Women Cagers Open Year By Trouncing Assumption

After the final buzzer sounded, the members of the Harvard women's basketball team started in amazement at the Briggs Cage scoreboard.

And started and started.

The reason the scoreboard held such fascination was the score it showed Harvard 75, Assumption 48.

"I've seen nothing in my time here that even resembles this," said an exuberant third-year Crimson Coach Kathy Delancy Smith after her squad totally out manned and outclassed the visitors in the season-opener for both squads.

Indeed for a team that managed only three wins all last year, and those by a total of 22 points, last night's 27-point victory before 100 fans was quite a start.

The game was dominated by Harvard's freshmen.

The six, Yearlings who played (Yearling 7,Hanya Bluestone, sat out with an injury) equaled Assumption's 48 point total by themselves.

Freshmen Sharon Hayes and Barb Keffer both started, and neither wasted much time making her presence felt.

Hayes pumped in 10 of her team's first 20 points on her way to a team high 18.

And Keffer, playing point guard, took control of the team from the opening tap. The guard logged a team-high 33 minutes and played with superior control, scoring six points and dishing out seven assists.

The visitors hung tight early, but went over six minutes without scoring late in the first period and Harvard never looked back.

Led by Hayes, Keffer and stellar forward Co-Captain Anna Collins, the Crimson cagers jumped out to a 39-28 halftime lead.

Two freshmen who came off the bench Chandler and Nancy Cibotti also made a big impression in the opening half, logging nine and eight points, respectively.

The Crimson sealed its victory with a 15.4 spurt to open the second half. Assumption never got within 17 points again.

The freshmen did have some help. Collins tallied 11 points and nine rebounds for the game, and sophomore Erin Surge added 10.

But the day belonged to the Yearlings.

Delaney Smith was understandably ecstatic. "I've been waiting to see how the freshmen would react to a game, and I am so pleasantly surprised."

Junior Collins, who was the only upperclassman on the court for much of the game, was equally lavish with her praise. "Our new personal is just awesome," she said.

Keffer did make a few mistakes at the helm of the squad but she didn't let them affect her.

"I usually get frustrated," she said, "but I knew I had to stay in control."

For Hayes, the play of her talented freshmen teammates came as an unaccustomed surprise. "It was really hard in high school," the budding star said. Having a lot of good teammates, "takes off a lot of pressure and makes it a lot more fun."

Sure, there were some dumb fouls, ill-advised cross-court passes and poor box-out jobs by Harvard, but no one really seemed to care after the game.

A low-key Hayes summed up the feelings of the team in one word, "Excellent."

THE NOTEBOOK: Assumption's Carol Krupa came into the game needing 13 points for 1000 in her career. She fell just five short, but her quest seemed to disrupt her team's play...Harvard women's soccer goalie-extraordinate Trace Whitley made her hoop debut in the closing minutes and brought down the house with a sneak-away lay-up...Harvard (1-0) plays Friday and Saturday in the Harvard Invitational...Senior Co-Captain Wendy Joseph sat out last night's contest with an injury but could be back as early as this weekend.