Harvard Pulls Off Greatest NCAA Tournament Upset

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Harvard hit the books — the record books.

The Crimson became the first 16th-seeded team to win an NCAA tournament game, men's or women's, by defeating top-seeded Stanford 71-67 Saturday night.

"I guess this means my name is going to go into some book now," said Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith.

The Ivy League champions won their first NCAA tournament game in three tries and in the process snapped Stanford's 59-game winning streak at Maples Pavilion.

Asked if she had ever had a bigger day, Delaney-Smith said: "My wedding day, maybe. I'm not even sure if that measures up."

Harvard (23-4), led by Allison Feaster's 35 points and 13 rebounds, advanced to a second-round game Monday night against Arkansas, which defeated Hawaii 76-70 earlier Saturday in the West Regional.

"We still can't believe that we did it," Feaster said. "I finally realized we were going to beat them with 18 seconds left when we were up by five but I also thought, 'How many times have you seen a last-second shot win a game?"'

But the improbable became reality and Harvard's players and coaches spilled onto the floor as the buzzer sounded, hugging and dancing in celebration.

"Maybe the chemistry wasn't there tonight," Stanford's Olympia Scott said. "Obviously, we weren't the same."

Regan Freuen's 19 points led injury-depleted Stanford (21-6), which played without Vanessa Nygaard and Kristin Folkl, both out with knee injuries.

Prior to Harvard's victory, top seeds were 75-0 against 16th seeds in the women's and men's tournaments.

"Well, this isn't what we planned," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "Harvard had excellent play from Allison Feaster. You have to give them a lot of credit. We were tight. They doubled, tripled and quadrupled Olympia (Scott) in the middle and we didn't shoot well enough from the outside to counteract that."

Women's top seeds were 19-0 against No. 16 seeds since the tournament expanded to 64 schools in 1994. Top-seeded men's squads are 56-0 against No. 16 seeds since that tournament went to 64 teams in 1985.

From the start, Stanford struggled offensively while playing without Nygaard, its top outside shooter, and Folkl, its leading scorer and rebounder. Nygaard tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in the season finale at Oregon State a week ago and Folkl sustained a similar injury in practice Tuesday.

Stanford couldn't replace the lost production and couldn't handle Feaster, the nation's leading scorer.

Trailing 48-38 after a putback by Feaster, Stanford put together a 17-5 run to move in front 55-53 on a pair of free throws by Heather Owen with 9:26 remaining.

But Harvard would not be denied.

With 5:19 left, Alison Seanor's driving layup put Harvard up 60-59 and Feaster added another basket. The Cardinal scored the next six points, pulling in front 65-62 on a pair of free throws by Scott with 2:57 left, but that proved to be Stanford's last lead.

Feaster had another layup and Harvard went in front to stay on Suzie Miller's 15-foot jumper with 1:33 remaining. Miller added a 3-pointer seconds later to secure the victory.

With Stanford hitting just 31 percent of its shots from the field, Harvard took a 43-34 halftime lead, closing out the opening period with a 10-0 burst that included successive 3-pointers by Miller and Sarah Russell.

Harvard opened leads of 16-6 and 23-11 behind the shooting of Feaster, who had 16 first-half points.

Stanford came back with a 23-11 run, moving in front 34-33 on Freuen's 3-pointer with 2:42 left in the first half, but the Cardinal failed to score again before the break.