],” Curtis said. “It is my job as a senior and as a point guard to step up and assume that role. It is my responsibility to maintain the tempo of the game and to maintain the intensity.”

While the pressure may be on Curtis to lead the offense this campaign, fellow returning guard, junior Kit Metoyer, provided she remains healthy, will also likely receive more minutes this year along with an increased role in the offense.

Metoyer averaged 3.9 points per game last year in just 13.2 minutes a game and provided instant offense off the bench with her deep range from behind the arc, sometimes attempting treys from 30 feet out.
Though Metoyer and Curtis are both considered point guards, expect them to share the court a fair bit in some versatile double point guard lineups that could see either player bringing up the rock or playing off the ball.

“I think Kit is both a great point guard and a great shooter,” Curtis said. “Kit and I are the only point guards at this point. As an offense, there are times that Kit and I will play together. It is a totally different system this year, so it is going to be interesting to see how it all works out.”

The loss of Clark coupled with the positional interchangeability of Curtis and Metoyer are not the only driving forces behind a revamped and more versatile offense for the Delaney-Smith-led Crimson, however.

Both point guards, two of the few guards left on the roster that have played heavy minutes for the Crimson previously, were sidelined with injuries for much of the summer and preseason.

While both are expected to be back to full strength by the start of the season, the injuries forced Delaney-Smith to experiment with new lineups, and gave extended minutes to other guards such as Shilpa Tummala, a junior who has been benched on-and-off during her first two years at Harvard with injuries herself.

“We have a lot of flexibility [in our backcourt],” Delaney-Smith said. “We started preseason with no point guard, so we have a lot of flexibility in our system. This is probably the deepest team I have had in a long time, and there are a lot of starting spots that are open right now.”

With possible lineups featuring two point guards and no point guards, the Crimson is counting on depth and versatility on the wing to make up for the offensive firepower and defensive steadiness that the Crimson lost with Clark and Evan’s graduation last spring.

With the likes of sophomores Maggie Hartman and Destiny Nunley, and the aforementioned Tummala, all returners who missed significant time last season due to injury, bolstering the wing alongside steady point guard play from Curtis and Metoyer, depth is certainly a strength of this year’s team.

“This team worked really hard in the preseason, as hard if not harder than any team I can remember,” Delaney-Smith said. “I am very pleased with [what I have seen out of] Shilpa, Destiny, and Maggie [this year].”

—Staff writer M. Ty Aderhold can be reached at michael.aderhold@thecrimson.com.