Women's Basketball Aims to Extend Winning Streak to Five Versus UNH

The Harvard women's basketball team is on a roll.

Coming off a 22-point victory over URI, the Crimson sets it sights on its fifth stright win against the New Hampshire Wildcats this Saturday.

"We knew we were capable of [having a 6-1 record] at this point," said senior guard Sarah Brandt. "We were hoping we'd be undfeated. We had some high expectations at the beginning of the season. It's our goal to take each game very seriously going into the break."

Co-captain Allison Feaster has been immense in each of the last three Harvard victories, averaging just over 33 points per game. The Crimson has also received excellent play from co-captain Megan Basil and junior center Rose Janowski, both of whom have begun to find offensive consistency.

"Charlie's capable of scoring as much as she wants to score," said senior forward Karun Grossman. "We feed off of that. It's a wonderful to have that consistency."

Traditionally one of Harvard's more difficult opponents. UNH nevertheless plays the role of the underdog this weekend.

The Wildcats uni-dimensional offense relies entirely on guard Sheila Danker, who the Crimson shut down last season.

In order to defeat the Crimson, the Wildcats will need to solve Harvard's stifling defense, which forced an astounding 30 URI turnovers on Wednesday. The Wildcats will also have to contain Feaster, an unenviable task which might force UNH into unfamiliar defensive sets such as a box-and-one zone.

More likely, though, UNH will follow the strategies of most other teams, either packing in a tight 2-3 zone or playing a sagging man-to-man with the guards double-teaming Feaster in the low post.

If the Crimson has shown one weakness this season, it has been an inability to consistently knock down the open three-pointer, which would make opposing players think twice before pressuring Feaster.

"Our offense has been a little bit fickle," Brandt said. "We like to say that our offense is keyed from our defense. When our offense is struggling, we dig in deeper on the defensive end.

"Our outside shooting has not been the strongest part of our game. We're struggling a little bit with accuracy. Once we start hitting those shots, it will free up some of that pressure [on Feaster]."

Still, Harvard is confident that, given the early-season struggles over the past two seasons, the offense will begin to click following the holiday break as it has historically, in time for Ivy League play.

"I think that we've had spurts of greatness," Grossman said. "We've had times when momentum has shifted our way, but we have to do it for a whole game. My teammates and I have confidence that it will come.

"We're starting to groove with our offense. I think we're starting to be more confident with it in games. When we run it [properly], we get great looks [at the basket]."

Still, the Crimson refuses to overlook any of its opponents in the early season.

"Every team we play against is dangerous," Grossman said. "We have to take everybody we play seriously."