Women’s basketball heads to California for Contra Costa Times Classic

The winless Harvard women’s basketball team (0-5) will fly to the Golden State this weekend for a pair of games against western competition.

The Crimson meets No. 16 California, the Contra Costa Times Classic tournament host, in its opening game at 8 p.m. tomorrow night. Then it will take on the winner of the San Jose State-Arkansas State semifinal at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Harvard has struggled in the early going in 2006. The squad was handed a 15-point defeat by BYU on Wednesay night in its first meeting with a ranked opponent. That loss followed a pair of losses over the Thanksgiving weekend, at home to Quinnipiac and then on the road at Fairfield.

Sophomore guard Niki Finelli is the Crimson’s leading scorer with 15.2 points per game. She has been the team’s points leader in four of its five games thus far.

Fellow sophomore and backcourt mate Emily Tay is the team leader in assists and steals, but has committed a whopping 38 turnovers through the five games.

Another interesting statistic of note: Harvard has outscored its opponents by a combined 154-149 in the first half, but has been a poor finishing team, getting beat 221-156 in the second frame.