After posting the WNBA's best regular-season mark this summer, the Los Angeles Sparks were on the verge of elimination in the conference semifinals. They trailed the three-time defending-champion Houston Comets, 69-67, with under two minutes remaining. Who did the Sparks rely on to hit the game-tying shot?

Their sixth man, former Harvard women's basketball player Allison Feaster '98.

And like when she was in Crimson, she didn't disappoint.

Although the Sparks went on to lose that WNBA playoff game in heartbreaking fashion, ending their championship hopes, Feaster succeeded in hitting one of the biggest clutch shots of the WNBA season by anyone not named Cynthia Cooper.

Feaster's Harvard career totals are unmatched. She led the Crimson to three consecutive Ivy titles, while achieving nearly every Harvard and Ivy scoring record. She averaged 28.5 points-per-game to lead the nation in scoring in 1998, including 35 to lead Harvard to the celebrated upset of top-seed Stanford in the NCAA Tournament.

Feaster, like your typical economics concentrator at Harvard, had a job offer as an equities analyst waiting for her at Merrill Lynch in New York after graduation. But she instead decided to postpone one promising career to begin another when she was drafted fifth overall in the 1998 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks.

Feaster's WNBA rookie season was a nightmare. A broken foot limited her to just three games the entire year. In her sophomore campaign, her confidence struggled under coach Orlando Woolridge, as she dipped to eighth on the team in minutes played and the Sparks struggled to a .500 record.

To sharpen her playing abilities, Feaster decided to spend the WNBA off-season playing in France, along with her husband, former N.C. State forward Danny Strong. At Aix-en-Provence of the Ligue fminine de Basket (LFB), she led her team in scoring and was selected to play in an all-star game matching international stars with French-born players. She even won the three-point contest held at halftime of the event.

When Feaster returned to the WNBA in 2000, the pieces were in place for the Sparks to have a breakthrough season. Under new head coach, 1987 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Michael Cooper, the Sparks went 28-4 and twice beat the three-time defending WNBA Champion Houston Comets en route to wining the Western Conference's regular-season crown.

Feaster flourished in her sixth-man role. She averaged a career-high 6.3 points-per-game, and set a new single-game-high point total with 18 against Sacramento in July. She led all Sparks players with an 83.3 percent free-throw percentage on the season.

With Los Angeles playing well and gaining plenty of national television exposure, it was easy for current Harvard players and Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith to follow her progress this summer.

"She played great," Delaney-Smith said. "I just thought she was a wonderful sixth player for them. I thought she had a great role."

Every time Feaster came off the bench for the Sparks, the oft-repeated commentary was, "Feaster would be a starter for any other team in WNBA."

Next year, Feaster may well be a WNBA starter. She was traded in the off-season to the Charlotte Sting (8-24), the cellar team of the Eastern Conference.

"I know she loves the Sparks, but if she could be traded and start for someone, she'd be happier," Delaney-Smith said.

While Feaster's WNBA career takes off, the Harvard women's basketball team remains strong. The 2001 senior class will be the last to have played for the Crimson with Allison Feaster.

Although this year's team would prefer to create new standards for Harvard success, the legacy left behind by Allison Feaster and the recruiting power of the 1998 NCAA Tournament upset will keep the Harvard women's basketball team strong for years to come.