BOSTON--The Harvard women's basketball team concluded its opening string of non-conference games with a flourish on Tuesday evening by posting a 70-57 win at Boston University.

Although the Crimson's 1-10 start this year was its worst in 17 seasons, a season-best 51 percent shooting percentage against the Terriers (5-7) and resurgent performances from junior forward Katie Gates and junior guard Jenn Monti gave Harvard (2-10) reason for optimism going into its Ivy opener at Dartmouth tomorrow.

"I knew we had it in us," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "We've had the best week of practices of any team coming off of a five-to-six day break that I've ever coached. I hope it stays, because our problem has been consistency."

The Crimson dropped a pair of games in Arkansas the week before Christmas. In the trip opener against Arkansas-Little Rock (4-5), Harvard cut a 15-point deficit to two late in the second half, but its horrid 25.7 percent shooting proved to be too much to overcome in a 75-66 loss.

The next day, Harvard took on the University of Arkansas for the first time since the 1998 NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks (7-3)--a competitive team in the SEC, the nation's strongest conference--dealt the Crimson an 87-48 defeat and almost limited Harvard to fewer points than turnovers in the first half.

Harvard 70, Boston University 57

Harvard buried the Terriers with a 10-0 run to start the game--five points each from Gates and freshman forward Tricia Tubridy--and never looked back. By the midway point of the first half, the Crimson led 26-6. B.U. never came closer than 11 points for the rest of the night.

The Crimson's improvement on its woeful 35 percent shooting for the season was a tribute to its patience on offense and sound shot selection.