Hometown Duel Looms

For a team struggling mightily on the road, some Boston home cooking may be just what the Harvard women’s basketball needs.

The Crimson will look to end its four-game losing streak with a victory in tonight’s home game against river rival Boston University (5-2)—the team’s first time playing at Lavietes Pavilion in almost three weeks.

“We’ve spent a long time on the road,” junior forward Christiana Lackner said. “It will be very nice to be in our own gym. We shoot really well there. Hopefully we’ll do well on the defensive end and then on offensive end and put it together.”

The problem for the Crimson: too many problems.

On one night, the Crimson shoots well from the field but fails to lock down on defense, as seen in a 72-60 loss to Northeastern a week ago. On the next night, as in last Sunday’s loss at Richmond, the defense improves—Harvard held the Spiders to 34 percent shooting from the field—but the offense falters, making only 17 field goals in a 63-47 defeat. Maintaining a high level of play, on both sides of the ball, remains the squad’s top priority.

“I thought we played pretty good defense and we rebounded the ball very well in the game [against Richmond},” co-captain Maureen McCaffery said. “We just didn’t bring it all together with the offense, but we’ll get the next one on Tuesday.”

Harvard’s record of 2-5 indicates a season-long struggle, but the losses have come against quality opponents. During its current losing streak, the Crimson lost by only six to Virginia, an ACC squad that often makes the NCAA tournament. Lackner logged the first double-double of her career against Richmond, which was one of the best teams in the Atlantic Ten last season.

“We need to have people coming out strong and scoring right away,” said McCaffery following the loss to the Spiders, “[Lackner] did that tonight and it was huge.”

Coupled with its consistency woes, Harvard has also been a slow starter during its four-game losing streak, scoring only 163 points in the first half, compared to 248 in the second.

Righting the Crimson’s ship will be no easy task. Not only does Harvard have to worry about its own problems, but it must also contend with Beantown rival Boston University to break the slide tonight. The Terriers beat Brown in Providence, 73-59, last week before a close loss at Indiana broke a five-game winning streak.

“We’re just going to try and work really hard against them—not worry about how big a game it is,” said sophomore guard Lindsay Hallion, who herself has tallied double digits in points in the last two games. “We all know we can play and play well. It’s going to show.”

The Terriers are led by sophomore Cheri Raffo, who in back-to-back games has averaged a team season-high 20 points.

Despite everything working against the squad, the Crimson knows that a win against a crosstown rival could change the course of the season, just in time for the start of Ivy play. And it would help erase the memory of a disappointing performance against river rival Northeastern.

“It’s a huge game,” said Lackner, “We really want to test ourselves in Boston against teams like BU and Northeastern...I think it will be a makeup for how we played at NU if we can take it to BU on Tuesday.”