It looked good at the start.

Playing an undefeated University of Vermont squad, the Harvard women's basketball team looked confident early on, holding an 8-2 lead after the opening minutes of play.

Then it got ugly.

Taking advantage of Harvard's 29 turnovers and 38 percent shooting, the Catamounts regrouped and proceeded to roll easily over the Crimson, 79-60.

The Catamounts extended their unbeaten streak to five. The loss dropped Harvard to 3-5.

Vermont captured its first lead at 6:30 of the first half. A three point field goal by junior guard Jennifer Niebling put the Catamounts on top 11-10.

From there, Vermont never looked back.

The Catamounts' pesky, in-your-face defense and intense physical play made up for its lack of height, throwing the Crimson out of synch.

"I'm really pleased," Vermont Coach Cathy Inglese said. "Our defense gave us momentum for our offense. We executed very well."

Throughout the game, Harvard had trouble feeding the ball into the low post. Vermont defenders wreaked havoc on Crimson playmakers Maura Healy and Nikole Cronk, forcing Harvard's offense away from the basket.

While Vermont displayed impressive defense, Harvard also made many unforced errors throughout the contest.

Fast-break passes grazed off fingertips or flew out of bounds.

Often, the ball bounced off a Harvard foot and out of play.

"We didn't play well at all," Co-Captain Heather Harris said. "Turnovers were obviously a problem. We weren't rebounding as well as we could have, and our shooting was off."

On several occasions, junior Debbie Flandermeyer was left stranded with the ball. The center would pull down a rebound, and no outlet pass would be open.

With no other options, the 6'3" Flandermeyer took the role of point guard and brought the ball up court herself.

Flandermeyer gave a strong effort in the Crimson loss, leading the team with 22 points and 14 rebounds.

Surprisingly, prolific junior Erin Maher netted a paltry three points. The Crimson did a poor job feeding the ball to the dynamic off-guard.

"We didn't see the open player," Delaney Smith said. "A lot of our drives went too far in."

Niebling led the Catamounts with 19 points. Trumbull ended the game with a team-high nine rebounds.

Blowout

In the middle of the first half, Vermont burst ahead of the Crimson with an eight-minute 23-8 run. With 5:24 left in the session, Vermont led 34-18.

The Crimson tried to climb back into the game, but only managed to chip three points off the 16-point deficit.

With strong first half shooting (50 percent) and an impressive finish by sophomore Sheri Turnbull--last year's ECAC Rookie of the Year--the Catamounts left for the locker room with a 46-29 advantage.

When the second half began, Vermont continued on its offensive and defensive tear. Nothing went Harvard's way.

As the Catamounts catapulted their way to a 29-point lead, the second half quickly deseended into garbage time.

With 12:03 left in the game, the Crimson tried to stem the Vermont tide by calling a time out. It didn't help. Vermont applied the full-court press, stole the ball away and netted another two points.

From there, the Catamounts went on an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to build their biggest lead, 69-40. The only exciting moment of garbage time occurred with 1:05 remaining in the game. Harvard sophomore Kelly Morrison launched a three pointer and was fouled on the shot.

She swished the three. The foul shot was good. And the crowd was treated to a rare four-point play.

But did anyone really care? One minute later, the final horn thankfully ended the affair.