"The defense never rests."
So goes the saying on the warm-up shirts of the Cornell women's basketball team.
The Dartmouth women's basketball team shoved this saying in the face of the Big Red with a 69-56 win on Saturday night, leapfrogging over Cornell into third place in the Ancient Eight.
The Big Green effort was most evident in Dartmouth's domination under the boards. The Big Green pulled down 45 rebounds for the game, compared to just 32 for Cornell.
"The key to winning is rebounding," forward Erin Rewalt '99 said. "It takes a lot of pressure off the offense."
In stark contrast to Friday night's 59-58 loss to Columbia(2-8), the win over Cornell(5-5) was the result of the Big Green(5-4) outplaying, outrebounding and simply outhustling the Red.
Dartmouth jumped ahead just two-and-a-half minutes into Saturday night's blowout. Holding a seven-point lead at the close of the half, the Big Green busted out the razzle dazzle for the second half.
Four minutes into the second half, a fast-breaking Bess Tortolani '98 passed to a streaking Nicci Rinaldi '99 on the outside, who then fed the ball with a behind-the-back pass to Tortolani for the lay-up.
Rinaldi once again provided the spice just 40 seconds later. Again on the fast break, the sophomore guard brought the ball to the top of the key, hitting center Erin Rewalt '99 under the basket with a no-look pass. Rewalt tickled the nylon to put Dartmouth up by 18.
The remainder of the game was all Green, as Dartmouth forged ahead into the victory circle.
Tortolani pumped in a team-high 20 points and snagged seven rebounds for the Green, while Rewalt pulled down 10 rebounds in addition to her eight points.
"We played awesome as a team," Rinaldi said. "Rebounds keyed our fast break."
Also key in the win was the Big Green's suffocating coverage of Cornell star Kim Ruck, who was held to only 10 points and six assists.
"That's a credit to Sally Annis," Head Coach Chris Wielgus said. "Ruck is explosive and she couldn't get anywhere on Sally."
The Big Green showed a lot of heart on Valentine's Day, but couldn't come up with the needed points in the stretch against the last-place but always dangerous Lions.
With less than a minute-and-a-half to go, Rinaldi brought the crowd to its feet with a loud in-your-face block of a three-point shot, sending the ball careening back toward the Columbia basket.
But the Lions roared back in the second half.
Cutting the Dartmouth lead, Columbia steadily increased its lead to a zenith of 11 points with nine minutes to go.
Dartmouth found itself in a situation that was all too familiar, having dug itself a hole with only limited time remaining. The team managed to pull itself together, getting within four points with a minute left to play.
Two clutch free throws by Rewalt got the difference down to just one with 25 seconds left to play. But despite Columbia missing the front ends of four one-and-ones, that remaining one point never happened.
Those climactic final seconds crashed down as a running shot by Banghart from 35 feet out bounced high off the backboard and fell to the floor at the buzzer.
Rewalt's double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds, earned her high-scorer honors along with Tortolani, who also put in 16.
The women's basketball team travels south next weekend to take on eighth place Penn and sixth place Princeton.
