W. Hoops Notebook: W. Basketball’s Guard Rotation Runs Deep

Just when it seemed Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith had settled on a depth chart for her guards, sophomore Laura Robinson came along and messed everything up.

With junior Rochelle Bell gradually returning from injury and sophomore Jess Holsey sliding nicely into the starting shooting guard role beside senior point guard Bev Moore, the top three backcourt slots appeared to have been filled.

But with a solid performance in the closing moments of Thursday’s game against the Northeastern Huskies, Robinson more than proved her mettle—an appraisal reflected by her 22 minutes on the court yesterday.

“I’m not surprised by that,” Delaney-Smith said. “Laura is an entirely different player than she was last year. She loves the pressure. She makes great decisions with the ball, so we’re not surprised by that.”

Boston University’s defense was.

Drawing minimal coverage as the Terriers attempted to neutralize co-captain forward Hana Peljto and junior center Reka Cserny, Robinson made her presence felt on her first touch, draining a trey from the left sideline en route to a career-high 14 points. Robinson netted six of nine shots, including two of five behind the arc.

But she wasn’t the only guard BU lost in the frontcourt’s lengthy shadow.

Moore torched the nets early, draining three shots from beyond the arc in the game’s first eight minutes and threatening to single-handedly outscore the Terriers midway through the opening period. Moore also served up five assists despite limited second-half playing time. Holsey added seven points and four assists of her own.

“Laura, Bev and Jessica are all going to share time at the 1-2 spot,” Delaney-Smith said. “They’re all different players and bring different strengths to the team. It’s the kind of thing where [if] I’m not putting someone back in, it isn’t necessarily that they’re doing bad. It’s that someone on the floor—like Laura—is having a superstar performance.”

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Despite a brutal slate to open the year, including road trips to Minnesota and Florida, the postponement of the scheduled home opener against Lafayette delayed Harvard’s first outing in Lavietes Pavilion until the team’s seventh game of the season.

“Home! Home!” Delaney-Smith exclaimed after the game. “I don’t remember a start like this, as tough a non-conference start, and not being home.”

And after a performance against Northeastern in which the rims were particularly unforgiving to the Crimson, the return home proved particularly timely.

“We just love our rims,” Delaney-Smith said. “They’re soft. We love them.”

The more friendly rims proved particularly helpful on the few occasions Harvard’s jump shots weren’t passing straight through the cylinder.

After a solid first half in which the team converted on 53.8 percent of its field-goal attempts—54.5 from three-point range—the Crimson sunk 19-of-27 in the second, good for 70.4 percent.

The 62.3-percent shooting percentage and 55-percent conversion of three-point tries came on the heels of a performance against the Huskies in which Harvard netted just 39.3 and 17.6 percents, respectively.

Sloppy Joes

Though heavy pressure from BU didn’t thwart the Crimson’s success in making the shots it attempted, aggressive defense from the Terriers prevented quite a few shots from ever being taken.

“Last year they pressured us a lot,” Cserny said. “They didn’t press us full court this year but they were pretty aggressive at the defensive end.”

In forcing 22 turnovers—a dubious threshold Harvard has reached in two consecutive games—BU applied intense pressure on the ball carrier from half-court onward at a minimum and on occasion prevented the Crimson from even attempting to run the offensive sets it would have preferred.

The many takeaways translated into 34 points—nearly half of the Terriers 74-point output.

But while the feisty defense netted BU many extra opportunities, Harvard’s crisp side-to-side ball movement opened up several three-pointers for players left uncovered while the Terriers overplayed the ball.

The Crimson’s pickpockets met BU nearly tit-for-tat, lifting 11 steals of their own—including five by Peljto—while forcing 21 turnovers.

“We did a lot of switching between a triangle and zones and man,” Peljto said. “And sometimes when you switch so much it confuses the other team.”

Peljto floated through the paint with ease, sneaking around ball handlers while they posted up a teammate before pouncing on the unprotected ball from the blind side.

“She’s in the locker room saying, ‘This is the best defensive game I’ve ever had,’ and it is,” Delaney-Smith said. “She read passing lanes really well. That’s what we’ve been focusing on.”

Peljto wasn’t the only one. The Crimson netted 25 points off turnovers and 12 on the fast break.

“We thought we could step up and put pressure on the ball—we have the athleticism,” Delaney-Smith said. “In years past, we haven’t been as quick in some positions, but I think we have everything. We have quickness, we have height, we have depth—we have everything in order to do that.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.