The celebratory champagne may not be on ice yet, but the Harvard women's basketball team continued its march to an Ivy League title last night at Briggs Cage, pounding an inexperienced Yale squad, 80-60.
The win increased Harvard's unblemished conference record to 10-0, and with only four games left, the Crimson (15-7 overall, 10-0 Ivy) moves closer and closer to becoming the first undefeated women's basketball team in Ivy League history.
Making history won't be easy, however. Brown, which entered last night in third place, visits the Cage tomorrow night and will look to avenge its 101-86 overtime loss to the Crimson in Providence.
Next weekend, Harvard travels to play second-place Princeton and fourth-place Pennsylvania.
Although Harvard did not set any team marks against the Elis, Co-Captain Beth Wambach did enter the record books at 14:59 of the second half. The senior guard's three-pointer put Harvard up, 48-36, and gave Wambach 1001 career points, making her only the fifth player in Harvard history to reach that plateau. Wambach needs only 32 points to surpass Elaine Holpuch as the fourth player on Harvard's all-time scoring list.
"I knew after the Cornell game because people told me I needed only six more points to break a thousand," Wambach said, "but I wasn't playing the game in order to break the record."
Maybe not, but the prospects of entering the millenium club certainly weighed somewhat heavily on her mind.
"I was just worried about choking, about being held scoreless the rest of the season," Wambach added.
It looked like Harvard was going to blow out the Elis when the Crimson ran off to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes of play. Yale hung tough, however, and actually grabbed a 14-13 lead at the 13-minute mark of the first half. Both teams exchanged leads for the remainder of the half, and Harvard entered the locker room at intermission with a modest 36-30 advantage.
"They played really tough pressure defense, and I think we were letting that get to us," said senior forward Jen Mazanec, who returned from a severe ankle sprain to score 13 points. Mazanec's ankle did not appear to hinder her play.
"I still don't feel like I can play that well, but once the game started I felt fine," Mazanec said.
Harvard came out strong in the second half, putting the Elis away early. An Erin Maher three-pointer, her first of three on the night, put Harvard ahead, 54-38, with 13:35 remaining. That lead ballooned to the game winning margin of twenty when the Crimson pulled away, 63-43, with just under 10 minutes left in the game.
"Harvard is shooting the ball as well as any team I've seen this year, in the Ivy League or out," Yale Coach Cecelia DeMarco said. "They're not taking high percentage shots, but for them they're high percentage shots."
NOTEBOOK: Sophomore guard Kristin O'Neill scored her first two points of the season in the final minutes of play... Freshman forward Kimberly Seidel sat out last night's game with a sprained right wrist. Seidel is questionable for tomorrow night's contest.... Freshman guard Kelly Morrison was hit above the ear during the second half of last night's game and required stitches. YALE (60): Kate Hackett 1-3 0-0 2; Becky Read more in SportsRecommended Articles
