Cagers Gain Split With Bruins

Before Saturday night, the second half and the Harvard women's basketball team just didn't get along.

In the first 20 minutes of most games, the women cagers had little problem grabbing a lead. But between halves, a cloud of inertia and inaccuracy would settle over them and defeat would soon follow.

Saturday night, the second half and Harvard worked out their differences and the Crimson emerged with a 78-72 victory over Brown at Marvel Gym in Providence, R.I.

Trailing Brown, 40-39, at the half, the Crimson (10-12 overall, 5-6 Ivy League) came back to dominate the Bruins in the second stanza and close out its road schedule on a winning note.

"We traded baskets during the first half," Co-Captain Trisha Brown said. "We weren't playing great defense so they were able to stay with us."

Harvard built its lead to 10 points in the early minutes of the second stanza, and kept a sizeable advantage until late in the game.

"Near the end they make a run for it and got it down to about six," Brown said, "but down the stretch we were boxing out and rebounding well."

"Our defense really improved in the second half," junior Nancy Cibotti said. "[Bruin center Marcia Brown] really killed us on the offensive boards in the beginning, but she got into foul trouble and had to

Harvard men's basketball Co-Captains Arne

Duncan and Keith Webster combined for an alarming

53 points Saturday night, but Brown held off a

late Crimson charge to edge the cagers, 90-87,

before 800 fans at Briggs Athletic Center.

Playing in the final home game of their Harvard

careers, Duncan and Webster divided their show by

halves, with Duncan scoring 24 of his game-high 32

points in the second stanza and Webster netting 17

of his 21 before intermission.

Amazingly, Duncan scored the cagers' first 15

points of the second half, 19 of the squad's first

21, and 24 of its first 28. The 6-ft., 5-in.

senior did not to score again.

"I'm just really upset," said Duncan, who leads

Harvard in scoring with just over 16 points per

game. "I could care less about scoring all those

points. Points don't mean anything."

"It's real tough," the Chicago native

continued. "I just wanted to win so bad, and Keith

and I had our opportunities down the stretch."

Overall, Duncan made 14 of his 25 field goal

attempts, pulled in five rebounds, and handed out

three assists. Saturday's game also marked the

11th time this season that Duncan has led the

Crimson in scoring.

Webster, meanwhile, grabbed a game-high nine

rebounds, dished out a game-high nine assists, and

was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line.

After playing some of its best basketball of

the season in the first half, Harvard (now 3-8

Ivy, 5-18 overall) turned a seven-point lead into

a seven-point deficit midway through the second

stanza.

The Crimson dazzled the Briggs crowd at times

with an array of behind-the-back passes and

fast-break lay-ups--but the squad sorely missed

its starting guard and third-leading scorer, Neil

Phillips.

Phillips, who scored a season-high 18 points in

Harvard's 108-90 victory at Brown earlier this

season, will miss the remainder of Harvard's

campaign for academic reasons.

With Brown ahead, 84-77, and less than five

minutes remaining, Harvard sophomore forward David

Lang opened a string of six unanswered Crimson

points with a three-point play.

Following a Kyle Dodson free throw, Webster

scored his only points of the second half on

consecutive Harvard possessions, bringing the

cagers to within a point, 86-85.

Sophomore guard Mike Gielen--who earned his

first starting assignment of the season

Saturday--tossed in a 10-ft. baseline jumper with

2:51 left to give Harvard its first lead since

early in the second frame.

After Brown guard Marc Rudolph hit a lean-in,

double-pump jumper from the foul line to vault the

Bruins back in front, Duncan misfired on a three-

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