Travelling to the blizzard-infested Big Apple for yesterday's game against Columbia must have been a major pain for the Harvard women basketball team, because it left town real fast.

Harvard sprinted to an early lead and never looked back, leading by as much as 23 points before coasting to an easy 85-69 win over Columbia.

Captain Erin Maher poured in a game-high 22 points, while sophomore Tammy Butler contributed 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Just forty-five seconds after the opening tip, freshman point guard Elizabeth Proudfit canned a trey to put the Crimson up 3-2 and ignite a 29-7 run over a 9:41 span which effectively ended the game.

Maher played a key role in the outburst, as she dazzled the Lions' hungry defense with two short jumpers, a three point bomb and a slashing layup to score nine points in the run.

Columbia's defenders seemed as helpless as their legendary football team during the first half. The Crimson shot 60 percent from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point land in the first half.

Two Lion time outs couldn't stop the bleeding.

Butler was in "the zone" all night, as she missed only one of nine field goal attempts.

Proudfit also missed only one field goal to finish with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor.

Her 10 first-half points helped throw the Lions back into their cages early.

Second Half Action

Columbia could not crawl back into the game after the first half run.

Though it managed to inch within 14 points of the Crimson, 62-48, with 7:47 left to play, the Harvard women once again blitzed their Ancient Eight rivals with eight unanswered points to take a insurmountable 70-48 lead.

Maher, last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, once again led the run. She scored six points on a three-pointer and a three-point play.

Maher hit nine of her 17 shots against the Lions.