40.

To the more religious, this number often signifies the number of days Moses spent on Mount Sinai. To the less religious, this often stands for the largest bottle of beer you can buy.

But to the Harvard women's basketball team, this number signifies once again that the Harvard women's basketball team (7-18 overall, 4-9 Ivy) did not give a sustained effort for the full 40 minutes of the game, as it fell of Yale (16-9, 8-5) by a 78-65 count Saturday night at Briggs Cage.

This theme has painfully resonated throughout the season, as game after game Harvard has played well for teasingly most of 40 minutes. Against the Elis, the Crimson was once again in the game until the lapse came.

After co-captain Cara Frey hit a trey with 6:48 to go in the contest to both electrify the crowd and pull Harvard within seven, the Crimson did not score a follow with 1:15 to play--54:33, nine Yale points, and for all practical purposes, one Crimson loss later.

This game was reminiscent of the first meeting of the year between Harvard and Yale.

In that outing, the Elis capitalized on a string of Harvard turnovers to turn a deficit into a eight point lead that they would never relinquish with a little over eight minutes to play. That Yale victory ended a nine-game Harvard winning streak against the hated Elis.

"We can't seem to put 40 minutes together," Butler said. "That's been the story of the season. We go long stretches without scoring, and we take ourselves out of the game."

Why has Harvard been so inconsistent?

"I don't know what the problem is," freshmen guard Jessica Gelman said.

After some hesitation, she elaborated-- "We're young."

That is certainly true. Five of the nine players in Coach Kathy Delaney Smith's rotation are freshmen or sophomores. But the timeless resort to the inexperience excuse is not the whole story.

The Crimson relies heavily on outside shooting, as Butler is its only legitimate inside scoring threat. And as any Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson fan knows, outside shooting is very streaky.

Unfortunately, Harvard has been inside cooler appliances for most of the year.

The Crimson shot only 38.5 percent (25-65) from the field against Yale and went 0-9 during the Elis' fateful second-half run. Yale, a more physical team, shot 46.2 percent (24-52) from the floor.

"They were really a physical team," Butler said. "They knew how to use their size."

Harvard started the games well and went into halftime trailing by only three, 39-36. The Crimson was led at that point by Butler's 12 points and five rebounds and sophomore guard Elizabeth "Buzz" Proudfit's 12 points and three assists.

The closeness of the score, however, would not last long into the second half. Yale scored the first six points of the stanza and increased its lead to 12 with 7:24 to go. Then Frey hit a pair of free throws and followed that with a trifecta to make the score 67-60 with 6:48 left.

But that was the time Harvard would feel the bottom of the net for a long while.

The three upped Frey's point total to 14, the number she finished the game with, Proudfit, who fouled out with 3:04 left, ended with 17 points.

Butler had her usual stellar game, racking up 20 points and 15 rebounds. Butler's game is defined by its consistency.

Butler leads the Ivies by wide margins in both scoring at 20.1 points per game and rebounding at 13.6 per game, and she is fourth in the nation in rebounding.

Harvard ends its season at home against second place Dartmouth tomorrow night.

If the Crimson should lose to the Big Green, Harvard would end with its worst record since 1983-84 Delaney Smith's second year at the helm.

Although none of Harvard's four League wins have been against teams with a winning record, the squad feels that it can win if can be consistent for 40 minutes.

"At times we play well, and at times we play like crap," sophomore guard Amy Reinhard said.

"Everybody wants to win very badly," Butler added. "We just have to avoid lapses and we will have a chance."