Future Remains Open as Crimson Travels to N.Y.

With three league contests under its belt, the Harvard women’s basketball team is beginning to get comfortable in the Ivy League. But after it faces the league’s worst and best competition this weekend, the Crimson will have an even better idea of where it stands.

Standing in the middle of the Ancient Eight pack with a 2-1 league mark, Harvard will travel to last-place Columbia for a Friday night match-up before heading north for a Saturday battle with Cornell, which sits comfortable atop the Ivy standings. Both tipoffs are scheduled for 7 P.M.

Cornell has been the team to watch in the Ivies this season, entering this weekend with an unblemished conference slate. The Big Red—much like the Crimson—struggled during its non-league games, but have recovered to record four Ivy wins without a loss. Among its victories in 2007 has been a four-point win at Princeton, a preseason favorite to take home the Ivy crown.

“We know that they have good drivers and that we’ve got to stop the drive and give lots of help,” co-captain Christiana Lackner said of Cornell. “But we know we have talent and that we match up well, so we just have to come out strong like we know we can.”

Key to the Big Red’s 4-0 league record this season has been the play of sophomore guard Jeomi Maduka. After reeling in the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award last season, Maduka (14.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game) is making her case for Player of the Year honors in 2007.

But simply stopping Maduka will not stop Cornell. Freshman guard Lauren Benson - part of the Big Red’s large, talented supporting cast - earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week recognition after her seven points, five rebounds, and six assists helped the Big Red defeat Columbia last weekend.

“Even though they have Maduka, they’ve won without her and there are several other players stepping up for them,” coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “They have veterans and new kids, and six or seven different people stepping up and doing things.”

While Cornell stands in a position to contend for the league title, Columbia, who enters the weekend winless through four Ivy matchups, seems like a team headed for the opposite fate. After recording only two conference victories a year ago, wins will be hard to come by for the Lions once again in 2007. Senior guard Megan Griffith is the team’s lone player in double figures this season at 14.1 points per game, and Columbia will need Griffith’s teammates step up if they hope to compete against Harvard or any other Ancient Eight contender.

But in an Ivy league that has been carried thus far by young talent rather than veteran experience, Harvard’s leaders emphasize that Crimson can’t afford to take any game for granted.

“The first thought that comes to my mind is that the Ivy league is unpredictable,” Delaney-Smith said. “Even though Columbia doesn’t have an Ivy win yet, they don’t look that bad on tape. So we have to be ready for them.”

“We don’t want to take anyone lightly right now,” Lackner added. “This league is crazy, and anything can happen.”

But Delaney-Smith is quick to point out that Harvard’s challenges start with its own play. Before righting its ship with a thirty-point blowout win at Brown last Saturday, the Crimson dropped a 61-53 decision to what looked to be a beatable Yale team. Rust and lack of focus likely played important roles after Harvard missed three weeks of live competition for reading and exam periods.

When it beat defending Ivy champion Dartmouth on January 6, the Crimson showed that it can play with the best in the league. This weekend, it has another opportunity: not only to show that it can beat this season’s best competition, but that it can fight off its own inconsistencies to win the games it should.

“We didn’t have that game rhythm and game toughness (against Yale),” Delaney-Smith said. “This season has not been about what our opponents are doing. It’s been about taking care of our business and bringing some consistency to our game.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.