Women Cagers To Battle Quakers, Tigers

The Harvard women's basketball team tonight heads into its most perplexing weekend of the season. Tied with Dartmouth atop the Ivies with a 7-2 league mark, the cagers hit the `Pike for Penn and Princeton.

The one thing that is definite is that the Crimson (14-6 overall) controls its own destiny. If Harvard wins its three remaining Ivy contests, the cagers will secure at least a share of their first-ever Ivy League championship.

"The most difficult part about preparing for this weekend is that we have to prepare for two teams with completely different games," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney Smith said. "We believe that we're stronger [than both Penn and Princeton], though, and that we'll be able to take advantage of their weaknesses."

The Crimson, which has never before even been in contention for the Ivy crown this late in the season, tonight faces a mysterious Princeton team going in the wrong direction.

Mysterious because the 9-3, Ivy-champion Tigers of a year ago have turned into the 1-6, last place pussycats of this year. And Princeton did not lose a single starter from that 9-3 team, nor has the squad suffered any significant injuries this year.

The first time the two teams met this season-back on January 11 at Briggs Athletic Center-Harvard came away with a 62-54 victory. The Tigers have since managed but one Ivy win in six outings, while the Crimson has taken three of four.

In that first encounter, Sharon Hayes scored a game-high 17 points and fellow sophomore forward Beth Chandler added 14 as the Crimson-a 68-52 winner over Penn the night before-completed its first-ever weekend sweep over Ivy competition.

Chandler, who scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds against the Quakers, went on to collect Ivy League Player of the Week honors.

Harvard (9-3 home, 5-3 away) will look to take advantage of Princeton's vulnerable guard situation but may have a problem with the Tiger's taller front court. First team All-Ivy center Ellen DeVoe leads the league in rebounding (10.1 rebounds per game) and is second in blocked shots (14).

"We're definitely a deeper and faster team than Princeton," Delaney Smith said. "We intend to press them and run them as intensely as possible. I really believe we created a lot for ourselves [in the first meeting] by doing that."

Penn, on the other hand, is led by a pair of outstanding guards in June Stambaugh and Cheryl Rath. Stambaugh, last week's Ivy League Player of the Week, is an All-Ivy first team selection and is second in the Ancient Eight in scoring (17.7 points per game) this season.

Joining Stambaugh in the back-court is freshman point guard Cheryl Rath, who recorded 15 points in the January 10 encounter at Briggs.

"Penn has no height, but a short team often tends to be more dangerous," Delaney Smith explained. "They just have two exceptional ball-handling and shooting guards. We hope to stick to [Stambaugh] tight [in an effort to] take her out of her game."

Harvard will counter with a couple of red-hot guards of its own. Sophomore Barbarann Keffer leads the Crimson in scoring (11.6 p.p.g.) and is averaging 18.3 p.p.g. in her last six contests.

She is complemented by junior Co-Captain Trisha Brown, who is coming off her best outing of the season. Brown--who is averaging 8.7 p.p.g. on the year--scored 14 points, grabbed five rebounds, picked up two assists, and came up with two steals as Harvard knocked off New Hampshire, 68-54, Monday night.

The Quakers lead the overall series with Harvard, 10-6, and they have grabbed six of the last seven meetings. Harvard hasn't won at the Palestra since 1981.

Anna Collins (sprained ankle) and Hayes (flu) are not 100 percent going into the big weekend but are expected to be ready. Collins went down late in the first half of the New Hampshire game, and Hayes has been sick for about a week now.

The perplexing part of the weekend is that it can determine everything or it can mean nothing. Should the hoopsters win twice and the Big Green-who face Penn and Princeton on the alternate nights-lose twice, Harvard would clinch the title outright. If the reverse happens, Dartmouth clinches, and the Crimson is eliminated.

Any other scenario would delay the crowning of the new league champion another week, until when both Harvard and Dartmouth host Cornell to wrap up the season. Harvard Women's Basketball 14-6 Overall, 7-2 Ivy

Name  Gm  Gs  Min  fg  fgapct  ft  fta  pct  reb  as  to   bk  st  pf  pts  ave Barb Keffer  20  19  540  91  201  .4 53  49  67  .731  60  85  670  46  52  231  11.6 Sharon Hayes  20  16  490  84  194  .43 3  37  48  .771  81  23  54   5  23  51  205  10.2 Trisha Brown  20  19  491  79  185  .42 7  16  29  .552  59  30  44   0  29  46  174  8.7 Anna Collins  20  20  554  73  180  . 406  26  42  .619  110  23  593  25  52  172  8.6 Sarah Duncan  20  0  376  49  93  .527   33  36  .917  113  21  28   47  16  55  131  6.6 Nancy Cibotti  20  14  464  47  118  . 398  19  32  .594  113  19  4011  19  49  113  5.6 Beth Chandler  20  6  276  32  82  .3 90  27  33  .818  75  11  3511  9  32  91  4.6 H. Bluestone  19  6  282  29  91  . 319  17  20  .850  40  15  330  10  20  75  3.9 Anne Kelly  20  1  291  21  49  .429< Tab>12  20  .600  28  23  39  1< Tab>18  28  54  2.7 Mary Baldauf  19  0  137  11  36  .30 6  12  18  .667  20  7  19  1   8  14  34  1.9 N. Anderson  7  0  38  4  8  .5006  9  .667  10  1  5  1  1   6  14  2.0 Andrea Eror  14  0  56  4  18  .2223  4  .750  9  3  3  0  34  11  0.8