Dartmouth women's basketball missed the March Madness train.
On Sunday evening, only a day after 14th-seeded Bucknell and 13th-seeded Vermont upset their respective No. 3 and No. 4 seed opponents in the first round of the men's NCAA tournament, the Lady Green played an outmatched contest against the three-time defending NCAA champions, the University of Connecticut Huskies.
The Big Green, a pre-season Ivy media favorite and eventual Ivy League co-champion, suffered its biggest loss of the season in the 95-47 defeat.
"We knew they were a really tough opponent," Sydney Scott '08 said. "And we have never played at this level before."
Fortunately, the ladies of the Big Green appeared unaffected by the drubbing. In their locker room, they were at peace and relieved that the season was over. No one bickered or blamed. No one yelled or stomped.
Instead, they crowded around Ashley Taylor '07 as she read off the final statistics from a post-game box score. They gawked when they heard that the Huskies had 32 assists overall and made faces when they heard that UConn shot 61.3 percent from the field in the second half.
At least everyone got her 40 minutes of fame on national television.
But inexperience proved fatal for the Lady Green. In the opening minutes, a Huskies squad overflowing with confidence stunted the Dartmouth team. Everyone realized immediately the different levels of experience at play.
In the beginning, Dartmouth was able to hold UConn scoreless for three minutes, the two teams locked in a 0-0 tie. But the Huskies went on a seven-point run in the next minute with an Ann Strother triple and two jumpers.
Then Angie Soriaga '06 scored the first basket for the Big Green, interrupted by a Huskies lay-up, and followed by a three-pointer from Jeannie Cullen '06. The score, 9-5, proved to be the closest that Dartmouth would come for the rest of the game.
UConn held the Big Green in single digits for more than 11 minutes, but with 1:32 left on the clock, the College managed a seven-point run capped by two Elise Morrison '07 free throws. Cullen scored another triple and Krista Perry '06 hit a jumper at the buzzer. While Dartmouth made an outstanding effort to catch up, UConn led the scoreboard at halftime 51-26.
The Huskies did not slow down their attack in the second half as the scoring margin widened. The 25-point edge at the half crossed the 30-point line six minutes into the final frame.
A Mel Thomas lay-up extended the margin to 40 for UConn with seven minutes left in the half. The Huskies went on to win the match by 48 points.
Penn, last year's Ivy League champion, lost to UConn in a similar 91-55 defeat at the first-round of 2004's NCAA tournament.
While UConn shot 59.7 percent from the floor, Dartmouth, a usually solid shooting team, shot 30.8 percent from the field overall.
The only statistic worth bragging about for the Big Green was the free-throw percentage. Dartmouth completed 83.3 percent to the Huskies' 57.1 percent.
The Big Green ladies gave it their all, but as head coach Chris Wielgus said, "Nothing would fall for us. We're a better shooting team than that."
"They just couldn't miss," Wielgus said. "We noticed that, too. They shot really well. Everything went their way."
But the Big Green impressed the audience with some plays. Cullen made three perfect triples while Soriaga hit two long-distance three-pointers. Morrison, one of the spotlights for Dartmouth, managed a game-high 15 points in spite of being worn down by two Huskies players.
Cullen finished with 12 points while Soriaga and Fatima Kamara '07 added eight and six points respectively.
At the end of the game, Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma commented on his team's near-perfect play.
"I hate it when I don't have anything to complain about," Auriemma said.
With the big game butterflies under its belt, women's b-ball is already gearing up for a return to the Big Dance.
"If we want to be better than ourselves, we can't start next year. We have to start this spring," Scott said.
