B.C. Soars by Cagers

CHESNUT HILL--It was a game the Harvard women's basketball team wasn't supposed to win.

It didn't.

It was a game in which the host Boston College Eagles were supposed to be bigger, faster, and stronger.

They were.

The Harvard coaching staff feared it would be more of a learning experience than anything else for a young Crimson team with enough potential to win the Ivy crown this year or next.

It was.

The Eagles simply dominated the cagers from start to finish last night before 250 at Roberts Center, on route to a 91-51 thrashing.

It was the Crimson's worst defeat since a 95-38 debacle at the hands of the University of Florida more than two years ago.

The Eagles scored the game's first seven points and Harvard was never able to recover. It was so bad for the Crimson in the early going that it committed eight turnovers before it ever put points on the scoreboard.

Not until sophomore forward Sharon Hayes drilled a 12-ft. baseline jumper did Harvard get its first hoop, nearly five minutes into the contest.

The Crimson wound up turning the ball over 21 times in the first half alone, as the Eagles built up a 19-point lead by intermission.

"The height and speed mismatches tend to affect your whole game," Crimson Coach Kathy Delaney Smith said. "BC is a very veteran team and we're young, and when you're young you tend to panic if you fall that far behind early."

Harvard (3-2 overall, 1-1 Ivy) shot a dismal 29 percent from the field for the game, making only 18 of 63 attempts.

The Eagles, meanwhile, shot a mind-boggling 73 percent from the floor in the second half (63 percent overall).

Sophomore All-American candidate Ann Odoy led B.C. with 20 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and five steals. Odoy was 7-for-8 from the field and 6-for-7 from the line.

The hosts out-rebounded the cagers, 46-26, in winning its sixth straight meeting between the two squads. The Eagles captured last year's match-up at Briggs Athletic Center by 26 points.

A 31-10 spree midway through the second half by Boston College (now 3-0 and a good bet to appear on next week's NCAA top-20 poll) put the Eagles up by as many as 41 points and the contest completely out of reach.

The Crimson looked sharp for a brief span late in the game, out-scoring B.C. 13-4 as sophomore guard Mary Baldauf converted consecutive fast break situations.

The Eagles then scored the final 10 points of the contest.

Hayes, who led the Crimson in scoring last season, posted a team-high 11 points in the losing effort. Baldauf finished with nine points and sophomore point guard Barbarann Keffer--who connected on her first three ouside jumpers three straight times down the floor in the first half--contributed eight.

THE NOTEBOOK: Delaney Smith, who has been rotating her players in and out of the first five games on a frequent basis in an effort to keep them as fresh as possible, said before last night's contest that she would also begin rotating her starters for at least the next few games...The Crimson has not beaten B.C. since 1978...The cagers next see action this weekend when they host the Harvard Invitational Tournament which will include Lehigh, Long Island, and TCU. The Crimson won last year's tourney.