Harvard Blasts Tufts, 71-39

Harvard's big forwards took out their heavy artillery and provided the fire power propelling the women's basketball team to a 71-39 thrashing of Tufts last night in the Jumbo's Medford arena.

Sue Hewitt and Sue Aboucher led the way with slick offensive work from the corners, chipping in 20 and 15 points, respectively, as the Crimson cruised to its third consecutive big romp in the last four days.

The Harvard women controlled the game right from the onset with sophomore guards Wendy Carle and Caryn Curry quarterbacking the attack. Crimson coach Carole Kleinfelder moved Carle to the point guard position for last night's game and was pleased with the results of the move.

"Wendy moves the offense well because she gets the ball to the person who is going to shoot fast," Kleinfelder said.

With Carle and Curry working outside, junior Hewitt and freshman Aboucher moved freely in the corners, taking the feeds from the outside. Carle tallied nine assists, five steaks and four rebounds while Curry added six assists and seven rebounds.

Caging Jumbos

Alternating between a player-to-player and a zone defense, Harvard contained the Jumbo attack in the first half, but the Crimson women had their own trouble against the Tufts player-to-player defense.

"We're weak moving without the ball," Kleinfelder said, "and that causes us problems against the player-to-player."

Led by lanky center Debbie Kochsk who finished with 12 points, Tufts remained close in the first half, and trailed, 33-23, at the half. But Harvard went to town against a Jumbo fullcourt zone press in the second half.

Long Shots

Fastbreaking with long passes to Hewitt and Aboucher, Harvard opened up an early bulge in the second half and went on to outscore Tufts 38-16 in the half.

"We were moving well inside tonight," Kleinfelder said, "and that's something we haven't done well all year. Wendy Carle really had a good floor game and directed the offense superbly."

The Finale

The win moved the women's record to 13-9 on the season. Tomorrow night, Harvard faces Boston University in the IAB at 7 p.m. The season finale for the women promises to be a tough one as B.U. comes in sporting the 1978 MAIAW Division I crown which they earned in this past weekend's tourney at Amherst.

The Harvard women's junior varsity basketball team closed out its season last night on a winning note, with a 55-24 shellacking of the Tufts J.V. Freshman forward Chris Hart led the way for Harvard with 25 points. The Harvard J.V.s ended with a 5-4 record for the season.