The story of Kevin Costner's field of dreams in the movie of the same title was, "If you build it, they will come."

This weekend at the Harvard Invitational proved that the story of the Harvard women's basketball team's new and at-times befuddling offense is, "If you run it, and you have Allison Feaster, it will work."

Harvard rode Feaster to victory in winning its own tournament for the first time in 10 years, avenging last season's loss to Loyola (2-3) with a 69-57 win in yesterday's championship game. Harvard earned a trip to the finale by topping Norfolk State (0-7) by the same score on Saturday.

Feaster, who was named Tournament MVP, turned in a performance for the ages against Loyola, scoring a school-record 39 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. That scoring outburst came on the heels of Feaster's 30-point, 14-rebound effort against the Spartanettes.

"I wanted this really badly," Feaster said. "The fact that we lost to Maryland, that they beat Maryland, that they beat us last year and that they were very, very sure of a win all came into play."

Harvard 69, Loyola (Md.) 57

Although the Crimson's two weekend contests had identical final scores, Harvard played a much cleaner game against Loyola, the team after whom Harvard NORFOLK STATE  57 HARVARD  69

LOYOLA  57 HARVARD  69

Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith models her offense.

The Crimson jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game by doing what it had not done well yet this season--playing disciplined basketball, making the extra pass and running Delaney-Smith's new offense.

Feaster opened the game's scoring with a strong lay-in from the right side. Then, after a free throw by junior Rose Janowski put the Crimson up 3-0 and Harvard stopped Loyola on the other end, Janowski set up in the lane. When the defense collapsed on Janowski, it freed up Feaster, who set up at the top of the key and hit the first of her six three-pointers.

On the next offensive play, Feaster passed out of the post to Megan Basil on the weak side, and the point guard and co-captain canned the first of her three treys.

Harvard was 11-of-25 from beyond the arc, a remarkably high percentage this early in the season.

Defensively, Harvard's man defense was solid early on and forced the Greyhounds into some poor decisions. But Loyola Coach Pat Coyle called a timeout after the 9-0 run, and the Greyhounds settled down considerably to the tune of seven straight points.

Loyola's highly disciplined offense consists of running screens for shooters and playing a classic high-low game. When things break down, Coyle falls back on a triple-post offense that is similar to Harvard's.

The Greyhounds slowly clawed their way back into the game and finally took the lead at 16-14 on a three-pointer by Jennifer Bongard at 8:44 of the first half. The three was part of a 10-0 run by Loyola that put the Greyhounds up 21-14 with just over nine minutes to go.

"There were more defensive breakdowns than there should have been, given that we knew absolutely everything they were doing offensively," Delaney-Smith said.

But Feaster and her teammates were not going to let this game slip away as last year's matchup against Loyola did. With the Greyhound's up 23-16, Feaster hit two free throws to start an 11-0 run for the Crimson.