Women Hoopsters Drop Two, Place Last in Home Tourney

The Harvard women's basketball team must be anxious for Briggs Cage to reopen. The hoopsters lost their third straight at the old IAB this weekend, taking last place in the first annual Harvard Women's Basketball Tournament.

The women played a fairly good game Friday losing to a strong Rice squad, 67-52. But in the consolation game Saturday, Northwestern blew the Crimson off the court, 94-38, depositing the hoopsters in last place in their own tournament. A powerful Vanderbilt team, which headily beat Northwestern Friday, crushed Rice, 91-54, to take the championship Saturday evening.

In both games, the Crimson's lack of height proved fatal. Rice has five players 5 ft., 10 in. or taller; Harvard has one. Northwestern, with five women six feet or taller, could not be stopped.

Lack of size hurt Harvard on offense--the hoopsters could not get inside. Forced to shoot from the outside, the Crimson produced a paltry 36-per-cent field goal average. Only Frenesa Hall appeared comfortable taking long shots, and she was not playing at her best (12 points all weeked).

Harvard also had difficulty keeping the opposition's big forwards out from under the basket. Rice scored a large majority of its points from within five feet, while Northwestern's 59-per-cent field goal average reflected not sharp shooting, but a breakdown of the Crimson defense under the basket.

In Friday night's game against Rice. Owl center Goya Qualls made the difference, scoring a game-high 25 points. Clearly the biggest woman on the court. Qualls dominated play, forcing the Crimson to take numerous fouls.

Harvard coach Carole Kleinfelder tried assigning different women to cover Qualls, but to no avail; even Hall. Harvard's most imposing forward, was unable to contain her. "She's just too strong, we couldn't push her around. As soon as she got a step on you, she got the ball and scored." Hall said.

The Crimson jumped to a quick 8-4 lead on three baskets by Pat Horne, who led the team in scoring with 12 points. But after the Owls fought back to knot the score, 10-10. The bottom suddenly fell out for Harvard.

Qualls and sophomore Penny Goff (22 points) each notched a couple of baskets and three-and-a-half minutes later, the score was 22-10. Rice finally went into the locker room leading, 33-25.

The teams returned to exchange baskets--Rice getting underneath for the easy shot: Harvard sinking 15-and 20-footers.

Collapse

But then Harvard again collapsed, allowing Rice ten points in a five minute stretch while responding with only three, giving the Owls a 15-point lead.

Harvard fought back to within seven with five minutes left to play before Rice coach Linda Tucker called time out. Whatever she said must have fired the Owls up--they came out and shut the Crimson down, rebuilding and 15-point winning margin.

The Northwestern squad proved just too much for the Crimson in Saturday's consolation match. The Wildcats quickly jumped to a 12-2 lead and never looked back. Both teams played sloppily in the first half, turning the ball over on numerous occasions. The Crimson, though outclassed and undersized, managed to stay relatively close, trailing 39-22 at the half.

But the second half may go down in the annuals of Harvard basketball as one of the worst ever. For the first ten minutes, play continued much like that of the first half: The Wildcats continued to get inside for easy baskets, and the Crimson fell behind, 60-34.

At the Seams

The Harvard fell apart. For the next ten minutes, the Wildcats practiced shooting, stealing, passing and just about everything else, outscoring Harvard 34-4.

The Wildcats were simply too good for the Crimson. Though Harvard played extremely poorly, especially in the second half, the Wildcats would probably prove too much even on a good Crimson day. Five Wildcats hit double figures, including 6-ft..4-in, freshman Tracie Diemer, with ten points.

Horne again led the Crimson with nine points. While junior Ann Scannell--the only real bright spot for Harvard in this otherwise dismal outing--added eight more.