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The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Big Green women's basketball falls to Maine and Marist

The women's basketball team could not gain leads against Marist and the University of Maine, notching only 35 points in their home opener against Marist, the lowest-scoring match for the Big Green women since 1977.
The women's basketball team could not gain leads against Marist and the University of Maine, notching only 35 points in their home opener against Marist, the lowest-scoring match for the Big Green women since 1977.

The 35 points that the Big Green scored against the Red Foxes from Marist were the fewest tally for Dartmouth since 1977, when they lost 28-58 to Yale. In both games, Dartmouth could not find its shooting touch early, as the Big Green dug itself early holes with cold shooting.

Dartmouth is now 0-3 on the young season after battling three legitimate contenders for postseason play. Maine is now 1-2 after losing to Holy Cross on Sunday, and Marist wins their third straight contest to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Against Maine, the Big Green was never really able to get into an offensive groove, as the Black Bears capitalized off of early Big Green turnovers and hot shooting from beyond the arc. Midway into the half, the Black Bears held a commanding 21-8 lead.

Dartmouth then fought back with co-captain Kristen Craft '08 leading the way with several jumpers and three-point buckets to cut the lead down to 10 points with just over two minutes in the half.

However, just when Dartmouth thought that they would crawl back into the game, Maine came back with an 8-0 run to conclude the half, and they carried a comfortable 37-19 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, Dartmouth shook up its lineup and injected two sophomores and three freshmen into the game an effort to get some energy into the squad. The situation did not get much better, though. Whenever the Big Green would chip away at Maine, the Black Bears would answer right back, scoring points of their own.

The Black Bears were lights out from the field, converting 49.1 percent of their shots from the field, including 43.5 percent of shots from beyond the arc.

Against Maine, Craft had an excellent day, connecting on 8-11 from the field for a career-best 19 points, but her efforts were not enough to give her team the win.

For the Black Bears, freshman forward Tanna Ross came off of the bench to score 16 points, 12 of those from behind the arc, to pace her team.

In Sunday's contest against Marist, the Red Foxes looked just like the team that had made a run to the Sweet 16 last year. In the early going, Marist put together a 7-0 run right away to put the Big Green on its heels.

The Big Green got its first points from Brittney Smith '11 in the low post, but Marist went on a 6-0 run once again to jump out to a 13-2 lead. Late in the first half, the Red Foxes also started getting hot from beyond the arc, compounding the problem for the Big Green and widening the lead to 27-8. Every time Dartmouth would score, Marist would have a reply ready, as the Red Foxes steadily built up their lead.

Dartmouth would score several buckets to cut the deficit, but Marist closed out the half on another run, scoring five straight points to gain a 32-14 advantage in the half.

In the second half, it was much of the same as the shots kept falling for Marist and the Big Green found points hard to come by. Dartmouth stepped up early defensively, shutting down the Marist shooters, but the Big Green could not close the point gap.

Craft once again led the team in scoring with 11 points. Margaret Smith '10 collected nine rebounds in the game.

For the game, the Red Foxes shot at a 40 percent clip, while the Big Green only hit on 22.4 percent of their shots.

Wielgus commented on her team's scoring woes on the day.

"Against a good team, the hardest thing to do is to score," Wielgus said.

"We got some good looks in the beginning but they just didn't go in. When they didn't go in we started pressing for shots, and that's because we're a young team and we have to learn from that."

Craft commented on her team's struggles against a veteran team that has postseason experience.

"We just didn't play together very well, Marist was a much more experienced team than we were," Craft said.

"We just took our shots too early in the shotclock."

Although the team struggled offensively, Wielgus was pleased with her team's defensive execution and the ability to fight for rebounds.

"There was nothing wrong with the defensive game plan, we bothered them and forced them to shoot late in the shotclock and we rebounded well," Wielgus said. "But whenever you aren't scoring it's just like standing on quicksand."

Dartmouth will be back on the hardwood on Saturday, Nov. 25 when the team travels to Queens, N.Y. to take on Big East foe St. John's. The Red Storm are currently 2-1 on the season and are coming off of an 66-48 loss at the hands of the Catamounts of Vermont.

Although the wins have not come yet for the Big Green, Wielgus and her team will keep grinding through their challenging non-conference slate.

"I told them that I expect more and they expect more out of themselves, but we are playing a very tough non-conference schedule," Wielgus said.

"We're disappointed, but we're not discouraged."