Women's Basketball Falls to the Huskies

Two up-and-down teams met this weekend at Northeastern, and, as one would expect, the up team beat the down team as the hosts defeated the Harvard women's basketball team, 61-42, on Saturday.

Northeastern (5-5) appeared to be vulnerable after a 70-42 loss to New Hampshire last week, but unfortunately for the Crimson (6-4), the Huskies came to play, ending the Crimson's three-game win streak in abrupt fashion.

The tight Northeastern defense frustrated Harvard all day, forcing 23 Crimson turnovers.

"They put a lot of pressure on us, and we weren't ready to adjust," Harvard captain Laela Sturdy said. "We weren't able to run our offense well. We weren't able to get the shots we wanted."

But what hurt Harvard even more was its abysmal rebounding effort, as the Huskies managed 20 offensive rebounds to just nine for the Crimson.

"I thought everything they were doing for the most part was on the boards--that's how they were scoring," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "We need to work on rebounding. You can't win a ballgame if you let a team get 20 offensive rebounds."

Meanwhile, Northeastern star Tesha Tinsley scored 18 points--16 of them in the second half--to lead the Husky offense.

"She's a good player," Sturdy said. "She definitely came out ready to play in the second half."

In the first half, the poor Crimson passing and rebounding allowed the Huskies to have 11 more shot attempts. But poor Husky shooting kept Harvard in the game. At halftime, the Crimson was lucky to be trailing 30-26.

Throughout the first half, Tinsley was more eager to pass the ball off than to create her own shot. Other than a beautiful dish to forward Wanda Almengot on a fast break, Tinsley was not much of a factor offensively.

In the second half, however, Tinsley took control of the game. She showed great ability to penetrate the Harvard zone and hit difficult shots. She was often able to come out of nowhere and snatch rebounds away from the taller Harvard players. She scored seven points on an 11-0 Northeastern run six minutes into the second half that effectively guaranteed a Husky victory.

Her biggest consistent impact, however, came on defense, as her constant pressure made it difficult for sophomore point guard Jenn Monti to get anything accomplished. Monti managed only one assist in the second half.

"The hardest part was the entry passes," Monti said. "They were collapsing on the posts."

The Harvard offense managed to hit only 7-of-28 shots in the second half. Usually one of the top three-point shooting teams in the country, the Crimson was generally unable to hit the outside shots. Also, the Crimson couldn't hit the easy inside shots when it got the chance.

Such ineptitude brought a 7:14 scoring drought that didn't end until there was just 6:49 remaining in the second half.

"Even we got the shots we wanted, at that point, nothing fell." Delaney-Smith said. "And we were outrebounded. That's supposed to be our answer. That was the overwhelming glaring problem."

On the opening play of the second half, the aggressive Husky defense made it difficult for the Crimson to inbound the ball. Monti picked up a deflected pass, but the pressure caused her to throw the ball away. This play was largely indicative of how the rest of the second half would go for the Crimson.

Harvard's inability to maintain possession or achieve any kind of penetration kept it away from the free throw line. Northeastern managed 27 free throw attempts as compared to just five for the Crimson, who began using fouls to slow the clock down.

Because of the turnovers, the Crimson couldn't control the tempo of the game.

"[The Huskies] were using 28 to 29 seconds of offense on almost every possession," Delaney-Smith said.

Early in the game, the Harvard guards were able to find junior center Melissa Johnson open underneath. Johnson scored the first six points of the game for Harvard. But then the Northeastern defense tightened down on Johnson, and made it difficult for Harvard.

Unlike last week's games against Mount St. Mary's and Rhode Island, Harvard did not have a significant height advantage at center. Sarah Johnson, the team's leading scorer in both of the games last week, managed only four points in 14 minutes against the Husky widebodies.

Lani Lawrence, a 6'3 Husky center, had a bad day shooting the ball, making just 4-of-13 from the floor. But her constant presence in the middle was enough to make things difficult for the Harvard centers.

Melissa Johnson led the Crimson with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Johnson, like the team as a whole, often was unable to come down with rebounds that could have easily been made.

"The rebounding is what killed us," Sturdy said. "In our timeouts, we talked about adjusting to the rebounds, but we just didn't ever bring it to the court."

As always, a loss shows a team what it needs to work on in its next practices.

"Hopefully, [this game] will give us the fire we need to work really hard over Christmas break," Sturdy said. "Hopefully we can learn our lessons on the boards and learn our lessons on how to respond to pressure."