Crimson slip in Big Dance

Contrary to the rash of headlines immediately following Harvard's 89-65 loss to Maryland in the first round of the NCAA championships this past Sunday (March 18), this game was not a rout. North Carolina's 95-38 win over Prairie View was a rout; Connecticut's 82-33 victory over the University of Maryland Baltimore County — rout; Stanford's 96-58 cruel defeat of Idaho State — rout au gratin.

Against the Terrapins, however, the young Crimson squad (with just a pair of seniors on the roster), never fully collapsed or surrendered. In fact, through the first 10 minutes of play at the Hartford Civic Center, the No. 15-seeded Crimson matched up impressively against their second-seeded opponents, even forging a 4-point lead following senior Christiana Lackner's bomb from behind the arc.

But ultimately, turnovers and early foul trouble began to unravel the underdogs, while Maryland capitalized with purpose to pull away. Just consider that immediately after Lackner suffered her third foul in a span of just 1:32 of the first half — prompting coach Kathy Delaney-Smith to bench the forward — the Crimson would go on to miss their next seven field goal attempts. The Terrapins, meanwhile, jumped out to 20-9 advantage.

Still, down 38-25 at the conclusion of the first 20 minutes of play, Harvard managed to hold the Terrapins — one of the most dominant rebounding teams in the tourney — to a 23 to 15 advantage on the boards to stay within striking distance.

And though it wasn't for a lack of good, clean looks at the basket, the strike never quite materialized for Harvard, as cold shooting continued to stifle the Crimson from the get-go of the second half. Harvard hit just one field goal in its first six attempts, in fact, as Maryland ran up its biggest lead of the day, 51-27.

Sparked by sophomore guard Emily Tay, who managed 14 points in the second half (16 on the day) — and a dandy one-handed pass from mid-court for one of her eight assists — Harvard eventually found their rhythm over the next 13 minutes of play (even tallying 10 fast-break points and a 46 percent shooting effort), but proved unable to close the gap to less than 19.

All told, the well-rounded Harvard effort also saw Lackner drop in 14 points and junior Jessica Knox knock down all three of her three-point attempts (for 14 as well). Lindsay Hallion '08, meanwhile, contributed six points, five rebounds, and six assists, while sophomore Liz Tindal had a steal, a block, and pulled down five boards.