A Slam-Duncan Performance

The inaugural women's basketball notebook of the '85-'86 season finds Coach Kathy Delaney Smith's cagers a dozen games into their schedule and off to their best start in Delaney Smith's four years with the program.

Coming off the dramatic 66-63 win over favored Dartmouth last Saturday, the 8-4 Crimson have a full week to gear up for Penn and Princeton, who will make their annual visits to Briggs Athletic Center this weekend.

We begin with a look at the cagers' depth--one of the primary reasons for the squad's early season success. That seven different hoopsters have captured high-scoring honors in a contest this season is good proof of this depth.

But if that's not enough, consider the following: Harvard's bench has outscored the opponent's bench in nine of the cagers' 12 games this season, and when that has happened, Harvard is 8-1.

Freshman Sarah Duncan has made the biggest contributions coming off the bench. The 6-ft. forward has compiled some extremely impressive numbers in her first year.

In addition to smashing last year's blocked shots record less than mid-way through the season, Duncan leads the Crimson in both field goal percentage (52 percent) and free throw percentage (88 percent) and is third on the team in rebounds (5.5 per game).

The Chicago, III. native--who Delaney Smith says "is improving every time she walks out on the court"--also ranks second on the squad in assists (tied with two others with 18), which is unusually high for a shooting forward.

The spark plug off the bench has to be Co-Captain Anne Kelly, who is presently enjoying the best of her three seasons with the Crimson. The senior from Garden City, N.Y., has improved on both her field goal and free throw shooting percentages from a year ago, ranks third on the team in assists (16), and always seems to make something happen when she comes into a game.

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From the Stat Department, the Crimson--winners of four of its last five--has already put together two three-game winning streaks this season; at this time last year, the cagers were in the midst of a six-game losing streak, en route to an 8-18 finish.0

Perhaps the most important improvement of this year's team has been its ability to win the close ones down the stretch; last year's squad lost nine of 12 games by 10 points or less and four of six games decided by five points or less.

In contrast, Harvard this year has an astounding 6-1 mark in contests decided by five points of less.

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This week's trivia question (answer below): Which ex-Crimson player, a 1984 graduate, holds the Harvard records for best career free throw percentage, most points in a game, and most points in a season? Hint: she coached freshman guard Nancy Colbert for one year at Phillips Academy.

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Harvard's leading scorer of a year ago--sophomore forward Sharon Hayes--is tops for the cagers in that category again this season, averaging 10.1 points per game. Hayes, whose strongest performance this year (21 points, 10 rebounds) came in a 77-58 loss to Lehigh in the finals of the Harvard Invitational Tournament, has been the cagers' high-scorer on five separate occasions in 1985-86..

The most improved player over last year has to be sophomore forward Nancy Cibotti. The Walpole native had her best effort of the season last weekend in the Dartmouth game, scoring 16 points, grabbing eight rebounds, and handling out three assists.

Cibotti leads the Crimson in rebounding (6.5 per game), is among the team leaders in scoring (6.8 per game), and is second in blocked shots with nine.

Senior Anna Collins is also coming off one of her better performances of the season. Against the Big Green, the Livonia, Mich. native scored 17 points on the strength of 8-for-12 field goal shooting.

Not that it means anything, but Collins has been the leading rebounder for the cagers four times this season; the Crimson is 4-0 when that's happened. Her high game of the year was 18 points and 14 rebounds against Smith.

Harvard's steadiest performers this year have been the starting guard tandem of Barbarann Keffer and junior Co-Captain Trisha Brown. They rank second and third, respectively, in scoring and one-two in both assists and steals.

Brown is having her best ever season with the Crimson, nearly doubling her offensive production of a year ago and giving Harvard a dependable outside jump shot.

Keffer--who easily eclipsed the former record for assists in a single season last year when she dished out 128 of them--has led the hoopsters in assists in eight of the 12 games.

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Quiz answer: Nancy Boutilier '84.