Monti, W. Hoops Beat Buzzer Twice

One night after drilling a game-winning, off-balance three-pointer against Brown at the buzzer, Monti offered up a reprise versus Yale. With just 6.4 seconds remaining in the game, Harvard co-captain Suzie Miller inbounded the ball to Monti in the right corner of the Crimson's offensive end of the floor, and the heart-stopping sequence was set into motion.

Monti held the ball in the corner as the clock wound down, and she looked to pass to freshman forward Lindsay Ryba in the paint. But the Bulldogs stuck a double team on Monti in an attempt to trap her in the corner and force a turnover--that decision would come back to bite the Bulldogs.

Monti dribbled left around the double team and drove into the lane where she faked a pass with poetic subtlety. The effect was pronounced as Yale's frontcourt defenders parted like the Red Sea before Moses, and Monti finger-rolled the ball just over the front rim with her left hand as time expired.

"I have some people who want that last shot, who like pressure, and I love that," said Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. "I think there's a higher power helping us, I really do. I also believe there are players who really will it--that's Jen."

Monti's heroics capped off a second half that saw Harvard erase a 10-point Yale lead. In an otherwise close contest with 11 lead changes and four ties, the Crimson found itself trailing 43-33 with 14:35 left to play before embarking on a 13-0 run in a six-minute span led by three consecutive buckets courtesy of Miller.

The run began when Monti drove through the Yale defense and hit a lay-up to pull Harvard within eight. Then Miller went to work. Playing in her final home weekend along with her three senior classmates, Miller started things off with a gorgeous reverse lay-up off a beautiful lob pass from fellow co-captain Sarah Russell.

After a missed jumper by Yale sophomore forward Lily Glick, Monti pushed the ball up in transition and kicked it to Miller in the right corner for one of her five treys on the night to make it a three-point game. Following a Yale timeout and a blocked shot by Ryba, sophomore point guard Lisa Kowal found Miller on the left wing for a 16-foot jumper that pulled Harvard within one.

Less than one minute later, Kowal herself gave the Crimson the lead when she used a hesitation dribble to freeze her defender, Yale junior guard Kelly Denit, then blew by Denit and kissed a shot high off the glass for a 44-43 Harvard advantage. Senior center Rose Janowski capped off Harvard's run with an impressive, 180-degree, turnaround hook over her Yale counterpart Katy Grubbs at the 8:41 mark.

"Yale hates us; their intent was to just nail us," Delaney-Smith said.

Neither team led by more than three points the rest of the way, and it looked as if the Bulldogs might steal the victory when Grubbs hit a lay-up to put Yale ahead 53-50 with 3:09 to play. But Janowski answered Grubbs with a lay-up of her own off a nice high-low feed from Ryba, and the stage was set for Monti to perform.

"Yale said some things in the [Yale Daily News] about how we were their most hated rival and that their one goal in the season was to beat us twice," Janowski said. "They have really good post players, and they are very deep. I think [Grubbs] is a great player; I would love to have her on my team."

Both teams used full-court pressure effectively the entire evening, but it seemed most helpful to the Crimson's cause. Yale held a slim, 30-28 lead at halftime and came out hot in the second half, while Harvard suffered a brief scoring drought. Unable to convert baskets, the Crimson was consequently unable to press, and the Bulldogs capitalized on the opportunity to build their 10-point lead.

Once Harvard started connecting on its shots, however, the press returned. Harvard's full-court pressure did not lead to many steals, but it certainly unnerved Yale, especially up front where Kowal and senior guard Kelly Kinneen frustrated Denit and the rest of Yale's guard corps all evening. Yale was consistently forced into poor offensive sets by a press that used up half the shot clock before the Bulldogs crossed halfcourt.

Harvard won the battle of the boards 36-33 and held Yale to below 40 percent shooting from the floor. The Crimson shot 43.8 percent one night after a 45.9 percent shooting performance and hit 6 of 14 shots from beyond the three-point arc.

Miller's 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting led all scorers, and she added four rebounds. Apparently inspired by the pre-game ceremony honoring the Crimson's four seniors, Miller played her best game of the season.

She scored Harvard's final points of the first half in dramatic fashion. Miller took a cross-court bounce pass from Kinneen deep in the right corner, launched a three-pointer that found nothing but net and drew the foul. She converted the free throw to complete Harvard's only four-point play of the season.

"I tried not to think about it [being senior night] because I didn't want to get emotional and nervous," Miller said. "I didn't think about anything, I just went out and played the game. Maybe my problem is that I think too much some times."

"The fans were great, and of course, it was a special night," she added. "You can't not play well in your senior night game, and I think all four seniors played awesome tonight."

Grubbs led Yale with an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double, and Denit added 11 points in the losing cause. Senior forward Christina Bertao finished with nine points, and freshman forward Onaona Miller chipped in six.

Janowski recorded another double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Russell added five points and five boards and Monti finished with six points and a game-high three assists. Kinneen, Kowal, Ryba and junior guard Courtney Egelhoff each dished out two assists.