The Dartmouth women's basketball team overcame an explosive double-digit opening run by the Boston University Terriers to take a stunning 61-39 victory and stretch their win streak to three last night in Leede Arena.
The Big Green are now 8-6 overall, and remain 2-1 in the Ivy League.
After slumping to a 13-2 deficit in the first eight minutes of the game, Dartmouth rallied with a 15-5 run to take a 19-18 lead with four minutes left in the first half.
Swingplayer Liz Martin '00 halted the threatening Terrier run with a quick steal, and hustled down the full length of the court for the open layup.
Junior forward Erin Rewalt '99 would follow-up that play with another layup with 11:36 on the clock to put the Big Green within seven points, before Martin would sneak under the basket and grab the inside pass from Nicci Rinaldi '99 to sink another pair of points.
The Terrier's senior guard Kelly Jo Gallagher sank a jumper at the 9:15 mark to stop the 6-0 Dartmouth run, but that would be but a temporary antidote for the Terrier's slow suffering.
Dartmouth's freshman phenom Jackie Lippe '01 came up huge on the next two trips down the court as she tapped in four points on back-to-back layups to put the Big Green to within two points.
The Terriers would rally back to take a 18-14 lead courtesy of a Gina Powers layup, but Dartmouth's Sherryta Freeman '01 would bring Dartmouth to within one point with a three-point bomb with four minutes to go in the first half.
On the next possession, a rookie-to-rookie connection earned a 19-18 lead for Dartmouth as Samantha Berdinka '01 found Lippe through the backdoor for easy layup.
In the closing minutes of the first half, the lead would flip-flop as both teams found the white nylon on their trips down the court.
But it was a quick steal and an end-to-end layup by Gyvonne Pinkston '99 which would give Dartmouth a key 23-22 lead going into the lockers.
In the second half, the Big Green continued to make a beeline to the basket as juniors Katie O'Connor '99 and Rinaldi countered an opening Terrier layup with their own pair of deuces down the lane to earn a 27-24 Dartmouth lead.
Down by three, the Terriers started to show signs of collapse as Dartmouth's suffocating defense forced a 30-second time violation against BU.
From there, the Big Green lead would continue to go north as sophomore guard Courtney Banghart '00 drained a knife-burying three-point bucket to spike the advantage to nine points.
With twelve minutes to go, the Terriers would use to full-court press to try to stop the Dartmouth run, but they were only marginally successful as BU dropped in a triple to cut the lead to six.
But then, Rewalt started a Big Green rally with a short jumper for two points.
Banghart proceeded to shoot the lights out of Leede Arena as she kicked off the final ten minutes of the game with a breakaway layup followed by a long-range bomb from straight out to push the Dartmouth lead into the teens.
That seemed to be the final straw as the Big Green continued to find gaps in the Terrier defense to keep the scorekeeper typing away.
Perhaps the most sensational play of the night came compliments of Berdinka as she peddled her way along the baseline, pulled a spin move into the paint and found money on a reverse layup to bump the score to 51-37.
The rest was history as Dartmouth finished off the game with a sizzling 16-4 run en route to a 22-point victory.
In the stretch, the Dartmouth defense came up huge as the Big Green scooped up 15 steals and tallied six blocks on the night.
Rinaldi had another big game in the backcourt as she tallied a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio for the second straight game. She dished out a game-high seven assists one the night and gave up the ball just three times. She also led the Big Green with five steals against the Terriers.
Banghart shared game-high scoring honors with Rewalt and O'Connor as each of them hit double-digits with ten points on the night.
Rewalt also snagged a game-high ten rebounds to earn a double-double.
On the whole, the Big Green shot an impressive 46.4% from the field and 50% from long-distance. Meanwhile, they held the Terriers to just 31 percent from the field.
The Big Green will enjoy a full week's rest before heading north to Burlington next Wednesday for a twin-states rival matchup against the Vermont Catamounts.
Dartmouth returns to Ancient Eight action on January 30 at home against the Yale Bulldogs and the following night against the Brown Bruins.