To say it was a nailbiter would be an understatement.
The fans were on the edge of their seats, coach Chris Wielgus and her assistants could not sit down.
And the five Dartmouth players on the court kept running, rebounding and scoring until the bitter end.
After watching the men's basketball team crush the Crimson, 73-65, the Dartmouth women's team did the same, defeating Harvard with a score of 81-77.
The win lifts the Big Green's record to 5-7 overall, 2-1 in the Ivy League, after falling to Princeton and defeating the University of Pennsylvania last weekend.
About five minutes into the second half, co-Captain Betsy Gilmore '94 sunk a shot from the right wing, edging Dartmouth ahead, 40-39. Gilmore had 13 points and 4 assists overall.
"We knew Harvard could explode at any minute," said Jen Stamp '96. "We had to keep the intensity up, or they would take the lead again."
Harvard never took the lead again, but they came close.
A three-pointer by Bess Tortolani '98 with seven minutes left in the second half put Dartmouth ahead by nine.
But Harvard fought back, and with 23 seconds left to go in the game, Harvard called a time-out, trailing by three.
Then Crimson star Tammi Butler fouled out at the 23 second mark, and teammates Jessica Gilman and Elizabeth Proudfit also fouled out in the final seconds of the game.
Dartmouth, who hit 75 percent of its free throws, managed to convert from the stripe in the clutch and secured the win.
Sally Annis '97 racked up 12 points in the game, while co-Captain Laurie Stucker '95 had nine points and four rebounds. Dartmouth scored 54 of its 81 points in the second half, breaking its previous record of 52 points after halftime.
Although Dartmouth trailed in the first half, they kept the Crimson lead in check, never falling behind by more than seven points.
"Our momentum was up in the first half, but our shots weren't falling," Wielgus said. "Still, I was delighted at halftime to only be trailing by four points.
"Harvard also moved to a half-court defense, which helped us."
At halftime the score was 31-27. The players felt determined to stay focused and eventually take the lead.
"We knew Harvard had great three-point shooting, so we had to play tough defense on the outside" co-Captain Ilsa Webeck '94 said.
"Our offense always depends directly on how well our defense is working, and after halftime we made sure to keep the intensity level up all the time."
"In the second half we settled down more and started to get the rhythm going," Stamp, one of Dartmouth's most dexterous guards, said.
"We also became active on the boards, and started to hit Ilsa [Webeck] down low, so she was able to get a lot of key baskets for us."
Stamp finished the game with an impressive 15 points and 4 rebounds.
Webeck was the leading scorer of the night, finishing the game with 20 points and ripping down a team-high 10 rebounds.
"The shots were there so I just took them" said Webeck. "I was getting some great passes from Betsy [Gilmore] and Kira [Lawrence '96], and the angles were good so I could just turn around and shoot. Once we shut down their scoring for awhile, we were able to take the lead."
"Harvard played a good game and they deserve lots of credit," Wielgus said. "I'm really proud of our team though, they put in a strong effort and displayed great athleticism. It was an extremely physical game, and I feel we really did deserve to win."
