Only four days after upsetting Harvard, in what has been the biggest win of the season so far, Dartmouth (7-6, 1-0 Ivy) came back Wednesday night to beat Manhattan (7-6, 3-2 MAAC), 79-65, at Leede Arena. Jeannie Cullen '06 hit five three pointers and led the Big Green with 20 points, while freshmen starters Elise Morrison and Ashley Taylor each had 15. Fatima Kamara '07 added 10 points off the bench.
Despite the fact that they only led by four at the half, and by seven with a little over a minute left to play, Dartmouth still managed to pull out a victory against an undersized Manhattan squad. "For us right now," said head coach Chris Wielgus following the game, "it's about having a consistent level of play and consistent effort every game. We have a few days ahead to work on that, and we will."
Coming off their big win against Harvard, who had been undefeated in Ivy League play for the past two years, Dartmouth jumped out to an early lead against Manhattan. Taylor and co-captain Jamie Librizzi '04 hit back to back jumpers to open the game, and Cullen hit consecutive shots to give Dartmouth a 10-4 advantage.
The Jaspers kept the game close by pulling down 18 offensive rebounds and forcing second and third chances off of their own misses. The Big Green opened up a 12-point lead after co-captain Sam Burnham '04 made a fastbreak layup with four minutes remaining in the first half, but the Jaspers closed the gap with an 11-2 run over the next three minutes and trailed by only four at the intermission, by a score of 33-29.
The second half proved to be equally back-and-forth. Morrison opened up the scoring for the Big Green with a layup, Cullen added a jumper, and Taylor sank two free throws to increase the Dartmouth lead to nine. Dartmouth's lead grew to as much as fourteen when Morrison blocked a Jasper shot, Fatima Kamara '07 grabbed the rebound and threw the ball ahead to Cullen, who sunk her fifth three-pointer of the night. But after a Jasper run late in the half, the margin shrank to seven with a little over a minute to play. Final free throws by Angie Soriaga '06 and Kamara, as well as a Librizzi three pointer, sealed the game for the Big Green.
Overall, Dartmouth shot 56 percent from the field to Manhattan's 33 percent and hit the big shots when needed. Cullen shot 7-11 from the field and Taylor was 4-5. Said Librizzi about the team's overall effort, "It is important for us to realize that we have to use every game no matter who it is against in order to get better. We definitely need to become more consistent because once Ivy League play resumes we can't afford to let down our intensity like we did at times tonight. But a win is a win and we'll take it."
Cullen had similar thoughts: "We just have to make sure our intensity level is high for every game we play. We have to pick each other up and make sure everyone gets fired up every time we go out."
That four Dartmouth players scored in double figures and the team shot over 50 percent from the field is undoubtedly an indication of their overall talent. As Librizzi said, "We've shown that we have a lot of different people who can step up offensively and that makes us a tough team to play against. Now the objective everyday in practice and in every game is to get better as a team so we can achieve our goal of the Ivy Title." Dartmouth hits the road next Tuesday to play Army and will travel back to New York at the end of the month to face Ivy League rivals Columbia and Cornell.
