With 15 seconds left on the clock, the feeling that came over the hundreds of fans in Lavietes Pavilion last night seemed uneasily familiar.

The Harvard women's basketball team found itself knotted with the University of New Hampshire (9-9), 79-79, in the waning moments of the ballgame. The Crimson had just called a timeout and now had a chance to pull out its first close victory in six chances.

But where Harvard had fallen short on five previous occasions, it would soar this night--soar on the heels of junior point guard Jessica Gelman. As time ran down, Gelman drove right off an Allison Feaster pick and pulled up for an eight-foot jumper over two UNH defenders. The shot found the bottom of the net with three seconds remaining, and Feaster's steal of the ensuing inbound pass sealed the victory for the Crimson.

Harvard (9-6, 2-1 Ivy) had finally come out on top of a tight game.

"I just shot it...I have no idea how it went in," Gelman said. "In the end, we out-hustled them...because we wanted it."

"This is a huge win for us," Harvard coach Kathy Delaney Smith said. "I'm very proud that we stuck in there tonight."

Despite an ending sensational enough to become a segment on

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Schubert 0-2 0-0 0; Danker 10-17 9-12 30; Karl 2-8 0-0 4; Brandell 6-10 7-9 19; Colton 5-10 1-2 11; Caldwell 6-10 3-6 15; Kimball 0-0 0-0 0; White 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 29-57 20-29 79.

HARVARD: Reinhard 3-11 3-9 9; Black 1-3 0-0 3; Davis 6-10 0-1 12; Feaster 9-17 3-5 22; Proudfit 5-12 4-5 17; Seanor 0-1 1-2 1; Brandt 0-1 0-0 0; Gelman 6-12 0-0 12; Janowski 2-3 1-2 5; Gettelman 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS: 32-72 12-24 81.

"Alcoa's Fantastic Finishes," the events leading up to the drama were nothing short of disappointing for the Crimson.

Following a driving layup from Gelman that put Harvard ahead 73-63, UNH called a timeout with 7:14 to play. The Wildcats came out of the huddle applying a full court press that seemed to rattle the Crimson and led to several Harvard turnovers.

New Hampshire's Sheila Danker (30 points, six rebounds) capitalized on Harvard's sloppy play to score 10 of her 22 second-half points and direct her team on a 10-1 run over the next four minutes before Feaster was able to drain a clutch three-pointer. However, two Danker jumpshots later, the score was tied at 77.

While UNH was unable to hit the front ends of two one-and-one situations in the final 25 seconds, Harvard co-captain Elizabeth Proudfit (17 pts., three rebs., three assists) converted two free throws down the stretch. Danker then answered with a running layup to set up Gelman's last-second heroics.

"I felt we were in control the whole game," said Delaney-Smith. "Then all of a sudden we got into a very scared, tight mode of play."

The game did seem to go Harvard's way throughout. Proudfit opened the scoring with a trey from the left side, but UNH answered quickly and pulled ahead in the early going.