It was quickly becoming clear that Feaster was among the best players Ivy League basketball--men's or women's--had ever seen.

By then the Ivy women's single-season scoring record, which she broke February 20 against Princeton, seemed an afterthought. Shewas, after all, the first Ivy Leaguer to lead thenation in scoring (28.5 points per game), so itwas just a matter of time before the mark wouldfall.

Feaster finished the season first in scoring,14th nationally in rebounding (10.8 per game) and16th in steals (3.3 per game). She was thecomplete package, recording 12 30-point games and20 double-doubles, and hitting .406 from beyondthe three-point arc, a marked improvement over herprevious three seasons.

Meanwhile her team overall was having anot-too-shabby season itself. Needless to say,Feaster was no small part of the team's thirdstraight Ivy championship and 23-5 record, best inschool history.

There may not be an `I' in team, but there isan `F'. If the company line--that there was moreto this team than Allison Feaster--is true, itcertainly had its share of tests throughout theseason. Feaster always seemed to come up big whenit counted--from her school-record 39 points toavenge last season's loss to Loyola and helpHarvard win its own Invitational for the firsttime in a decade to her 17-point, 11-reboundsecond-half performance to lead Harvard to acome-from-behind win in its rematch againstPrinceton, who earlier in the season had handedthe Crimson its first Ivy loss in two years.

Her greatness was by no means uniform. Shescored just 19 points and shot 33 percent from thefloor in regulation of an overtime win over Brownon January 30. But sometimes Feaster was good evenwhen she was bad, as she tallied nine of herteam's 12 overtime points--jumper, three-pointer,blocked shot, lay-up, two free throws with sevenseconds to go--ballgame. Typical.

Feaster was rewarded for her tremendous seasonwith Ivy Player of the Year honors--making her thefirst Ivy League athlete ever to win Rookie of theYear and then to thrice take home Player of theYear honors--as well as an AP Honorable MentionAll-American selection.

She had not been placed on the AP NationalPlayer of the Year ballot and had not earnedFirst, Second or Third-Team honors. HonorableMention was darn good for an Ivy Leaguer, but manyconsidered it a slight.

Indeed, her task was not complete. Still shewas a good Harvard player, a good IvyLeague, player, a good women's player.

She needed Palo Alto. Big, bad Stanford, teamof the '90s, participant in each of the threeprevious Final Fours, winners of 59 straight atMaples Pavilion, but as unable to overcome kneeinjuries to All-American Kristin Folkl and VanessaNygaard as the dream of Allison Feaster.

Feaster's 35 points and 13 rebounds were onlythe beginning. She shot with confidence, evenbanking in a three on a fast break at one point;forced Stanford Honorable Mention All-AmericanOlympia Scott into foul trouble; and notchedseveral key steals, including the two biggest inHarvard basketball history.

With Stanford up one in the closing minutes,Feaster missed a shot and Scott took offdowncourt, eager to catch the baseball pass andput in the lay-up that would drive the final stakethrough the Crimson's heart.

But Feaster was still short of her goal; shewas not ready to go back to Cambridge just yet.She sprinted downcourt and, while facing Scott,leaped high into the passing lane and tipped thepass from point guard Milena Flores to put theball back in Harvard's court.

Then, after Harvard took a four-point lead onjunior Suzie Miller's now-infamous trifecta,Feaster ripped the ball from Scott's hands on apost play to keep the game out of the Cardinal'sreach. Harvard 71, Stanford 67.

Feaster had reached her final castle. She hadhelped to rewrite all of collegiate sportshistory.

"Every year we have team goals, and every yearwe seem to fall just a little short of thosegoals," Feaster said. "More than ever, this yearwe've been able to accomplish everything we wantedto do."