W. Basketball Hopes To Fly Against Eagles

Before worrying about the opponent, the Harvard women’s basketball team has to hold onto the ball.

After turnover difficulties in the past two games, the Crimson will have to put such troubles away against No. 21 Boston College (5-1) on Sunday.

Harvard (5-2) turned the ball over 23 times in its win against Central Connecticut on Wednesday and 27 times in a loss to No. 12 Minnesota last Sunday.

“I’m very perplexed by these turnovers because honestly, they’re happening against the good teams without pressure,” said Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “It’s poor decisions that are causing us turnovers. We can live with the turnovers that are caused by pressure. How do you address decision making?”

The Eagles have had a chance to scout the Crimson, as the team attended Harvard’s game against the Golden Gophers. After seeing the Crimson’s trouble holding onto the ball, BC will try to capitalize on Harvard’s penchant for turnovers.

“They’re going to increase full court pressure and try to double us on passes and jump into the lanes because I think a lot of our turnovers were on entry passes on offense,” captain Kate Ides said.

One possible source of the Crimson’s possession woes is its adjustment to an aggressive defensive strategy. With Harvard’s speed and strength this year, a focus on intense defense may have inadvertently translated to a frenzied offense.

“Against Central Conneticut and Minnesota, we’ve tried to turn up our effort,” Ides said. “Though it seems our new defensive style is negatively affecting us on the offensive side because we can’t change gears quickly enough.”

The Crimson’s assertive defense will be needed to disrupt the Eagles’ offensive flow. BC has the benefit of experience with a roster of seasoned veterans that includes three fifth-year seniors.

“They connect with each other very well, and they’re very fluid, very confident,” Delaney-Smith said. “We don’t have that yet at Harvard—our team is very new.”

The Eagles have a number of effective weapons in their offensive arsenal. BC has been getting significant production from forward Jessalyn Deveny, who is averaging 19.7 points per game. Amber Jacobs is second on the team in scoring and notched a game-high 18 points in BC’s 86-48 thrashing of Northeastern last night.

Senior forward Becky Gottstein is another mark to be wary of, after sitting out last year because of multiple stress fractures. Though Gottstein, with starting experience all the way back to freshman year, and her teammates are formidable foes, the Crimson’s experience with basketball’s elite has helped prepare for such threats, even if it hasn’t helped Harvard’s record. Vanderbilt’s Chantelle Anderson and Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen are both candidates for the Naismith Player of the Year Award, along with BC point guard Brianne Stepherson.

“We’ve played a number of players comparable to [BC players] this year,” Delaney-Smith said. “We’ve seen many players as good as [Deveny] and a couple of players better than her.”

Another asset the Crimson needs to utilize is confidence. Against both Vanderbilt and Minnesota, Harvard allowed its opponent to go on 14-0 scoring runs to secure the game. In both games, the team cited fall in confidence as a reason it was unable to turn the momentum.

In addition to attention to defense and poise, Harvard will look to create a balanced attack to counter its previous habit of turning to low-percentage shots when feeling frantic.

“We’ve learned in the past that we can’t just rely on the outside shot,” Ides said. “We’re really concentrating off on a balanced approach and we started to move in that direction against Minnesota and Central Conneticut.”

The Crimson will tip off in Conte Forum at 3 p.m.

—Staff writer Jessice T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.