A blowout.
It seemed like just the thing to get the Dartmouth women's basketball out of their funk, but despite Friday night's 80-61 victory over Yale, the team dropped Saturday's contest to Brown, 81-73.
Friday's battle displayed the Big Green (7-10, 2-3 Ivy) at their finest, with Bess Tortolani '98 pouring in 20 points for the Green, and Nicci Rinaldi '99 sinking 17, in addition to her seven assists.
"We played very well together, and came out firing right from the beginning," said Courtney Banghart '00.
The main difference between this performance and those of weeks past was shooting. The team shot 49 percent from the floor, significantly higher than their 40 percent season average.
At the close of first half, Dartmouth was already up by the margin that would lead them to victory, 43-24.
The Big Green built the lead up to 26 at the opening of the second half, with Rinaldi bucketing a quick five and center Erin Rewalt '99 putting in four.
The win was evident in the statistics. Dartmouth pulled down 38 rebounds to Brown's 28, while only turning the ball over five times.
"Friday night we were pumped up and ready to go. Our defensive rotation was solid, and we were really in the groove offensively. Then on Saturday, we just lost it," Rewalt said.
As much as Dartmouth dominated Friday's visit to New Haven, Saturday night's stopover in Providence was a battle from the start.
With the game tied at 19 midway through the first half, Brown hit for 12 unanswered points. Dartmouth rallied back for six with the help of two breakaway lay-ups by freshman guard, but a 10-3 Brown run closed out the half.
Rinaldi and Rewalt both put home seven points in the first half, with seven assists by Rinaldi.
Dartmouth managed to narrow the margin to six midway through the second half, but a 15-4 Brown run appeared to bury all semblance of hope.
With five minutes left to play in the game, Dartmouth was down 59-41.
In just three and half minutes, Dartmouth had whittled Brown's lead to one point.
The victory wasn't meant to be, however, as the points to take the lead remained elusive, and Brown tacked on foul shots to close out the victory.
"Consistency is again the word that killed us," Banghart said. "But if we got one thing out of the game, we showed courage and fought till the last second. We came back and unfortunately came up just short."
