Do or die. The Dartmouth women's basketball team (8-3 Ivy, 15-8 overall) heads into a weekend knowing that they cannot lose a single game.
Trailing the Princeton Tigers (9-2, 14-9) by one game, the Big Green must sweep Yale (5-7, 10-14) on Friday and Brown (7-5, 12-12) on Saturday at home, as well as a road game at Harvard (5-6, 8-14) on Tuesday. Then they must hope that the Tigers drop a road game at either Cornell or Columbia this weekend, or a Wednesday home game against Penn.
"This is a very special weekend," Big Green Head Coach Chris Wielgus said. "It's the last homestand for our seniors. We are determined to send them out in style."
"It's been a long stretch on the road for us and we are delighted to be back in Leede Arena," Wielgus said. The Big Green is 8-3 in their own friendly confines this season.
Seniors Nicci Rinaldi, Erin Rewalt, Gyvonne Pinkston and Katie O'Connor prepare for the final home weekend as the second most productive class in Dartmouth history. The Class of 1999 foursome has tallied 2,890 points entering this weekend.
Amongst the keys for the Big Green's success is to get an early lead, make free throws and dominate the boards.
Dartmouth is 11-2 when leading at halftime, and is undefeated when shooting over 70 percent from the charity stripe (10-0) or when outrebounding their opponents (10-0).
"They are must win games and we are very focused, knowing that it's our last homestand with our seniors," Courtney Banghart '00 said. "We got to have fun and play our best for them, the program, and ourselves."
The junior guard leads the team in points with 14.8 per game and she is ranked number one in Dartmouth history for three-point goals made (164).
"We have been very focused this week, working on defense and the things that we need to strengthen for these games," senior center O'Connor said. "These are our last home games as seniors. We know we can win them, we just have to go out there and do it."
The Big Green defeated the first-place Tigers last Friday to grab the top Ivy rank for 24 hours but lost the position after dropping a contest to Penn on Saturday.
The loss was Dartmouth's only third in the last 16 games. And the three losses are only by 2, 4 and 3 points deficits.
"Yale and Brown are very good, but opposite teams," Wielgus said. "Yale is an excellent defensive team with a balanced attack whereas Brown is very explosive and opportunistic ... they love to run. We are as prepared as we will ever be ... we just want to play."
The third-place Brown squad is led by two senior guards, Vita Redding (18.8 points per game) and Julie Amato (7.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 4.7 apg).
The Elis' senior center Katy Grubbs leads her team with 9.8 points and 5.3 rebounds.
Dartmouth defeated both the Bulldogs and the Bears earlier in the season, beating Yale 56-47, and crushing Brown, 78-55.
With a weekend sweep, Coach Wielgus can grab her 200th career win at Dartmouth. She is 198-137 in her 14 years as the head coach.
Both games start at 6:30 p.m.
