Last weekend, the women's basketball team was at a crossroads. This weekend, the team hopes to continue their journey along the path of success they paved with recent wins over Princeton and Penn.
Tonight's battle against Columbia and tomorrow night's match-up against Cornell will mark the Big Green's second meeting with the Empire State Ivies. Dartmouth (4-3 Ivy) split games on its New York roadtrip earlier this season.
Playing third-place Cornell (5-3 Ivy) in the first game of the road trip from hell, Dartmouth lost to the Big Red 68-60.
Coming back the next night, the Big Green defeated the last place Lions (1-6 Ivy) 66-64 when a last-second shot by Columbia clanked off the back of the rim and fell to the floor.
The Big Green are looking to take both games this weekend in hopes of catching up with first-place Harvard (7-0).
"We can't afford to lose any more games, and we can only hope that some teams can step up and beat Harvard," Jen Pariseau '97 said.
For the second week in a row, freshman guard Courtney Banghart earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors. Coming off the bench in the wins over the Tigers and the Quakers, Banghart totaled 33 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block.
Impressive numbers for the phenom, but even more amazing are her shooting numbers from the weekend. Banghart sank 48 percent (10 of 21) from the field, nailed 46 percent (5 of 11) from downtown and drained 80 percent (8 of 10) from the foul line.
On the season, Banghart leads the team with 25 three's and is second with 39 steals.
Starting point guard Nicci Rinaldi '99 continues to be a team leader. Rinaldi's team-high 71 assists and 41 steals complement her driving lay-ups that always get the crowd standing.
With Rinaldi driving to the hoop and Banghart setting up to bust the threes, senior guard Sally Annis serves as an anchor to the very young backcourt.
Annis is ninth on Dartmouth's all-time scorers list and this year, in addition to her 51 assists, she's surprisingly second on the team in rebounds, with 104.
The Big Green is solid in the front court, with time being split between Bess Tortolani '98, Erin Rewalt '99, Katie O'Connor '99 and Gyvonne Pinkston '99.
"Both teams are explosive from the outside," Dartmouth head coach Chris Wielgus said. "They're almost fearless in their shot selection."
"To win both games this weekend, I think that we just need to play good defense. The last time we played Columbia, we just let them go through us like a sieve," Rinaldi said.
Columbia is coming off its first Ivy League victory of the season over Yale last weekend. Despite their sorry record, Wielgus isn't counting on the Lions playing like lambs.
"Columbia has enormous confidence. We'll have to defend both the outside and the inside game," Wielgus said. "They're a very good three-point shooting team."
This past weekend, Lion forward Renee Jackson '99 pulled down an astounding 13 rebounds in the first half of a loss to Brown, on her way to 16 boards for the game. In addition to her awe-inspiring performance under the hoop, Jackson scored 13 points to complete her second double-double of the season.
Cornell is led by senior guard Kacee English. English is third on Cornell's list for career minutes played. This past weekend, English scored 25 points, while pulling down nine rebounds, dishing off 10 assists and making seven steals.
"The key is going to be our ability to focus on each game and to play each opponent with an equal amount of respect. So far this season, we have been our toughest opponent, and we need to get past that," Pariseau said.
Tip-off time in Leede Arena is 7:00 p.m. for both games.
