Irwin Allen wrote the script for the cagers' Christmas vacation disaster extravaganza. No lives were lost, but the Crimson crumbled at Manhattanville, 65-55, on December 15 and simply sunk against Providence, 60-43, the next day.

Only an injury to the team's best player could have made the team's tragic roadtrip any worse. Enter Caryn Curry's severely sprained ankle three minutes into the Manhattanville contest. Without their slick captain, the hoopsters will have to struggle mightily to improve their overall record.

Curry twisted the ankle upon her return to earth after a jump shot. She left the game immediately, and with her went Harvard's hopes for a win. Only forward Dorris Woolery's sparkling performance--13 points and nine rebounds--eased pain like the Crimson's booting the ball away 34 times and committing 35 fouls.

"It was just an overall bad game. They [Manhattanville] played tight defense, and we didn't move to meet the ball," Coach Carole Kleinfelder commented yesterday.

If the Manhattanville game was merely "bad," the 17 point loss to the Friars was nothing less than a shipwreck. No one wins with 18 per cent shooting from the floor.

When the hoopsters weren't bombing from downtown, they just gave the ball to their opponents, adding 32 turnovers to an already astronomical season total. Kleinfelder constantly switched her guard combinations, unsuccessfully searching for a pair able to get the ball up the court.

Freshman playmakers Nancy Boutillier and Frenesa Hall, who dazzled during the team's two-game winning streak, lacked any glimmer of luster.

The cagers face a tough Dartmouth squad in Hanover next Tuesday, and, in Kleinfelder's words, will "just get back to basics and try to turn this thing around."