1996

Sports Statistics

Record: 20-7, 14-0 Ivy

Ivy Finish: First

Coach: Kathy Delaney-Smith

Key Players: Captains Jessica Gelman and Kelly Black; Junior Allison Feaster

1997

The Harvard women's basketball team can look back on the 1996-97 season as arguably the most successful in the history of the program.

En route to capturing its second consecutive Ivy league title, Harvard took its fans on a wonderfully enjoyable ride which did not end until the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Even then it took No. 4 North Carolina to bring the journey to an end. That loss, however, does not detract from what this team accomplished. There were many questions facing the Crimson back in November; by January the team had not only answered those questions, but was well on its way to making history.

When Harvard began its season, the first item on its agenda was to replace the four seniors who had graduated. The departure of Elizabeth Proudfit '96, Amy Reinhard '96, Katy Davis '96 and Liz Gettelman '96 left the Crimson searching for three new starters and a sixth player off the bench.

Harvard suffered several key losses early in the season while it searched for a permanent starting lineup. The first of these was a 56-54 last-second loss to a mediocre Boston University team in the Crimson's opening game of the season.

A resilient Harvard squad bounced back from that defeat and handed Army an 85-40 drubbing in the Crimson's first home game of the year at Lavietes Pavilion. Next up was the 16th annual Harvard Invitational Tournament.

In its opening round contest against Siena, the Crimson suffered a heartbreaking 65-64 defeat on another buzzer-beating shot. The next day, Harvard rebounded once again with a 67-63 victory over Pepperdine.

In that game, junior forward Allison Feaster earned the first of many individual honors Harvard players would receive over the course of the season, scoring her 1,000th point against Pepperdine. She is currently second on Harvard's all-time scoring list.