In front of their largest crowd of the season, the Dartmouth women's basketball team dropped their Ivy League opener to Harvard on Saturday, 81-68.
Harvard (7-5) took an early lead in the first half, but Dartmouth (5-6) rallied to take a seven point lead on a lay-up by Katie O'Connor '99 with seven minutes remaining.
Foreshadowing a run by Harvard that would sway the game in the second half, the Crimson took their seven-point deficit and converted it into a four-point lead just four minutes later.
But Dartmouth wasn't about to hang its head going into the locker room. After trimming the lead to three, Courtney Banghart '00 hit a three-pointer with four seconds remaining that tied the score at 37 and looked to be a big momentum swing going into the second half.
The second half lead see-sawed between the two teams, but it was Dartmouth that held the lead at 49-46 when Harvard went ballistic.
Repeating their first half performance, Harvard went on a 15-3 run that proved insurmountable.
Sally Annis '97, who had a team high 18 points for the game, led the failed comeback charge with seven points in the last six minutes.
Annis commented on the team's 25 three-point attempts, "They were giving us very good looks from outside and we had a lot of time to get out shot off without someone in our faces."
Nicci Rinaldi '99 complemented Annis with 17 points, including making six of nine from the free throw line.
Head coach Chris Wielgus attributed the loss to early foul trouble that forced her to substitute players early in the first half, and again midway through the second.
Wielgus said the turning point of the game was midway through the second half, when two of her forwards earned their fourth fouls.
Also significant was the Big Green's 37 percent shooting percentage from the field, including several missed lay-ups.
The Harvard squad featured 1995 Ivy Rookie of the Year Allison Feaster. Wielgus praised Annis (the 1994 Rookie of the Year) for shutting down Feaster: "Sally showed some awesome fire tonight."
In action before the break, Dartmouth defeated Hartford 61-42. The win was bittersweet, however, because the team lost freshman center Jessica Veysey for the season with a torn ACL.
Over break, the team traveled to the Lone Star state to take on Texas A&M and Texas Southern. The team received a shellacking at the hands of the Aggies.
At the end of the first half, Dartmouth trailed by only two points, but Texas A&M man-handled the Big Green in the second half, outscoring Dartmouth 53-8.
Texas Southern was another story entirely. Dartmouth came out on fire and didn't stop scoring until it had surpassed the 100-point mark for the first time in team history.
In the 102-62 rout, Erin Rewalt '99 scored a career high 30 points and earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors for her effort. In addition to her 13 of 15 shooting performance, Rewalt had five steals, eight assists, and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Hosting their own tournament in Leede Arena the weekend of December 28th, Dartmouth lost both of the games they played.
In the first game against Hofstra, the team made a valiant effort in coming back from a 20-point deficit at the half, but they pulled up short in a 74-69 loss.
Wielgus's squad hits the road this weekend for the all important Cornell and Columbia games.
Despite recent events, Wielgus cautioned her team not to get discouraged "This Ivy League championship is a marathon, not a sprint."
