Women Cagers Bop Big Green

No Harvard basketball team has ever won an Ivy League title.

But that history of futility may be on the verge of falling this year--and it's not Pete Roby's men who will do the deed.

Instead, it is the Crimson women--long the doormat of the league, having finished no better than sixth in the past four seasons--who are threatening to bring an Ivy crown home to Cambridge.

The cagers, who beat defending co-champion Brown on the road earlier this season, look another huge step down the road to a title Saturday night by knocking off Dartmouth, 66-63, before 275 noisy fans at Briggs Athletic Center.

The win moved the Crimson into a first place tie with the Big Green in the Ivy standings and left the cagers 2-1 in the Ivies (8-4 overall).

Harvard's victory--its fourth in the last five outings--got the squad back on track after a two-point derailment at the hands of Maine University over the holiday break.

Anna Collins (17 points) and Nancy Cibotti (16) led the Crimson scoring attack, but it was a complete team effort--the hallmark of the squad's success this season--which enabled it to come back from an eight-point, second-half defecit.

Harvard has not won nine games in a single campaign since the 1979-80 season, when the Crimson posted an 11-12 mark.

And the cagers, with eight victories and counting, still have half of their schedule remaining this year.

"Right now, we are playing the best we've ever played," Co-Captain Anne Kelly said, who is in her third season with the team. "Everyone really trusts each other and that is very important."

"There is no team in the Ivies that we feel we can't beat right now," Collins said. "We just have to keep playing our game."

And play their game is exactly what the cagers did Saturday evening against the Big Green.

Afterall, this was a Dartmouth team that the cagers had only defeated once in nine previous meetings, dating back to 1979.

This was a Dartmouth team that was tabbed by Ivy coaches as the pre-season favorite to capture the league title and that had already triumphed over defending co-champion Brown.

This was a Dartmouth team that boasts two of last year's top four Ivy scoring leaders as well as two of the last three Ivy Rookie of the Year award recipients.

And the Big Green lived up to its name, coming into the contest with three six-ft. forwards averaging better than 10 points per game.

And the Triple Towers did their thing against the Crimson, combining for 39 points and leading Dartmouth to an eye-popping 48-22 rebounding advantage.

But Harvard--whose last five contests have been decided by a total of 12 points--made up for its lack of size with quickness and good clutch shooting.

"Size was such a big factor in this game, but we just stayed right with them," said junior Co-Captain Trisha Brown (eight points, four assists, three steals). "We want Yale [which dealt the Crimson its only league loss earlier in the season and which will come to Cambridge for a re-match later this month]."

"I am very very proud of the way we played," Coach Kathy Delaney Smith said. "Our most productive offensive player was not having the best of nights, but everyone contributed in one way or another."

That player--sophomore forward Sharon Hayes--is leading the team with a 10.6 points per game average but suffered through a dismal 1-for-11 from the floor Saturday night.

"We can't play much better on either end of the court than we did against Dartmouth," Delaney Smith said. "We're still young and we were annihilated on the boards, but if you put this victory together with our win over Brown earlier in the season, I really feel that we are legitimate contenders now."

Harvard, which is now 6-1 in games decided by five points or less, led for most of the first half until Jayne Daigle, a first team All-Ivy each of the past three seasons, hit consecutive jumpers to put Dartmouth ahead with just over a minute left.

Cibotti, who pulled down eight rebounds and dished out three assists to go along with her 16 points, hit a turnaround jump shot with five seconds left to pull the Crimson to within two at the half.

The first 12 minutes of the second half were all Dartmouth, as freshman Liz Walter pumped in 12 of her game-high 25 points during that stretch to put her team on top 47-39.

But then Harvard put the clamps on the Dartmouth offense, stringing together nine unanswered points to grab a one-point lead, 48-47.

A pair of eight-footers by Cibotti and a free throw by sophomore point guard Barbarann Keffer brought the Crimson to within a point, 47-46, and a Hanya Bluestone 12-footer from the top of the key with just over seven minutes left put Harvard on top.

Following a Dartmouth timeout, the teams traded baskets before Keffer hit a 14-footer and sank two free throws on consecutive trips down the floor to give Harvard the lead for good.

A Collins jumper with 37 seconds remaining gave the Crimson its biggest lead, 64-59, but two straight baskets brought the Big Green back to within one.

With only seven seconds left, though, Dartmouth was forced to foul, and it chose the wrong Harvard player to put at the charity stripe.

Enter freshman Sarah Duncan (12 points, five blocks, three assists, and two steals), who leads the Crimson in free throw shooting at 87 percent.

Duncan, who threw a 19-minute shutout against Maine, calmly sank both to put the game away, 66-63.

THE NOTEBOOK: The five blocks give Duncan 25 for the season--five more than Wendy Joseph's team-leading total of last year...Beth Chandler was outstanding in the Maine game, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in 22 minutes, as she continues to battle back from a preseason knee problem...The cagers, who are averaging 23 turnovers per game, committed only 10 in the Dartmouth game...Harvard is now 4-1 at home, 4-3 on the road...The Crimson is 6-0 in games in which it has led at the half and 8-1 in games in which its bench has outscored the opponents' bench...Keffer has led the team in assists in eight of the 12 games...Harvard opponents have shot 50 percent or better from the field five times this season and Harvard only once.CrimsonWan Joon KimNANCY CIBOTTI, seen here in earlier action