W. Cagers Begin Ivy Home Stretch

The non-conference games are over and only eleven Ivy League contests stand between the women's basketball team and the NCAA berth expected of it.

Harvard (13-2, 3-0 Ivy) is in the midst of its best season ever, but the true measure of success begins tonight when the Crimson battles Brown (6-10, 2-2) and continues tomorrow night against Yale (7-9, 1-3). Both games are at Lavietes Pavilion and have 6 p.m. starting times.

The matchups kick off an eleven-game Ivy stretch over the next five weeks that will close out the regular season and determine the Ivy representative to the NCAA Tournament.

"We're on a mission to stay undefeated [in league play]," said co-captain Allison Feaster. "We know how important each game is."

Harvard is the two-time defending league champion and the team everyone else is trying to knock off its pedestal. The Crimson currently owns winning streaks of 29 Ivy games--a league record--and 18 home games.

"We know how other teams feel about us, so we get ourselves fired up for every game," said co-captain Megan Basil.

If anyone is planning on unseating the defending champs, they had better bring their best game into Lavietes. Brown has the players with the potential to do just that.

Despite their disappointing record thus far in the season, the Bears are no slouches. Brown was picked third in the preseason Ivy polls, and there is no dearth of talent in Providence.

Brown is led by All-Ivy First-Teamers Liz Turner and Vita Redding. Turner is the Bears' premiere player, and she might be the second-best forward in the league. Redding, only in her junior year, is a prolific scorer who led the Ivy League in points per game last season.

"We know we're up against two of the top players in the league," Feaster said. "We expect the game to be competitive."

The Bears also have a pair of rising, young stars on the squad. Sophomore forwards Kate Veronneau and Nicole Brown might be the frontcourt of the future, but they have already started to show stints of splendor.

Although Yale is not as talented as Brown on paper, the Elis have posted a better overall record than the Bears this year. They are powered by their junior class corps of center Katy Grubbs, guard Natasha Archer and forward Autumn Braddock.

Grubbs leads the Elis in scoring with a 13.6 points per game average. Archer and Braddock provide some much-needed shooting support.

However, with an offense that is averaging 86.2 points in its last four games, Harvard will prove tough to defeat. If Turner is the league's second-best forward, there is no doubt as to who number one is--Allison Feaster.

The Crimson's co-captain is fresh off of her 32-point, 13-rebound performance in Harvard's 87-58 thrashing of Lehigh on Monday. Feaster became the Ivy League's all-time leading scorer during that contest, breaking a 16-year old mark.

"We've had several good games in a row", Feaster said. "I think we're preparing for the next level."

With 1,949 career points and 1,007 career rebounds, the All-American is only 51 points away from becoming the first woman in Ivy League history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. She may very well accomplish the feat this weekend.

Harvard is also enjoying hot shooting of late by guards Suzie Miller and Sarah Brandt. The pair combined to hit seven of nine three-pointers against Lehigh.

The Crimson's shooting attack will be even stronger with Basil back in the lineup. Harvard's floor general has suffered through the flu the entire week and saw very limited action on Monday.

"I'm feeling great," Basil said. "I had a great practice [yesterday], and I'm psyched to play."

Basil's presence not only means an added shooting threat on the perimeter, it will also spark the Crimson's defense up front. Basil and fellow senior Alison Seanor spearhead a Harvard defense that averages better than 11 steals per game.

Harvard has started to play its best basketball at the perfect moment. If the Crimson continues its combination of plentiful scoring and stifling defense, neither Brown nor Yale nor any other Ivy team seems likely to spoil Harvard's run at a threepeat.